The present book Telugu Script - Origin and Evolution is the first of its kind to deal with the antiquity and evolution of the Telugu script through the ages. It attempts to examine the beginnings of Telugu script, based on original sources archaeological and literary, and places it alongside the Bhattiprolu script, i.e., pre 3rd c BC, and thus proves the antiquity which was an enigma to scholars till date. Thus the book establishes rightly and beyond doubt, the antiquity of the Telugu language and script and supports its case for the status of a classical language. While tracing its origins, the authors explain in detail the antiquity of writing in India and writing in Andhra Pradesh based on available original data. While explaining the evolution of the Telugu script through different phases, the authors cite evidence of contemporary inscriptions through photographs and charts. The authors also explain the morphological evolution of each character through different periods. The book also explains the contributions made by eminent scholars for epigraphical studies in Andhra since the 19th century.
Dr. P.V. Parabrahma Sastry (1921) is a legendary figure in epigraphical research in contemporary Andhra. Endowed with sound scholarship in Sanskrit and Vedic lore, he has attained a place of eminence in historical research. He served the Department of Archaeology & Museums, Govt. of A. P. with distinction. He deciphered and edited a large number of inscriptions and published them in various journals of repute. His major works include The Kakatiyas And Their Times, district volumes of inscriptions- Kadapa, Karimnagar and Nalgonda Vol.II. He also edited Journal Epigraphia Andhrica Vol. IV and the revised edition of Vijnana Sarvasamu (Vols. I&II). Potti Sriramulu Telugu University honoured him with "Visishta Puraskaramu". Among his other works, mention should be made of Satavahana Epoch New Light.
Dr. N.S. Ramachandra Murthy (1943) joined the Dept. of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of A.P. in 1966 and served it for 35 years in different capacities such as Registering Officer, Asst. Director (Epigraphy), Asst. Director (Publications) and Deputy Director (Epigraphy). He took his Ph.D. on "Forts of Andhra Pradesh" in 1981. He conducted archaeological excavations at Nandalur in Kadapa district and Kotilingala in Karimnagar district. He deciphered a large number of inscriptions and prepared transcripts of Kadapa, Kurnool, Karimnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Mehbubnagar and Nizamabad districts. He has to his credit, five books viz., Forts of A.P., Inscriptions of A.P.- Medak, Mahabubnagar and Excavation Reports- Nandalur-a Buddhist site in the Rayalaseema region and Kotilingala- an early historic site.
Consequent on Samudragupta's invasion on more than half a dozen principalities in Andhradesa in the latter half of the fourth century AD, culturally there took place some far reaching changes in this region. It was the starting point for the decline of Buddhism, along with its sacred language Pali, giving place to Sanskrit in royal records as well as in the works of even the Buddhist authors like Dingnaga, Buddha Ghosha and secondly, the usage of Telugu words here and there in the inscriptions. If we have to believe the statement of Buddhaghosha, some parts of the Buddhist Pitakas were rendered into the regional language Andhaka from which as he says, that he re-rendered them into Sanskrit. It is unfortunate that the Andhaka versions are lost for us permanently.
Leaving stray Telugu terms like some names of places, hills, streams etc., actual sentence forms in Telugu we notice from the sixth century AD onwards in the Rayalasima region where the impact of Buddhism and its Prakrit language were practically absent. But the script they adopted was the readily available Asokan Brahmi, which evolved by that time into the Telugu-Kannada script as generally called by the epigraphists. However this developed script is noticeable in the early copper plate charters of the Salankayanas, Pallavas and even the Ikshvaku ruler Ehuvala chantamala and hence it is named as Vengi script by Buhler and others. Hence forward the script has undergone several morphological changes both regionally and chronologically, which forms, the subject mater of the present work.
