Editing Brahmi script (section)

===Indigenous origin hypothesis===

The possibility of an indigenous origin such as a connection to the [[Indus script]] is supported by some Western and Indian scholars and writers. The theory that there are similarities to the Indus script was suggested by early European scholars such as the archaeologist [[John Marshall (archaeologist)|John Marshall]]<ref>{{cite book|author=John Marshall|title=Mohenjo-daro and the Indus civilization: being an official account of archaeological excavations at Mohenjo-Daro carried out by the government of India between the years 1922 and 1927|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ds_hazstxY4C&pg=PA423|year=1931|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=978-81-206-1179-5|page=423|quote=Langdon also suggested that the Brahmi script was derived from the Indus writing,&nbsp;...|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727131608/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ds_hazstxY4C&pg=PA423|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Assyriologist [[Stephen Herbert Langdon|Stephen Langdon]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Senarat Paranavitana|author2=Leelananda Prematilleka|author3=Johanna Engelberta van Lohuizen-De Leeuw|title=Studies in South Asian Culture: Senarat Paranavitana Commemoration Volume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119|year=1978|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=90-04-05455-3|page=119|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2016-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224163153/https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119|url-status=live}}</ref> G. R. Hunter in his book ''The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and Its Connection with Other Scripts'' (1934) proposed a derivation of the Brahmi alphabets from the Indus script, the match being considerably higher than that of Aramaic in his estimation.<ref name="Hunter 1934">{{cite book |title=The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and Its Connection with Other Scripts |last=Hunter |first=G. R. |year=1934 |location=London |publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trubner |series=Studies in the history of culture |url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00013642/ |access-date=2013-06-20 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224171105/https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00013642/00001 |url-status=live}}</ref> British archaeologist [[Raymond Allchin]] stated that there is a powerful argument against the idea that the Brahmi script has Semitic borrowing because the whole structure and conception is quite different. He at one time suggested that the origin may have been purely indigenous with the Indus script as its predecessor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goody |first=Jack |title=The Interface Between the Written and the Oral |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |pages=301–302 (note 4)}}</ref> However, Allchin and Erdosy later in 1995 expressed the opinion that there was as yet insufficient evidence to resolve the question.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Allchin |first1=F. Raymond |last2=Erdosy |first2=George |title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1995 |page=336}}</ref>

