Is the Ashokan Brahmi script derived from the Tamil Brahmi ?

In 1920 when the British were laying down the railway tracks in western
Punjab ( in present-day Pakistan), they uncovered, many archaeological sites as
old as 3000 BCE. The ruins in those sites revealed, surprisingly, the existence
of a highly developed urban culture with excellent town planning including
straight public roads, baths and streets. Two of these towns, located at Harappa
and Mohenjadaro, respectively, formed part of a larger civilization, now known as
the Indus Valley civilization, after the river Indus around which these sites were
clustered. Before 1920, historians had thought that the Aryans who entered India
(through the Khyber and other passes) in the second quarter of the second
millennium B.C., brought civilization and urban development to India. The
ruins at Harappa and Mohenjadaro , however, revealed that the people of the Indus
Valley civilization had already attained a high degree of urban culture. In fact,
according to Childe, the historian, “the Indus Valley civilization was ahead of the
Babylonians at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE”1. The
people of the Indus Valley civilization are thought to be Dravidians, specifically,
the Tamils, like those in present-day south India2. Will Durant, the American
historian speaking of the Dravidians in his book “Oriental
Heritage "3 say: “They (the Dravidians) were already a civilized people when the
Aryans broke down upon them; their adventurous merchants sailed the sea even to
Sumeria and Babylon and their cities knew many refinements and luxuries. It was
from them, apparently that the Aryans took their system of land-tenure and
taxation. To this day the Deccan is still essentially Dravidian in stock, customs, in
language, literature and arts”.

The well-known Indian historian K.M. Panikkar in his, “A survey of

Indian History” (1954) says: “One thing, however, is certain and can no longer be
contested--civilization did not come to India with the Aryans. The doctrine of the
Aryan origin of Indian civilization finds no support in Indian literature which does
not consider the Dasyus (Dravidians) as uncivilized. It is the result of the scholars
who held that everything valuable in the world originated from the Aryans. Not
only Indian civilization is pre-vedic, but the essential features of Hindu religion as
we know it today were perhaps present in Mohenjadaro”.

1. Childe.G - “The most ancient East” 1975.

2. Hall, J.A.W – Eminent Asians, 1929.
3. Wile Durant – “Our Oriental Heritage”, 1942.

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 Again, John Marshal, the British archaeologist in India, who participated in
the original excavations of the Indus valley sites, says “There is enough in the
fragments we have recovered about the religious articles found on the sites to
demonstrate that this religion of the Indus people was the lineal progenitor of
Hinduism. In fact, Siva and Kali, the worship of linga (Phallus) and other features
of popular Hinduism, were well established in India long before the Aryans
came”4.

The Aryans brought with them their own pantheon of Gods such as
Brahma, Vishnu (Rama and Krishna are considered to be the "avatars"
(manifestations) of Vishnu) and other gods like Varuna, Agni etc. Siva was not
part of the Aryan's original pantheon of gods. An important evidence for the non-
Aryan origin of Siva worship lies embedded in the Rig Veda itself! According to
Panikkar “The clearest evidence of the Dravidian origin of Siva worship is found
in the Aryan attitude towards Linga and the God whom it symbolizes. In Rig Veda
(vii) ch. 21-55 we have the significant statement “Let those whose deity is the
Phallus not penetrate our sanctuary”! The Aryans in their early days in India did
not accept Siva as a separate, important deity. But since they were a minority (the
conquerors) and the local majority of the inhabitants of India worshipped Siva,
they incorporated and accepted him, later, in the pantheon of their gods. Thus, Siva
assumes increasing importance only in the later Vedas. Only from the period of the
Yajur Veda, Siva definitely assumes the aspects of Maheswera or the Great God.
The findings of Lingam –Yoni stones in the Indus Valley sites also support the
theory that the Indus people were worshippers of Siva. Even today in Tamil Nadu
there are more temples for Siva than for Vishnu. The Chola kings who ruled the
Tamil country up to 1120 AD built many temples dedicated to Siva including the
world renowned ones at Tanjore, Chidambaram and Madurai.

When the Aryans co-opted Siva as a "Supreme God" (Maheswara), they did
not destroy the earlier ideas and concepts of the religion of the Indus people,
Saivism. The Indus valley people’s religious ideas which centered round the
worship of Siva who combines in himself the male as well as the female principle
in creation continue to be cherished in south India, particularly in the Tamil
countries, even today. The concept of manifestation and integration of both the
male and female principles in equal importance in the same deity is found only in

4. Marshall, Sir John- Mohenjadaro and the Indian Civilisation, 1931

5. Panikkar, K.M. – “A survey of Indian Histroy, 1954”, “India and China”, 1957.

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the religious ideas of Saivism. This is illustrated beautifully in the statue of
Ardhanareswara depicted as half male (Siva) and half female (Parvati).