Telugu as a spoken language has its origin among the early Chalcolithic Neolithic farming societies, who, according to the archaeologists had their settlements in the Andhra region some time about the middle of the second millennium BC The recorded evidence for the usage of the Telugu words like Lanka in the sense of an island village appears for the first time in the famous epic Ramayana, the adikavya or the carliest classical Sanskrit work of Valmiki, who is said to have flourished before the Buddha, that is some time in 6th-7th century B.C. Words of the same group like Vanka (course of a stream or river), and words ending in inki as Poranki, Tadanki, Addanki etc, as place names are well known in the coastal Telugu region. Villages like Vengi, Relangi, Munnangi, Korangi, Chollangi, do also come under the same group. Besides, numerous Telugu terms used as names of hills, streams, flora, fauna grains and so on are to be considered as antiques as old as the age of the Chalcolithic- Neolithic period in this region. In the aspect of speech, sentences of different types such as colloquial, songs and proverbs, are traceable in the folk as well as the tribal speeches.
Recorded evidences of the earliest proto Telugu letter forms appear in the Bhattiprolu casket inscriptions of the third century BC which can be properly named as Telugu Brahmi. The main characteristic of these letter forms is the talakattu on the top of the consonants which is a clear indication of the vowel ending feature one of the main characteristics of the Telugu language. The cerebral letter form of la is noticeable among these letters, which is not found in the Asokan script.
Writing is an essential feature of any advanced human civilization. Its advent marked the onset of the historic period unlike Stone and Bronze ages that were considered pre-historic because of the absence of writing. Writing pre- supposes literacy, which in ancient India was confined to the priestly and ruling class- like the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and to a lesser extent Vaisyas. During this period there appeared a large mass of religious and secular literature in the form of the Vedas, Upanishads, Sutra literature comprising of Srauta, Gribya and Dharma sutras, works on grammar such as Panini's Ashtadhyayi, epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, Smritis like Manu, Jaina and Buddhist writings, laying the foundation for a well- developed language and writing in India. The main sources of study were manuscripts written on perishable materials like palm leaves (talapatra), birch bark (bhurja patra) and paper. In addition to these, there ware inscriptions engraved on permanent materials like stone/ rock boulders, cave facades, temple walls, pillars and slabs and copper plates that were widely used for engraving mainly royal documents and other donative records. In this connection, it is necessary to bear in mind that language and script are the two cyes for any literature. Although language can do without a script, a script on the other hand needs a language to flourish.
Writing in India was believed to have started at a very later date, owing to the paucity of evidence. Going by Asokan edicts, the earliest written records found in India, historians until recently placed the origins of writing in circa 300 BC. This raises the question whether writing suddenly came into vogue in India during the time of Asoka. The fact is, it takes a century or two for a script to grow and develop, to reach a stage of producing large documents, compose poetic works, hymns, and technical literature. Hence, it is difficult to believe that India possessed a vast reservoir of literature without the aid of writing that was merely learnt by the method of rote through sruti (hear) and smriti (remember) and memorized verbatim with faultless intonation. Thus some kind of rudimentary writing must have existed during the period before 300BC. which marks the lowermost limit for the advent of writing in India.
2. The problem of antiquity of writing in India received the attention of scholars since the 19th century, when Western Orientalists and Indologists expressed diametrically opposite views. According to Max Muller "the art of writing began after 400 B.C., for there is not a single word in Panini's terminology which pre-supposes the existence of writing" (Max Muller, Varanasi, 1968, P. 62). Buhler believed that writing began about 800 B.C. which may be considered as the actual date of the introduction of the Semetic alphabet into India. This needs modification, he says, "in the light of the discovery of new epigraphic documents in India or in Semetic countries, which would induce me to believe that the date of introduction will prove to fall earlier, and that it will have to be fixed perhaps in 10 the century B.C or even before that" (Buhler, Calcutta, 1904, P.17). Rhys Davids accepted this view in his Buddhist India (Davids Rhys, London, 1917, Ch. VII & VIII). David Diringer, another scholar suggests a date between 8th c. BC. and 6th c. BC for the introduction of writing into 'Aryan India, thus confirming the conclusion that Brahmi script was much later than the Indus valley writing and that the knowledge of writing flourished from 7 the c. B C onwards (Diringer David, London, 1949, P. 334).
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