[[File:Brahmi and Indus seal proposed connection.jpg|thumb|left|A proposed connection between the Brahmi and Indus scripts, made in the 19th century by [[Alexander Cunningham]].]]
Today the indigenous origin hypothesis is more commonly promoted by non-specialists, such as the computer scientist [[Subhash Kak]], the spiritual teachers [[David Frawley]] and [[Georg Feuerstein]], and the social anthropologist [[Jack Goody]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Georg Feuerstein|author2=Subhash Kak|author3=David Frawley|title=The Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wNlsRZh3rwgC&pg=PA136|year=2005 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-2037-1|pages=136–37|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727131430/https://books.google.com/books?id=wNlsRZh3rwgC&pg=PA136|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Jack|last=Goody|title=The Interface Between the Written and the Oral|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TepXQMN6lfUC&pg=PA301|year=1987 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-33794-6|page=301 fn. 4 |quote=In recent years, I have been leaning towards the view that the Brahmi script had an independent Indian evolution, probably emerging from the breakdown of the old Harappan script in the first half of the second millennium BC.|access-date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=2016-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224153233/https://books.google.com/books?id=TepXQMN6lfUC&pg=PA301 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Paranavitana119>{{cite book|author1=Senarat Paranavitana|author2=Leelananda Prematilleka|author3=Johanna Engelberta van Lohuizen-De Leeuw|title=Studies in South Asian Culture: Senarat Paranavitana Commemoration Volume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119|year=1978 |publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=90-04-05455-3|pages=119–20 with footnotes|access-date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=2016-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224163153/https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119 |url-status=live}}</ref> Subhash Kak disagrees with the proposed Semitic origins of the script,<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Subhash |last=Kak |title=The evolution of early writing in India |journal=Indian Journal of History of Science |volume=28 |pages=375–88 |year=1994 |url=http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/writ.pdf |access-date=2013-06-19 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224150452/https://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/writ.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> instead stating that the interaction between the Indic and the Semitic worlds before the rise of the Semitic scripts might imply a reverse process.<ref>Kak, S. (2005). [http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/Akhenaten.pdf "Akhenaten, Surya, and the Rigveda"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204161430/http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/Akhenaten.pdf |date=2007-02-04}}. In [[Govind Chandra Pande]] (ed.), ''The Golden Chain'', CRC, 2005.</ref> However, the chronology thus presented and the notion of an unbroken tradition of literacy is opposed by a majority of academics who support an indigenous origin. Evidence for a continuity between Indus and Brahmi has also been seen in graphic similarities between Brahmi and the late Indus script, where the ten most common ligatures correspond with the form of one of the ten most common glyphs in Brahmi.<ref>Kak, S. (1988). [http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/IndusFreqAnalysis.pdf "A frequency analysis of the Indus script"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224125037/https://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/IndusFreqAnalysis.pdf |date=2021-02-24}}. ''Cryptologia'' 12: 129–143.</ref> There is also corresponding evidence of continuity in the use of numerals.<ref>Kak, S. (1990). "Indus and Brahmi – further connections". ''Cryptologia'' 14: 169–83</ref> Further support for this continuity comes from statistical analysis of the relationship carried out by Das.<ref>Das, S.; Ahuja, A.; Natarajan, B.; Panigrahi, B. K. (2009). "Multi-objective optimization of Kullback-Leibler divergence between Indus and Brahmi writing". ''World Congress on Nature & Biologically Inspired Computing 2009''. NaBIC 2009. 1282–86. {{ISBN|978-1-4244-5053-4}}</ref>

Salomon considered simple graphic similarities between characters to be insufficient evidence for a connection without knowing the phonetic values of the Indus script, though he found apparent similarities in patterns of compounding and diacritical modification to be "intriguing". However, he felt that it was premature to explain and evaluate them due to the large chronological gap between the scripts and the thus far indecipherable nature of the Indus script.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=20–21}}

The main obstacle to this idea is the lack of evidence for writing during the millennium and a half between the collapse of the [[Indus Valley civilisation]] around 1500 BCE and the first widely accepted appearance of Brahmi in the 3rd or 4th centuries BCE. Iravathan Mahadevan makes the point that even if one takes the latest dates of 1500 BCE for the Indus script and earliest claimed dates of Brahmi around 500 BCE, a thousand years still separates the two.<ref name="Mahadevan interview">{{cite web|last1=Khan|first1=Omar|title=Mahadevan Interview: Full Text|url=http://www.harappa.com/script/mahadevantext.html|website=Harappa|access-date=4 June 2015|archive-date=4 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004072737/https://www.harappa.com/script/mahadevantext.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Furthermore, there is no accepted decipherment of the Indus script, which makes theories based on claimed decipherments tenuous.

A promising possible link between the Indus script and later writing traditions may be in the [[megalithic graffiti symbols]] of the South Indian megalithic culture, which may have some overlap with the Indus symbol inventory and persisted in use up at least through the appearance of the Brahmi and scripts up into the third century CE. These graffiti usually appear singly, though on occasion may be found in groups of two or three, and are thought to have been family, clan, or religious symbols.<ref>{{cite book |title=Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE |chapter=Inscribed pots, emerging identities |first=Himanshu Prabha |last=Ray |pages=121–122 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |editor=Patrick Olivelle |editor-link=Patrick Olivelle}}</ref> In 1935, C. L. Fábri proposed that symbols found on Mauryan [[punch-marked coins]] were remnants of the Indus script that had survived the collapse of the Indus civilization.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fábri|first1=C. L.|title=The Punch-Marked Coins: A Survival of the Indus Civilization|journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|date=1935|volume=67|issue=2|pages=307–318|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00086482|jstor=25201111|s2cid=162603638}}</ref>

