From: VAgarwalV@...
Message: 10245
Date: 2001-10-15
--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
But external inspiration apart, Brahmi is a local Indian invention,
documented from the 3rd century BC and surely not *very much*
older. "Early Sanskrit letters" ca. 1200 BC in the Pontic steppe just
cannot be real.
>
> Piotr
VA: This is a wrong impression due to the text on old Indian writing
by Harry Falk. Subsequent to the publication of the work, some
pottery sherds at dug out from Anuradhapura have been dated
conclusively to 400 BC or even earlier and these older dates are
accepted (are reported likewise in published literature) even by
conservative scholars like the Allchins.
Thus, we see that just a few pottery sherds knock off the scholary
speculations of Dr. Falk.
Please refer to the following work:
Title - Anuradhapura :the British-Sri Lankan excavations at
Anuradhapura Salagha Watta 2.
Author(s): Coningham, Robin. ; Allchin, F. Raymond; 1923- ; (Frank
Raymond),
Publication: Oxford, England : Archaeopress,
Year: 1999
Description: xxx, 209 p. : p., ill. (some col.), maps ;, 30 cm.
Language: English
Series: BAR international series ;; 824; Society for South Asian
Studies monograph ;; no.3;
TOC: v. 1. The site -- v. 2. The artefacts.
Standard No: ISBN: 1841710369; LCCN: 00-303742
**********
Also relevant is the following quote from Kenoyer 1998:78
"The recent discovery of Brahmi script on potsherds from Sri Lanka
dates to around 500 BC..." (pg. 78)
[Kenoyer here references the text 'Frank Raymond Allchin, ed., The
Zrchaeology of Early Historic South Asia (Camridge University Press,
1995), 176-179]
Reference:
Jonathan Mark. 1998. Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley
Civilization, Karachi
**********
It goes without saying that if the Brahmi was an import into Sri
Lanka from N India, the script might be even older than the sherds by
at least a few decades, if not centuries.
There is a lot of discussion on this matter on the IndianCivilization
list.
Regards
Vishal Agarwal