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Brahmi script

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Brahmi
𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻
Brāhmī
Brahmi in the Brahmi Script
Script type
Time period
 At least by the 3rd century BCE[1] to 5th century CE
Direction Left-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
Languages Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Saka, Old Uyghur,

Tocharian, Tamil, Elu

Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
Sister systems
 Kharosthi
ISO 15924
ISO 15924 Brah (300), ​Brahmi
Unicode
Unicode alias
 Brahmi
Unicode range
 U+11000–U+1107F
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Brahmi (/ˈbrɑːmi/ BRAH-mee; 𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻; ISO: Brāhmī) is a writing system from ancient India[2] that appeared as a fully developed script in the 3rd century BCE.[3] Its descendants, the Brahmic scripts, continue to be used today across South and Southeastern Asia.[4][5][6]

Brahmi is an abugida, a writing system that uses special marks to show vowels with consonants. The script changed only a little from the Mauryan period (3rd century BCE) to the early Gupta period (4th century CE). It is believed that even in the 4th century CE, a person who could read could still understand the old Mauryan writings. After that time, people eventually forgot how to read the original Brahmi script. The earliest and most famous Brahmi writings are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India, made between 250 and 232 BCE.

European scholars started focusing on how to read Brahmi in the early 1800s, during the time the East India Company ruled India, especially at the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. Brahmi was finally deciphered by James Prinsep, who was the secretary of the Society. He wrote a series of articles about it in the Society's journal in the 1830s. His success was based on earlier work by Christian Lassen, Edwin Norris, H. H. Wilson, Alexander Cunningham, and others.[7][8][9]

The origin of the script is still much debated, with most scholars stating that Brahmi was derived from or at least influenced by one or more contemporary Semitic scripts. Some scholars favour the idea of an indigenous origin or connection to the much older and as yet undeciphered Indus script[4][10][11] but the evidence is insufficient at best.

Brahmi was once called the "pin-man" script in English because the letters looked like stick figures. It had many other names too, like "lath," "Laṭ," "Southern Aśokan," "Indian Pali," or "Mauryan." In the 1880s, Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste Terrien de Lacouperie, using an idea from Gabriel Devéria, linked it to the Brahmi script, which is the first script listed in the Lalitavistara Sūtra. After that, the name "Brahmi" became popular, especially in the important work of Georg Bühler, although he used the form "Brahma."[12]

The Gupta script of the 5th century is sometimes called "Late Brahmi". From the 6th century onward, the Brahmi script diversified into numerous local variants, grouped as the Brahmic family of scripts. Dozens of modern scripts used across South and South East Asia have descended from Brahmi, making it one of the world's most influential writing traditions.[13] One survey found 198 scripts that ultimately derive from it.[14]

Among the inscriptions of Ashoka (c. 3rd century BCE) written in the Brahmi script a few numerals were found, which have come to be called the Brahmi numerals.[15] The numerals are additive and multiplicative and, therefore, not place value;[15] it is not known if their underlying system of numeration has a connection to the Brahmi script.[15] But in the second half of the 1st millennium CE, some inscriptions in India and Southeast Asia written in scripts derived from the Brahmi did include numerals that are decimal place value, and constitute the earliest existing material examples of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, now in use throughout the world.[15] The underlying system of numeration, however, was older, as the earliest attested orally transmitted example dates to the middle of the 3rd century CE in a Sanskrit prose adaptation of a lost Greek work on astrology.[15][16][17]

The word Lipī (𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀻) used by Ashoka to describe his "Edicts". Brahmi script (Li=𑀮La+𑀺i; pī=𑀧Pa+𑀻ii). The word would be of Old Persian origin ("Dipi").

Origin of the name

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Several divergent accounts of the origin of the name "Brahmi" (ब्राह्मी) appear in history. The term Brahmi (बाम्भी in original) appears in Indian texts in different contexts. According to the rules of the Sanskrit language, it is a feminine word meaning literally "of Brahma" or "the female energy of the Brahman".[18] In popular Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata, it appears in the sense of a goddess, particularly for Saraswati as the goddess of speech and elsewhere as "personified Shakti (energy) of Brahma, the god of Hindu scriptures Veda and creation".[19] Later Chinese Buddhist account of the 6th century CE also supports its creation to the god Brahma, though Monier Monier-Williams, Sylvain Lévi and others thought it was more likely to have been given the name because it was moulded by the Brahmins.[20][21]