Another form of the indigenous origin theory is that Brahmi was invented ''ex nihilo'', entirely independently from either Semitic models or the Indus script, though Salomon found these theories to be wholly speculative in nature.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=21}}

====Foreign origination====
[[File:Ashoka Sarnath Lipii word.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|The word ''[[Lipī]]'' ({{script|Brah|𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀻}}) used by [[Ashoka]] to describe his "[[Edicts of Ashoka|Edicts]]". Brahmi script (Li=<code>{{script|Brah|&#x1102E;}}</code>La+<code>{{script|Brah|&#x1103A;}}</code>i; pī=<code>{{script|Brah|&#x11027;}}</code>Pa+<code>{{script|Brah|&#x1103B;}}</code>ii). The word would be of [[Old Persian]] origin ("Dipi").]]
{{main|Lipi (script)}}
[[Pāṇini]] (6th to 4th century BCE) mentions ''[[Lipi (script)|lipi]]'', the Indian word for writing scripts in his definitive work on [[Sanskrit]] grammar, the ''Ashtadhyayi''. According to Scharfe, the words ''lipi'' and ''libi'' are borrowed from the [[Old Persian]] ''dipi'', in turn derived from Sumerian ''dup''.<ref name="Scharfe 2002">{{cite book |last=Scharfe |first=Hartmut |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies |title=Education in Ancient India |pages=10–12 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=Leiden, Netherlands}}</ref>{{sfn|Masica|1993|p=135}} To describe his own Edicts, Ashoka used the word ''[[Lipī]]'', now generally simply translated as "writing" or "inscription". It is thought the word "lipi", which is also orthographed "dipi" in the two [[Kharosthi]]-version of the rock edicts,{{refn|group=note|[[File:Dhrama Dipi inscription in the Shahbazgarhi First Edict in the Kharosthi script.jpg|right|120px|thumb|"[[Dharma|Dhrama]]-[[Lipi (script)|Dipi]]" in [[Kharosthi]] script.]]For example, according to Hultzsch, the first line of the First Edict at [[Shahbazgarhi]] (or at [[Mansehra]]) reads: ''(Ayam) [[Dharma|Dhrama]]-[[Lipi (script)|dipi]] Devanapriyasa Raño likhapitu'' ("This Dharma-Edict was written by King [[Devanampriya]]" {{cite book |title=Inscriptions of Asoka |edition=New |first=E. |last=Hultzsch |date=1925 |page=51 |url=https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n191/mode/2up |language=sa}} This appears in the reading of Hultzsch's original rubbing of the [[Kharoshthi]] inscription of the first line of the First Edict at [[Shahbazgarhi]] (here attached, which reads "Di" [[File:Kharoshthi letter Di.jpg|15px]] rather than "Li" [[File:Kharoshthi letter Li.jpg|15px]]).}} comes from an [[Old Persian]] prototype ''dipî'' also meaning "inscription", which is used for example by [[Darius I]] in his [[Behistun inscription]],{{refn|group=note|For example [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/behistun-persian-text/behistun-t-42/ Column IV, Line 89]}} suggesting borrowing and diffusion.<ref name="Hultzsch">{{cite book|last1=Hultzsch|first1=E.|title=Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum |volume=1: Inscriptions of Asoka|year=1925 |publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford |page=xlii |url=https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n44/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sharma |first1=R. S. |title=India's Ancient Past |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199087860 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT163 |language=en |access-date=2018-09-19 |archive-date=2021-07-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713053839/https://books.google.com/books?id=giwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT163 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"The word dipi appears in the Old Persian inscription of Darius I at Behistan (Column IV. 39) having the meaning inscription or 'written document'." {{cite book |title=Proceedings – Indian History Congress |date=2007 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GhVDAAAAYAAJ |language=en |access-date=2018-09-19 |archive-date=2019-12-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227150154/https://books.google.com/books?id=GhVDAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live |last1=Congress |first1=Indian History}}</ref>{{full citation needed|reason=Author and contribution missing|date=April 2022}}

