Editing Brahmi script (section)

===Origin of the name===

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]]".<ref>{{cite book|first=Arthur Anthony|last=Macdonell|title=Sanskrit English Dictionary (Practical Hand Book)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PzQxel1GueUC|year=2004|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=978-81-206-1779-7|page=200|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727134741/https://books.google.com/books?id=PzQxel1GueUC|url-status=live}}</ref> 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".<ref name="mmwbrahmi">Monier Monier Willians (1899), [http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/mw/0700/mw__0775.html ''Brahmi''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225004059/http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/mw/0700/mw__0775.html |date=2021-02-25}}, Oxford University Press, page 742</ref> 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 [[Brahmin]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Levi |first=Silvain |title=The Kharostra Country and the Kharostri Writing |journal=The Indian Antiquary |date=1906 |volume=XXXV |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GRwoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9 |access-date=2016-06-13 |archive-date=2016-12-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230000557/https://books.google.com/books?id=GRwoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Monier Monier-Williams|title=Sanskrit-English Dictionary |year=1970|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass (Reprint of Oxford Clarendon)|isbn=978-5-458-25035-1|page=xxvi with footnotes}}</ref>

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.<ref name="RS8">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=8–9}}</ref> Several sutras of [[Jainism]] such as the ''Vyakhya Pragyapti Sutra'', the ''Samvayanga Sutra'' and the ''Pragyapna Sutra'' of the [[Jain Agamas (Śvētāmbara)|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".<ref name="RS8" /> 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.<ref name="Nagrajji 2003">{{cite book |last=Nagrajji|first=Acharya Shri|title=Āgama Aura Tripiṭaka, Eka Anuśilana: Language and literature|date=2003|publisher=Concept Publishing |location=New Delhi|pages=223–24}}</ref> 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 (script)|lipi]]'' ([[Prakrit]] in the Brahmi script: [[wikt:𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺|𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺]], "Inscriptions of the [[Dharma]]") but this is not to describe the script of his own [[Edicts of Ashoka|Edicts]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-813171120-0 |page=351 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA351 |access-date=2021-03-19 |archive-date=2021-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028113419/https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC |url-status=live}}</ref>