Hall, another historian, in his “Ancient History of the Near East” wrote in
1929, “The culture of India is pre-Aryan in origin. As in Greece, the
conquered countries helped in civilizing the conquerors. The Aryan Indian owed
his civilization to the Dravidians as the Aryan Greek to the Mycaeneans”. Hall
also believed that “the Sumerians derived their culture from India. Investigators
have been struck by the fact that similar seals found both in Babylonia and in India
belong to the earliest phase of the Mesopotamian culture, not to the latest phase of
the Indus civilization which suggests the priority of Dravidian India”2.

The Indus people proved that they were very good in seafaring activities and
they travelled up to Babylon and Palestine1. The descendants of the Indus people
are called Dravidians who were identified with Dramilas (Tamils). In the Tamil
language they are called as “thirayars”- the men who rode the waves.

The earliest Tamil literature called Sangam literature makes references to the
foreign notices found in the writings of Greek and Romans Tamil loan words were
found in Hebrew and Greek and other evidences brought to light by excavations in
Ur of the Chaldes and Palestine , give us some ideas of the early trade and cultural
contacts of Tamils with ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome and Arabia. The
word “Ur” in Tamil is a city or town. Even today the term “Ur” is used in Tamil
to denote a town. The Hebrew word for peacock “Thokaiar” is derived from the
plumes words of peacock in Tamil. The Tamil word “Ingiver” has entered as a
loan word in Hebrew as “ginger”. Some Tamil documents refer King Solomon as
the contact kings of Tamil sailors. There are other Tamil loan words which are
currently in use in Hebrew language. This shows that the Tamil people were
excellent sailors with their well-built ships capable of voyaging on the rough
oceans and seas up to Babylon, Palestine and other places.

The Tamils were able to declare through their incomparable poets

“Yaathum Ure yavaarum kelir” meaning “My abode is wherever I go and settle
and my audience is the peoples of my new abode”. In another old Tamil poem,
the poet writes: “Thirai kadal Odiyum thiravium thedu” meaning “Earn money
even by risking crossing the oceans and seas”.

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 In another old poem of the medieval period the writer mentions 17 countries
where Tamil language, and consequently Tamil culture were known. Among the
17 countries mentioned are: Ceylon, Java, Malaya, Cambodia, China and
Chonakam. The word Chonakam includes Arabia and neighbouring countries.

A Chinese writer, Pau Kou who lived at the end of the first century BCE
mentions that in the time of the Hun Emperor the Choli kings sent ambassador to
China7. Dixon in his “Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society”, v.639,
1930 writes “Now both the iron and glass objects are similarities and in some cases
identical with the prehistoric glass and iron finds in the South of India. They occur
in the dolven tombs and urus which is found by hundreds and thousands and which
almost antedote the historic Chola, Chera and Pandya kingdom whose history goes
back to the beginning of the Christian era or before. As finds of similar glass bead
and bangles have recently been excavated in the Malay Peninsula (present
Malayasia), in dolmen tombs in Java and in North Borneo, the influence
inescapable that we have clear evidence of trade contact with Northern Philippines
and Southern India running well back into the first millennium BCE.

In recent excavations and explorations of caves in Tamil Nadu, Indus Valley

symbols were found on the Neolithic Stone Age and at the end of the Tamil
Brahmi writings6. This indicates a possible connection between the
Tamils of South India and the Indus Valley people. Since the Indus Valley
symbols are not so far deciphered in the world we do not know the meaning of the
Indus writings.

Piggott in his "Prehistoric India., page 43 (Pelican Books, 1952), says with regard
to rice –

"It seems probable that rice cultivation began earlier in India than it did in China
and that the knowledge reached the latter country about 2000 B.C.".

6. “The stone celt of Sembiyan Kandiyur”

7. K.M. Panikkar, “India and China” (pp.1718)

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Piggott adds in page 259 -

"The Rig Veda knows nothing of rice”

In other words, the Aryan immigrants into India learnt the cultivation of rice from
the Dravidians.

With regard to the centre of origin of iron, an extract from the Bulletin of the
British Iron and Steel Federation, 1949. Sir William Larke, Director of the British
Iron and Steel Federation, says –

“The centre of origin is variously placed in India, where there are historical
traditions and remains indicating a highly developed iron culture. Hyderabad
and Trichinopoly are considered by many to have been the centres of
production of wootz ( steel )..... This steel was noted for centuries, being
carried by merchants from India to Damascus and Toledo...”

It will be noted that both these sites are in Tamil Nadu and ANDHRA
PRADESH (Deccan). Sir William gives the date of this origin of the Iron Age as
1400 to 1500 B.C. The iron implements found in the Adichanallur site about the
same period, and the transport of iron hoes and tridents to distant countries such as
Palestine and the Philippines confirms this conclusion.

