Origins of Telugu Script

Note: In the following write up, two (or more) different spellings have been used for certain key words. The word in normal color denotes the usual spelling in English. The word in an alternate color denotes the transliteration spelling as per RIT, e.g., Brahmi and braahmee.

Indus Script and Telugu

The history of linguistic scripts in India followed a totally different line from that of the languages themselves. Telugu belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. Literate south Indian languages except Konkani are Dravidian. Most people who speak the languages belonging to this family now live in southern India. However, pockets of people belonging to this group also live in several other parts of the world, e.g., Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Central Asia. It is more or less certain that the Indus seals (hieroglyphic or not) found in the remains of Mohenjodaro and Harappa represent the proto-dravidian language. Geographically the range of this language extended from the Sindh river all the way up to the borders of Ganga-Yamuna doab spreading over the Saraswati river basin in Pakistan and India. It flourished for well over a 1000 years from around 3000 BCE. It had a well-developed script. An example of the character set used by this script is given below. There are more than four hundred symbols in this script. It is highly likely that these symbols are a mixture of hieroglyphs, ideograms, syllabic graphs and other such patterns. So far, the available examples of the script consist of very short phrases or sentences comprised of 5 to 26 characters. In a recent discovery (May 1999), researchers unearthed at Harappa, what seems to be the earliest known writing in the world -dating from 3500 BCE.

There is hardly any direct evidence referring to the state of this language after 1700 BCE. However, from indirect evidence and a combination of transformational and lexico-statistical analyses, we can conclude that this language eventually blossomed into Northern, Central, and Southern sub-families. The central Dravidian sub-family evolved into Telugu and several other tribal languages of central and eastern India. The southern sub family gave rise to Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Kodagu and Tulu as well as some other non-literate tribal languages. The monumental Linguistic Survey of India (pub. 1906) carried out more than a century ago lists many of these languages. A more recent classification, a list of over 70 languages in the Dravidian family and some relevant statistics can be found at the ETHNOLOGUE site. There are several changes in this list compared to the Linguistic Survey of India (Ed. -G.A. Grierson). For example, Grierson listed the Savara language under the Munda family, where as the Ethnologue site places it in the Telugu sub-family. Further research may reveal that some of these languages are actually dialects of other languages. Conversely, more languages may be re-classified from existing regional variants. But it is certain that dozens of languages of south India belong to the Dravidian family. This root family has most likely descended from the Saraswati-Sindhu civilization. Thus, the ancient predecessor to Telugu and other Dravidian languages had a script as depicted in the Indus seals. In spite of several imaginative attempts, this script remains undeciphered.

{Traditionally, within south India, the word Dravidian meant Tamilian. The two words are etymologically related to each other. However since the middle of the nineteenth century, perhaps because of the lack of a better word, Dravidian is increasingly being used to denote the commonality in South Indian roots and culture. This usage was due to Bishop Caldwell who wrote an influential work on South Indian Languages.}

Brahmi Script and Telugu

For some inexplicable reason, later Indian languages that succeeded the saraswati-siMdhu proto-dravidian language seem to have suspended the use of formal script for a long time -perhaps more than fifteen centuries. The arrival of Aryan tribes into the sub-continent might have triggered this in some fashion. Most current researchers believe that these Aryan tribes had migrated from central Asia via the middle-east and Iran. These tribes too did not employ formal script in India for many centuries after their arrival. It is interesting to note that since they came via the middle-east, these Aryan tribes must have had a very clear understanding of the scripts already in use there for a very long time. The Sumerian, and other Mesopotamian cultures had thriving socio-political systems supported by rigorous record keeping. Yet, no evidence for formal writing had been unearthed in India or Pakistan between 1700 BCE and fourth century BCE. During this time, Indians developed a vast amount of philosophical and ritualistic literature. They also developed a keen sense of phonetics and complicated rules of grammar and pronunciation. In fact these rules are considered to be among the most sophisticated ever developed. Contrary to earlier understanding that these developments are entirely Aryan, both the Dravidian and Aryan systems seem to have influenced these developments significantly. It is difficult to imagine the clear establishment of the alphabet and all the allied rules, the development of huge kingdoms and enormous armies numbering several hundred thousand troupes without the help of written record keeping. Researchers are yet to satisfactorily explain this seeming contradiction. It is said that the tradition of writing had been revived sometime after the death of Buddha although early European researchers tended to believe that this revival might have been around the eighth century before Christ. The catalyst for this revival seems to be the increased contact with central Asia. Perhaps the big factor in this is the so-called invasion (of parts of Indus valley) by Alexander of Macedonia in 326 BCE. He brought with him a large army as well as a large entourage of courtiers which included scribes of various hues. The preferred script used by these scribes seems to be Aramaic. Incidentally, Aramaic became the international script of that time and even Jesus of Nazareth made use of Aramaic more than his native Hebrew. These scribes were prized for their skills and they spread out over a vast area of Asia. They were employed in large numbers by most of the kingdoms in the middle-east including the powerful Achaemenid empire. They introduced the Aramaic script to Indians. This was adopted by the peoples of the northwestern India in the form of KharOSThee. The Nanda kings (and Mauryan emperors who succeeded them) at Pataliputra adopted a script inspired by it for all their official communications. From this developed the Brahmi script and eventually the modern day Devanagari. The figures below show the early braahmee script.

