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Early Indian epigraphy

History of South Asian writing systems

  • 7 min read
  • 3 chapters

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If epigraphy of proto-writing is included, undeciphered markings with symbol systems that may or may not contain linguistic information, there is substantially older epigraphy in the Indus script, which dates back to the mid 4th millennium BCE. Two other important archeological classes of symbols are found from the 1st millennium BCE, Megalithic graffiti symbols and symbols on punch-marked coins, though some scholars do not consider these to constitute fully linguistic scripts, and their semiotic functions are not well understood.

Writing in Sanskrit (Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit, EHS) appears in the 1st to 4th centuries CE. Indian epigraphy becomes more widespread over the 1st millennium, engraved on the faces of cliffs, on pillars, on tablets of stone, drawn in caves and on rocks, some gouged into the bedrock. Later they were also inscribed on palm leaves, coins, Indian copper plate inscriptions, and on temple walls.

Many of the inscriptions are couched in extravagant language, but when the information gained from inscriptions can be corroborated with information from other sources such as still existing monuments or ruins, inscriptions provide insight into India's dynastic history that otherwise lacks contemporary historical records.

Of the c. 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India, about 60,000 were in Tamil, about 30,000 to 35,000 were in Kannada, and around 14,000 inscriptions were in Telugu. This makes Tamil the most densely inscribed language in the country.

First appearance of writing in the Indian Subcontinent

The Bronze Age Indus script remains undeciphered and may not actually represent a writing system. Hence, the earliest writing in the Indian subcontinent that is widely accepted by scholarly consensus is the Edicts of Ashoka, dated to approximately 250 BCE. Several inscriptions were thought to be pre-Ashokan by earlier scholars; these include the Tamil-Brahmi, Piprahwa relic casket inscription, the Badli pillar inscription, the Bhattiprolu relic casket inscription, the Sohgaura copper plate inscription, the Eran coin legend, the Taxila coin legends, and the inscription on the silver coins of Sophytes. However, more recent scholars have dated them to later periods.

Until the 1990s, it was generally accepted that the Brahmi script used by Ashoka spread to South India during the second half of the 3rd century BCE, assuming a local form now known as Tamil-Brahmi. Beginning in the late 1990s, archaeological excavations have produced a small number of candidates for Brahmi epigraphy predating Ashoka. Preliminary press reports of such pre-Ashokan inscriptions have appeared over the years, such as Tamil Inscriptions from Sivagalai, Palani, Erode, and Adichanallur, dated to c. 685-500 BCE, but so far only the claimed pre-Ashokan inscriptions at Anuradhapura have been published in an internationally recognised academic journal.

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