THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EARLY HISTORIC INDIA
Chapter – 7
Table of Contents
- The earliest archaeological evidence of historical writing in India is found in the Asokan inscriptions from the third century BC.
- Asoka had his inscriptions engraved in four scripts: Brahmi, Kharosthi, Aramaic, and Greek.
- The Asokan edicts in Aramaic and Greek come from south Afghanistan, with one Aramaic inscription from Taxilain Punjab.
- The use of Kharosthi was confined to the north-western subcontinent, while Brahmi was used throughout the rest of India with regional variations.
- Two key questions are addressed:
- Pre-Asokan inscriptions: Evidence includes several inscriptions, such as the Badli pillar inscription, Eran coin legend, Bhottiprolu relic casket inscription, Taxila coin legends, and others.
- Writing on perishable materials: Evidence points to the existence of this tradition in India before the Mauryan period.
- Scholarly debates: Early scholars considered several inscriptions as pre-Asokan, but later scholars like D.C. Sircarand A.H. Dani date them later, with some differences in their actual dates.
- The Sohgaura copper plate inscription is debated, with Sircar dating it to the third century BC and Dani to about a hundred years later.
- The dating of inscriptions is subjective, often based on the form of the incised letters.
- Inscriptions in Brahmi have been discovered at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, with contexts dated to the middle of the first millennium BC.
- Tamil Brahmi inscriptions in South India may also be early, based on these discoveries.
- India has a long tradition of writing on perishable materials like palm leaves, continuing at least until the nineteenth century.
- References to writing are found in Panini’s grammar (fifth century BC) and accounts by Greek authors accompanying Alexander in 326 BC.
- Literary references suggest that the tradition of writing began in India around the seventh-eighth century BC.
- Archaeologically, this period also marks the emergence of northern black polished ware (NBP) in the Ganga valley.
- The chronological marker for the period is the date of Gautama Buddha, which is uncertain in Indian textual sources.
- Archaeology does not provide a clear date for the Buddha, but the stupa at Piprahwa, built by the Buddha’s kinsmen, can be dated to the middle phase of NBP (c. 400 BC).
- A.K. Narain suggests that Asoka’s Minor Rock Edict I mentions the Buddha’s death 256 years before the edict’s proclamation, dating the Buddha’s death to 483 BC and his birth to the sixth century BC.
- The early historic stage in the Ganga valley can be traced to the sixth century BC, potentially earlier by a couple of centuries.
- John Marshall‘s excavations at Bhita suggested that the NBP could date back to the eighth century BC.
