The
Bhattiprolu script is a variant of the
Brahmi script which has been found in old inscriptions at
Bhattiprolu, a small village in
Guntur district,
Andhra Pradesh,
South India. It is located in the fertile
Krishna river delta and the estuary region where the river meets the
bay of Bengal.
The inscriptions date to before 100 BCE, putting them among the earliest evidence of Brahmi writing in South India.
Discovery
Excavations that started in the year 1870 by Boswell,
Sir Walter Elliot,
Robert Sewell, Alexander Rea, Buhler and continued in 1969 by R. Subrahmanyam revealed a complex of Buddhist
stupas (an area of 1700 square yards, drum diametre of 148 feet, dome diametre of 132 feet, height of 40 feet and a circumambulatory path of 8 feet). Bricks of 45 x 30 x 8 cm dimensions were used for the construction.
Alexander Rea discovered three inscribed stone relic caskets containing crystal caskets, relics of Buddha and jewels in 1892.
The most significant discovery is the crystal relic casket of sārira-dhātu of the Buddha from the central mass of the stupas. The Mahachaitya (great stupa) remains of a large pillared hall, a large group of ruined votive stupas with several images of Buddha, a stone receptacle containing copper vessel, which in turn, contained two more, a silver casket and with in it, a gold casket enclosing beads of bone and crystal were found..
The script
The script was written on the urn containing Buddha's relics. Linguists surmise that the
Mauryan Brahmi evolved in 500 BCE and travelled to
Bhattiprolu giving rise to its variant by 300 BCE. Twenty three symbols were identified in Bhattiprolu script. The symbols for 'ga' and 'sa' are similar to Mauryan Brahmi. 'bha' and 'da' resemble those of the modern
Telugu script .
There are a total of nine inscritions, all dated to the 4th to 2nd centuries BCE (a tenth inscription is in a script much closer to standard Brahmi), written in Prakrit.
Three out of these nine inscriptions in addition are claimed to feature "several Telugu roots or words", making them the earliest record of the Telugu language..
Derived scripts
Historians surmise that this script gave rise to the
Telugu and
Tamil scripts.
The Bhattiprolu script also gave rise to the modern
Thai,
Burmese,
Javanese and
Balinese scripts which bear a strong resemblance to the
Telugu script. The script also spread to the
Rayalaseema region, appearing in Yerragudi rock edict of emperor
Ashoka.
References
*Richard Salomon, Indian epigraphy: a guide to the study of inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan languages Oxford University Press US, 1998, ISBN 9780195099843.
See also
Tamil Brahmi
Category:Brahmic scripts
