Context:
Recently, an ancient Sanskrit inscription was discovered on a rock outside Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
More On News:
- The inscription, written in Brahmi script, dates back to the 4th century CE.
- It reads: “Pushpasingha, for the merit of his guru (name partially lost), installed a Mahesvaralinga.”
- It is written in Sharada script from the 10th century CE.
- The Peshawar inscription is fragmentary and mentions Buddhist Dharini (chants), with some unclear details.
- The Swat Valley in Pakistan contains Buddhist rock inscriptions in Sanskrit, using the Nagari script, from the Gupta Empire era (circa 240-550 CE).
- These inscriptions highlight the valley’s historical significance as a center of Buddhist learning and practice.
About Brahmi Script:
- Brahmi is the ancestor of the Brahmic family of scripts, which includes all major Indian scripts such as Devanagari, Odia, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, and others. It also serves as the foundation for ancient scripts in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Southeast Asia (including Java, Sumatra, Cambodia). All Indian scripts, except for Kharoshthi, are derived from Brahmi.
- The earliest use of Brahmi is seen in the Ashokan inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE.
- It is commonly believed to have been inspired by or derived from Aramaic.
- It is Semialphabetic ie each consonant has an inherent “a” sound, or a diacritic mark for a different vowel.
- Primarily written left to right, though exceptions (e.g. a coin from Madhya Pradesh and some instances in Sri Lanka) show right to left.
- Descendant Scripts of Brahmi:
- Indo-Gangetic Plain: Devanagari, Bengali, Gujarati
- Deccan Region: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada
- Sri Lanka: Sinhala script
- Tibetan Highlands: Tibetan script
Southeast Asia: Several alphabets those in Thai, Khmer.