Palaeography
Also called: Paleography · Topic: Studying Indian History: Sources, Dating and Historiography · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"
Meaning
Palaeography is the study of old styles of writing. The shapes of letters slowly change over time. So experts can compare letter shapes to tell roughly when an undated inscription or manuscript was written. This lets historians date many inscriptions quite closely even when the record gives no year.
Example
The Brahmi letter "a" was written one way in c. 250 BCE and a different way in c. 500 CE. Palaeography also helped show that the "Piyadassi" inscriptions and the ones naming "Asoka" came from the same ruler. Their style of writing matched, along with their content and language.
Don't confuse with
- Epigraphy: the wider study of inscriptions as a whole, including reading them, translating them and judging what they say. Palaeography looks only at the form of the writing.
- Palaeontology: the study of fossils, which are the remains of ancient plants and animals. It has nothing to do with writing.
Related concepts
- Inscription
- Epigraphy
- Prakrit
- Votive inscriptions
- Aihole inscription
- Copper plate inscriptions
- Asiatic Society of Bengal
- James Prinsep
- Brahmi script
- Brahmi numerals