The Andhra (Saatavaahana) dynasty introduced the braahmee to the present day Kannada and Telugu regions. The earliest inscriptions found in the Tamil land belong to more or less the same period. A number of early Satavahana coins and other remains were found in Tamil Nadu. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Satavahanas introduced the script to the Tamil country also. The Satavahanas were, for some time, vassals of the Mauryan Empire. Mauryan Emperor Asoka the great (reign: 269-232 BCE) and the rise of Buddhism played stellar roles in championing this spread of writing. Thus, Telugu and all the other south Indian languages had developed from the proto-dravidian language of the Indus valley while their scripts descended from the braahmee.

There are direct or indirect references to 'lipi,' liKh,' 'lEKha,' 'liKhita,' etc., in the literature belonging to the periods before this perceived spread of braahmee. Researchers, especially the western scholars tended to explain these references as belonging to the art of painting rather than of writing. In the absence of a convincing proof to the contrary, it may be safe to assume that the prevailing theories are reasonably representative of history. The essence of these theories is that, barring their connection with the Indus culture, existing Indian languages did not have any formal script before the fourth century BCE. All the current Indian scripts including the Telugu script have descended from the braahmee which was inspired, at least partly by the Aramaic and other western scripts.

{There are several voices that oppose the main stream theories from scientific, political, sociological and emotional points of view (e.g., Invasion That Never Was and Myth of the Aryan Invasion). The gist of these alternate theories is that the Aryans, their culture and language were all indigenous. Any incidental similarities between India and the West can be explained away. These voices are yet to gain any respectability in terms of scientific rigor and completeness of their arguments although they are becoming increasingly elaborate.}

Descent of Telugu Script from Brahmi

The chart below outlines the descent of various Indic scripts from the braahmee.

Cautionary Note: The figure indicates the most probable routes for the evolution of modern scripts. Care must be taken in reading these routes. For example, Telugu script has been shown as a descendent of "old Kannada" script. It does not in any way mean that the language (as opposed to the script) has descended from Kannada. Kannada became a literate language slightly ahead of Telugu. For example, both Kannada and Telugu had produced poetry during the eighth century. Kannada writers had also produced full-fledged literary works in the ninth century. But it was two more centuries before major poetic works in Telugu became available. That is the reason for the combined Telugu-Kannada script to have been called as the "old Kannada." This in turn does not mean that Telugu people were non-literate during the periods when Kannada and Tamil people were producing works of literature. Writers in Telugu land had been continuously engaged in creating literary, religious or philosophical works in Prakrit and Sanskrit from long before Christ. While the Tamil and Kannada writers had switched to writing in their local languages in the first century CE and the eighth century CE respectively, Telugu writers waited till the 11th century. The major reasons for this state of affairs include socio-political factors such as royal patronage and the influence of Buddhism and Jainism, among other things.

Further Reading and Acknowledgements

Origin of the Indian script systems has been discussed in great detail by several authors. The above discussion is confined to outlining the essentials of Telugu script evolution.

A very good review of the current position among leading western scholars regarding the recent (as opposed to Indus) origin of Indian scripts is given by Richard Salomon of the University of Washington. Dr. Solomon himself is currently preparing a scholarly work on the subject. Similarly, Iravatham Mahadevan's paper "An Encylopaedia of the Indus Script" published in the International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics (Trivandrum, Jan. 1997) is a review of Asko Parpola's encyclopedic work "Deciphering the Indus Script." Mahadevan himself carried out a major study of the Indus seals and prepared a major study and concordance of Indus seals and characters.

An excellent compilation of the online resources regarding Indian scripts and related aspects is provided by Dr. Yashwant Malaiya (Click here). A vast amount of material on the Saraswati-Sindhu civilization is being compiled by Kalyanaraman. An informatively created page on world scripts is maintained by Lawrence Lo. The two Brahmi script gifs are courtesy of Mr. Lo.