Writings and scripts of the Indus Valley people

The Indus people had their own writings with symbols marked on seals
made of baked clay. The seals are 2 in. square with the drawings of animals in the
centre and the writing symbols on the top. So far, more than 10,000 such seals had
been unearthed from the excavations. The direction of writing on the seals is from
right to left like Aramaic, Hebrew and Arab.

In spite of many efforts the Indus script has, so far, not been deciphered.
Some tried to read the script from left to right. The claim that the writings of the
Indus seals are Vedic is not correct. The Indus Valley civilization dates from 3000
to 2000 BCE. The Vedic Aryans entered India much later in the 2nd millennium
BCE. The current world opinion is that the correct decipherment of the Indus seals
has not been achieved, so far.

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The entry of Aryans into India

The Aryans from Iran and central Asia entered the northern part of India
through the mountain passes around 1400 BCE. When they entered India, the
Indus Valley civilization was already in its terminal decayed phase. The Indus
people were an urban, peaceful people living in the Indus region scattered over
1000 square kms. for more than 1000 years.

The excavations of the Indus sites reveal no swords, no arms or fighting

materials1. Hence, the Aryans were able to conquer and subdue these urbanites.
Some skeletons found on the streets in these sites point, perhaps, to such
skirmishes between the Aryans and the local Indus people.

Aryans without any writings

When the Aryans entered India the elite among them (the Brahmins) spoke
the Sanskrit language, an Indo-European language belonging to the same family as
Iranian, Avestan, Greek, Roman and Celtic languages. Sanskrit at that time was
only a spoken language without any written script. The Indus people had their
seals with writings and symbols and seals before the first millenium BC. On the
other hand, Prakrit language derived from Sanskrit was first written down in the
Brahmi script only during the reign of Ashoka during the third century BC
Sanskrit itself did not have any script till about 300 A.D. The sanskrit
Vedic literature (like the Homerian classics) was transmitted only orally.
Megasthenes who was the ambassador of Greece in 300 BCE, after the conquest of
Alexander, was residing in Pataliputra, the capital of the Mauryan empire in the
court of the king Chandra Gupta Maurya. He writes that the administration of the
Chandra Gupta and the running of the Government with King’s orders were
carried out well, but the Indians did not possess any writing system. This system
continued up to Asoka’s time( third century BCE). Hence for almost 1200 years
the Aryans did not have any script for writing. In fact, the Aryans did not want the
local people, called Dasyus in Rig Veda, to learn the sanskrit language. The
conqueror did not want the conquered people to learn their Deva Basha (Divine
language). If the local people Dasyus, learnt or tried to learn Sanskrit, then the
punishment for the Dasyus was severe. Molten lead was poured as punishment
into their ears and their tongues were cut. The Dasyus were also not allowed to go
near the fire- altar platform where the sacred rituals were performed by the Aryans.

After his victory over the Kalingas, Asoka abandoned violence and waging
wars and became a convert to Buddhism. He wanted to spread the teaching and
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principles (Dhammas) of Buddha. But the Indian languages prevalent at that time,
sanskrit and Prakrit lacked a written script. Sanskrit was the language of the priests
and the high class people and Prakrit, a colloquial dialect of Sanskrit was the
language of the common man.

The Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharta were composed and

transmitted only orally and were learnt by heart by the elite class and the priests.
Only the script of Karoshti which was an adaptation of Semitic Aramaic was
available to Ashoka in his missionary efforts. It was written from right to left like
Hebrew and Arab. Karoshti did not possess all the phonetic sounds required in
Sanskrit or Prakrit.

After his conversion to Buddhism, Asoka wanted to propagate the

principles (dhammas) of Buddhism. He needed a script urgently to carve or sculpt
these dhammas on rock pillars and edicts throughout his kingdom. Asoka utilized
a new script which was later ( in the late 19th century AD) called Brahmi by Georg
Bühler, a German scholar who has made deep studies about the scripts of Asoka.
He had learnt from the Hindu Puranas that the Sanskrit language was given to the
Hindus by the Hindu God Brahma, the creator of the Universe and mankind.
Accordingly, Bühler gave the name "Brahmi " to the script used by Ashoka in his
stupas and monuments. From that time onwards every one used the name Brahmi
for Asoka’s script.

Ashoka used the Brahmi script in his first rock edict written in Girnar. It
was during the 12th year of his reign i.e. 257 BCE. During his reign (269-232
BCE) Asoka made a number of edicts with the Brahmi script throughout North
India and in some parts of Karnataka but not a single one in Tamil Nadu. After
Asoka’s rule his followers and kings used the Ashoka's Brahmi script for writing .
As time passed by, the Asokan Brahmi script underwent some modification during
the rule of Gupta, Satavanas etc. Asokan Brahmi script was in use mainly in
northern India.