Alternatively, some Buddhist sutras such as the Lalitavistara Sūtra (possibly 4th century CE), list Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭī as some of the sixty-four scripts the Buddha knew as a child.[22] Several sutras of Jainism such as the Vyakhya Pragyapti Sutra, the Samvayanga Sutra and the Pragyapna Sutra of the Jain Agamas include a list of 18 writing scripts known to teachers before the Mahavira was born, the first one being Bambhi (बाम्भी) in the original Prakrit, which has been interpreted as "Bramhi".[22] The Brahmi script is missing from the list of 18 scripts in the surviving versions of two later Jaina Sutras, namely the Vishesha Avashyaka and the Kalpa Sutra. Jain legend recounts that 18 writing scripts were taught by their first Tirthankara Rishabhanatha to his daughter Bambhi (बाम्भी); she emphasized बाम्भी as the main script as she taught others, and therefore the name Brahmi for the script comes after her name.[23] There is no early epigraphic proof for the expression "Brahmi script". Ashoka himself when he created the first known inscriptions in the new script in the 3rd century BCE, used the expression dhaṃma lipi (Prakrit in the Brahmi script: 𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺, "Inscriptions of the Dharma") but this is not to describe the script of his own Edicts.[24]

Classification of Brahmi characters by James Prinsep in March 1834. The structure of Brahmi (consonantal characters with vocalic "inflections") was properly identified, but the individual values of characters remained undetermined, except for four of the vocalic inflections. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Volume 3 (March 1834).[25]
Norwegian scholar Christian Lassen used the bilingual Greek-Brahmi coinage of Indo-Greek king Agathocles to correctly achieve in 1836 the first secure decipherment of several letters of the Brahmi script, which was later completed by James Prinsep.[26][27]

Characteristics

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Brahmi is usually written from left to right, as in the case of its descendants. However, an early coin found in Eran is inscribed with Brahmi running from right to left, as in Aramaic. Several other instances of variation in the writing direction are known, though directional instability is fairly common in ancient writing systems.[4]

Consonants

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Brahmi is an abugida, meaning that each letter represents a consonant, while vowels are written with obligatory diacritics called mātrās in Sanskrit, except when the vowels begin a word. When no vowel is written, the vowel /a/ is understood. This "default short a" is a characteristic shared with Kharosthī, though the treatment of vowels differs in other respects.

Brahmi consonants.

Conjunct consonants

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Some major conjunct consonants in the Brahmi script.

Special conjunct consonants are used to write consonant clusters such as /pr/ or /rv/. In modern Devanagari the components of a conjunct are written left to right when possible (when the first consonant has a vertical stem that can be removed at the right), whereas in Brahmi characters are joined vertically downwards.

  • Kya (vertical assembly of consonants "Ka" and "Ya" ), as in "Sa-kya-mu-nī " ( 𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻, "Sage of the Shakyas")
    Kya (vertical assembly of consonants "Ka" and "Ya" ), as in "Sa-kya-mu-nī " ( 𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻, "Sage of the Shakyas")
  • Sva (Sa+Va)
    Sva (Sa+Va)
  • Sya (Sa+Ya)
    Sya (Sa+Ya)
  • Hmī (Ha+Ma+i+i), as in the word "Brāhmī" (𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻).
    Hmī (Ha+Ma+i+i), as in the word "Brāhmī" (𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻).

Vowels

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Brahmi diacritic vowels.
The Brahmi symbol for /ka/, modified to represent different vowels

Vowels following a consonant are inherent or written by diacritics, but initial vowels have dedicated letters. There are three "primary" vowels in Ashokan Brahmi, which each occur in length-contrasted forms: /a/, /i/, /u/; long vowels are derived from the letters for short vowels. There are also four "secondary" vowels that do not have the long-short contrast, /e:/, /ai/, /o:/, /au/.[28] Note though that the grapheme for /ai/ is derivative from /e/ in a way that parallels the short-long contrast of the primary vowels (historically they were /ai/ and /a:i/). However, there are only nine distinct vowel diacritics, as short /a/ is understood if no vowel is written. The initial vowel symbol for /au/ is also apparently lacking in the earliest attested phases, even though it has a diacritic. Ancient sources suggest that there were either 11 or 12 vowels enumerated at the beginning of the character list around the Ashokan era, probably adding either aṃ or aḥ.[29] Later versions of Brahmi add vowels for four syllabic liquids, short and long /ṛ/ and /ḷ/. Chinese sources indicate that these were later inventions by either Nagarjuna or Śarvavarman, a minister of King Hāla.[29]

It has been noted that the basic system of vowel marking common to Brahmi and Kharosthī, in which every consonant is understood to be followed by a vowel, was well suited to Prakrit,[30] but as Brahmi was adapted to other languages, a special notation called the virāma was introduced to indicate the omission of the final vowel. Kharoṣṭhī also differs in that the initial vowel representation has a single generic vowel symbol that is differentiated by diacritics, and long vowels are not distinguished.