Scharfe adds that the best evidence is that no script was used or ever known in India, aside from the [[Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley|Persian-dominated Northwest]] where [[Aramaic]] was used, before around 300 BCE because Indian tradition "at every occasion stresses the orality of the cultural and literary heritage",<ref name="Scharfe 2002" /> yet Scharfe in the same book admits that "a script has been discovered in the excavations of the Indus Valley Civilization that flourished in the Indus valley and adjacent areas in the third millennium B.C. The number of different signs suggest a syllabic script, but all attempts at decipherment have been unsuccessful so far. Attempts by some Indian scholars to connect this undeciphered script with the Indian scripts in vogue from the third century B.C. onward are total failures."<ref>{{cite book |last=Scharfe |first=Hartmut |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies |title=Education in Ancient India |page=9 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=Leiden, Netherlands}}</ref>

====Megasthenes' observations====
[[Megasthenes]], a Greek ambassador to the Mauryan court in Northeastern India only a quarter century before [[Ashoka]], noted "...&nbsp;and this among a people who have no written laws, who are ignorant even of writing, and regulate everything by memory."<ref>{{cite book|author=Strabo|editor1-last=Hamilton|editor1-first=H. C.|editor2-last=Falconer|editor2-first=W.|title=Geography|date=1903|publisher=George Bell and Sons|location=London|page=15.1.53|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D53|access-date=2021-02-20|archive-date=2021-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312050008/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=15:chapter=1:section=53|url-status=live}}</ref> This has been variously and contentiously interpreted by many authors. [[Ludo Rocher]] almost entirely dismisses Megasthenes as unreliable, questioning the wording used by Megasthenes' informant and Megasthenes' interpretation of them.{{sfn|Rocher|2014}} Timmer considers it to reflect a misunderstanding that the Mauryans were illiterate "based upon the fact that Megasthenes rightly observed that the laws were unwritten and that oral tradition played such an important part in India."{{sfn|Timmer|1930|p=245}}

Some proponents of the indigenous origin theories{{Who|date=March 2017}} question the reliability and interpretation of comments made by Megasthenes (as quoted by [[Strabo]] in the ''[[Geographica]]'' XV.i.53). For one, the observation may only apply in the context of the kingdom of "Sandrakottos" (Chandragupta). Elsewhere in Strabo (Strab. XV.i.39), Megasthenes is said to have noted that it was a regular custom in India for the "philosopher" caste (presumably Brahmins) to submit "anything useful which they have committed to writing" to kings,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Strabo|editor1-last=Hamilton|editor1-first=H. C.|editor2-last=Falconer|editor2-first=W.|title=Geography|date=1903|publisher=George Bell and Sons|location=London|page=15.1.39|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D39|access-date=2021-02-20|archive-date=2021-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308152437/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=15:chapter=1:section=39|url-status=live}}</ref> but this detail does not appear in parallel extracts of Megasthenes found in [[Arrian]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sterling|first1=Gregory E.|title=Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke–Acts, and Apologetic Historiography|date=1992|publisher=Brill|page=95}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=McCrindle|first1=J. W. |title=Ancient India As Described By Megasthenes And Arrian |date=1877|publisher=Trübner and Co. |location=London |pages=40, 209|url=https://archive.org/stream/AncientIndiaAsDescribedByMegasthenesAndArrianByMccrindleJ.W |access-date=14 April 2015}}</ref> The implication of writing per se is also not totally clear in the original Greek as the term "[[wiktionary:σύνταξις|συντάξῃ]]" (source of the English word "[[syntax]]") can be read as a generic "composition" or "arrangement", rather than a written composition in particular. [[Nearchus]], a contemporary of [[Megasthenes]], noted, a few decades prior, the use of cotton fabric for writing in Northern India. Indologists have variously speculated that this might have been Kharoṣṭhī or the Aramaic alphabet. Salomon regards the evidence from Greek sources to be inconclusive.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=11}} Strabo himself notes this inconsistency regarding reports on the use of writing in India (XV.i.67).