The origin of the Brahmi script
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Brahmi is the parent of almost every script of South and South-East Asia. Whether it was inspired by Aramaic writing or grew in India is still argued.
Disputed: evidence incompleteCulture, games, language & ideas
Indian claim
Brahmi is an Indian creation, perhaps developed from the Indus script or from early Indian sign systems.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Brahmi's sound order and vowel marks are built on Indian phonetics, very unlike Semitic scripts; Britannica notes the fully developed system was the work of Indian phonetic and grammatical study.
- Inscribed potsherds from Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, and from Keeladi in Tamil Nadu, have been dated by their excavators to before Ashoka, which would mean the script is older than the 3rd century BCE. These dates are still debated.
Commonly credited to
Brahmi was modelled on or inspired by Aramaic, the Semitic script used in the Persian Empire, which also gave rise to Kharosthi in north-west India.
Evidence for the other claim
- Britannica: scholars commonly believe Brahmi is of Aramaic derivation or inspiration; it appears fully developed in Ashoka's inscriptions in the 3rd century BCE.
- Some Brahmi letters resemble Aramaic letters with similar sounds.
- No link between the Indus script and Brahmi has been shown; there is a gap of over a thousand years between them.
What historians and scientists say
Most scholars think the idea of alphabetic writing came from Aramaic, while the Brahmi system itself was shaped in India to fit Indian sounds. The question of exact origin and date is still open.