The collation order of Brahmi is believed to have been the same as most of its descendant scripts, one based on Shiksha, the traditional Vedic theory of Sanskrit phonology. This begins the list of characters with the initial vowels (starting with a), then lists a subset of the consonants in five phonetically related groups of five called vargas, and ends with four liquids, three sibilants, and a spirant. Thomas Trautmann attributes much of the popularity of the Brahmic script family to this "splendidly reasoned" system of arrangement.[14]Template:Brahmi vowel compounds

Punctuation

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A 1st century BCE/CE inscription from Sanchi: "Vedisakehi daṃtakārehi rupakaṃmaṃ kataṃ" (𑀯𑁂𑀤𑀺𑀲𑀓𑁂𑀳𑀺 𑀤𑀁𑀢𑀓𑀸𑀭𑁂𑀳𑀺 𑀭𑀼𑀧𑀓𑀁𑀫𑀁 𑀓𑀢𑀁, "Ivory workers from Vidisha have done the carving").[31]

Punctuation can be perceived as more of an exception than as a general rule in Asokan Brahmi. For instance, distinct spaces in between the words appear frequently in the pillar edicts but not so much in others. ("Pillar edicts" refers to the texts that are inscribed on the stone pillars oftentimes with the intention of making them public.) The idea of writing each word separately was not consistently used.

Descendants

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1800 years separate these two inscriptions: Brahmi script of the 3rd century BCE (Edict of Ashoka), and its derivative, 16th century CE Devanagari script (1524 CE), on the Delhi-Topra pillar.

Over the course of a millennium, Brahmi developed into numerous regional scripts. Over time, these regional scripts became associated with the local languages. A Northern Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script during the Gupta Empire, sometimes also called "Late Brahmi" (used during the 5th century), which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the Middle Ages, including the Siddhaṃ script (6th century) and Śāradā script (9th century).

Southern Brahmi gave rise to the Grantha alphabet (6th century), the Vatteluttu alphabet (8th century), and due to the contact of Hinduism with Southeast Asia during the early centuries CE, also gave rise to the Baybayin in the Philippines, the Javanese script in Indonesia, the Khmer alphabet in Cambodia, and the Old Mon script in Burma.

