Bhattiprolu Script

Bhattiprolu script

Bhattiprolu is 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. Bhattiprolu had been a great centre of Buddhism since pre-Mauryan times (4th century BCE) from where Buddhism spread to east Asia. It is a historical place mentioned by Ptolemy as "Pitindra" and as Pratipalapura in Jain literature and Buddhist inscriptions. Pratipalapura was mentioned in the Jain epic "Dharmamrita" written by Nayasenani about an incident of conversion of the Jain King Dhanada to Buddhism that occurred in 5th century BCE. Dhanada was also known as King Kuberaka. Jain king Kharavela destroyed Pratipalapura in 170 BCE by ploughing the city with donkeys.

The Stupa

Excavations that started in the year 1870 CE by Boswell, Sir Walter Elliot, Robert Sewell, Alexander Rea, Buhler and recently in 1969 by Dr R. Subrahmanyam revealed a great Buddusit Stupa (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 [Bhattiprolu Stupa, Its Vastu and Inscriptions, Dr I. K. Sarma] .

Alexander Rea discovered three inscribed stone relic caskets containing crystal caskets, relics of Buddha and jewels in 1892 CE [The Bhattiprolu Stupa, A. Rea, 1892, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities, Vol 4] [The Buddhist Architecture in Andhra, Dr D. J. Das, 1993, Books and Books, New Delhi] . The most significant discovery is the crystal relic casket of sarira dhatu 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 [Buddhist Relic Caskets in Andhradesa, Dr B. Subrahmanyam, 1999, Ananda Buddha Vihara Trust, Secunderabad] .

The Script

The earliest evidence of Brahmi script in South India comes from Bhattiprolu [The Bhattiprolu Inscriptions, G. Buhler, 1894, Epigraphica Indica, Vol.2] [Buddhist Inscriptions of Andhradesa, Dr. B.S.L Hanumantha Rao, 1998, Ananda Buddha Vihara Trust, Secunderabad. The script was written on the urn containing Buddha's relics. The languages were Prakrit and old Telugu [Antiquity of Telugu language and script: http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/20/stories/2007122054820600.htm] . Linguists surmise that the Mauryan Brahmi evolved in 500 BCE and travelled to Bhattiprolu giving rise to its variant in 300 BCE [Ananda Buddha Vihara; http://www.buddhavihara.in/ancient.htm ] [Epigraphist extraordinaire; http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/19/stories/2007031911650400.htm ] . 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 modern Telugu script. Although Telugu evolved by 6th century BCE from it was not used in the inscriptions because of its unofficial status Fact|date=August 2008.

The Evolution

The evolution of Bhattiprolu script through various phases is depicted in the figure.

Historians surmise that this script gave rise to the Telugu and Tamil scripts [Indian Epigrapghy and South Indian Scripts, C. S. Murthy, 1952, Bulletins of the Madras Government Museum, New Series IV, General Section, Vol III, No. 4] [The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems by Florian Coulmas, p. 228] [Vishwabharathi by K. N. Murthy and G. U. Rao, http://tdil.mit.gov.in/TelugulScriptDetailsApr02.pdf] [Indiain Epigraphy: a guide to the study of inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan languages, by Richard Solomon, Oxford University Press, 1998, p.40, ISBN 0195099842] [Indian Epigraphy by Dineschandra Sircar, Motilal Banarsidass, 1996, p.46, ISBN 8120811666] [The Dravidian Languages by Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, 2003, Cambridge University Press, pp.78-79, ISBN 0521771110] [K. Raghunath Bhat, http://ignca.gov.in/nl001809.htm] . 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.

Notes