  1. ↑ Salomon 1998, pp. 11–13.
  2. ↑ Salomon 1998. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' or 'Lat', 'Southern Aśokan', 'Indian Pali', 'Mauryan', and so on. The application to it of the name Brahmi [sc. lipi], which stands at the head of the Buddhist and Jaina script lists, was first suggested by T[errien] de Lacouperie, who noted that in the Chinese Buddhist encyclopedia Fa yiian chu lin the scripts whose names corresponded to the Brahmi and Kharosthi of the Lalitavistara are described as written from left to right and from right to left, respectively. He therefore suggested that the name Brahmi should refer to the left-to-right 'Indo-Pali' script of the Aśokan pillar inscriptions, and Kharosthi to the right-to-left 'Bactro-Pali' script of the rock inscriptions from the northwest."
  3. ↑ Salomon 1998. "... the Brahmi script appeared in the third century BCE as a fully developed pan-Indian national script (sometimes used as a second script even within the proper territory of Kharosthi in the north-west) and continued to play this role throughout history, becoming the parent of all of the modern Indic scripts both within India and beyond. Thus, with the exceptions of the Indus script in the protohistoric period, of Kharosthi in the northwest in the ancient period, and of the Perso–Arabic and European scripts in the medieval and modern periods, respectively, the history of writing in India is virtually synonymous with the history of the Brahmi script and its derivatives."
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Salomon 1998.
  5. ↑ Salomon, Richard (1995). "On The Origin Of The Early Indian Scripts: A Review Article". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 115 (2): 271–279. doi:10.2307/604670. JSTOR 604670. Archived from the original on 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  6. ↑ "Brahmi". Encyclopedia Britannica. 1999. Archived from the original on 2020-07-19. Retrieved 2017-03-21. Among the many descendants of Brāhmī are Devanāgarī (used for Sanskrit, Hindi and other Indian languages), the Bengali and Gujarati scripts and those of the Dravidian languages
  7. ↑ Salomon 1998. "Prinsep came to India in 1819 as assistant to the assay master of the Calcutta Mint and remained until 1838, when he returned to England for reasons of health. During this period Prinsep made a long series of discoveries in the fields of epigraphy and numismatics as well as in the natural sciences and technical fields. But he is best known for his breakthroughs in the decipherment of the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts.... Although Prinsep's final decipherment was ultimately to rely on paleographic and contextual rather than statistical methods, it is still no less a tribute to his genius that he should have thought to apply such modern techniques to his problem."
  8. ↑ Sircar, D. C. (2017). Indian Epigraphy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 11ff. ISBN 978-81-208-4103-1. Archived from the original on 2021-10-14. Retrieved 2021-03-20. The work of the reconstruction of the early period of Indian history was inaugurated by European scholars in the 18th century. Later on, Indians also became interested in the subject. The credit for the decipherment of early Indian inscriptions, written in the Brahmi and Kharosthi alphabets, which paved the way for epigraphical and historical studies in India, is due to scholars like Prinsep, Lassen, Norris and Cunningham.
  9. ↑ Garg, Sanjay (2017). "Charles Masson: A footloose antiquarian in Afghanistan and the building up of numismatic collections in museums in India and England". In Himanshu Prabha Ray (ed.). Buddhism and Gandhara: An Archaeology of Museum Collections. Taylor & Francis. pp. 181ff. ISBN 978-1-351-25274-4. Archived from the original on 2020-01-02. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  10. ↑ Scharfe, Hartmut (2002). "Kharosti and Brahmi". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 122 (2): 391–393. doi:10.2307/3087634. JSTOR 3087634.
  11. ↑ Damodaram Pillai, Karan (2023). "The hybrid origin of Brahmi script from Aramaic, Phoenician and Greek letters". Indialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies. 10: 93–122. doi:10.5565/rev/indialogs.213.
  12. ↑ Falk 1993.
  13. ↑ Rajgor 2007.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Trautmann 2006.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 Plofker 2009.
  16. ↑ Hayashi 2003.
  17. ↑ Plofker 2007.
  18. ↑ Macdonell, Arthur Anthony (2004). Sanskrit English Dictionary (Practical Hand Book). Asian Educational Services. p. 200. ISBN 978-81-206-1779-7. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  19. ↑ Monier Monier Willians (1899), Brahmi Archived 2021-02-25 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, page 742
  20. ↑ Levi, Silvain (1906). "The Kharostra Country and the Kharostri Writing". The Indian Antiquary. XXXV: 9. Archived from the original on 2016-12-30. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  21. ↑ Monier Monier-Williams (1970). Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Motilal Banarsidass (Reprint of Oxford Clarendon). p. xxvi with footnotes. ISBN 978-5-458-25035-1.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Salomon 1998
  23. ↑ Nagrajji, Acharya Shri (2003). Āgama Aura Tripiṭaka, Eka Anuśilana: Language and literature. New Delhi: Concept Publishing. pp. 223–24.
  24. ↑ Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India. p. 351. ISBN 978-813171120-0. Archived from the original on 2021-10-28. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  25. ↑ Salomon 1998 Equally impressive was Prinsep's arrangement, presented in plate V of JASB 3, of the unknown alphabet, wherein he gave each of the consonantal characters, whose phonetic values were still entirely unknown, with its "five principal inflections", that is, the vowel diacritics. Not only is this table almost perfectly correct in its arrangement, but the phonetic value of the vowels is correctly identified in four out of five cases (plus anusvard); only the vowel sign for i was incorrectly interpreted as o.
  26. ↑ Salomon 1998
  27. ↑ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol V 1836. p. 723.
  28. ↑ Salomon 1996.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Bühler 1898.
  30. ↑ Daniels, Peter T. (2008). "Writing systems of major and minor languages". Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 287.
  31. ↑ Chakrabarti, Manika (1981). Mālwa in Post-Maurya Period: A Critical Study with Special Emphasis on Numismatic Evidences. Punthi Pustak. p. 100. Archived from the original on 2021-07-08. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
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