Lipi (script)

Brahmi (top) and Kharosthi scripts are mentioned as lipi in ancient Indian texts.[1]

Lipi means 'writing, letters, alphabet', and contextually refers to scripts, the art or manner of writing, or in modified form such as lipī to painting, decorating or anointing a surface to express something.[2][3]

The term lipi appears in multiple texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, some of which have been dated to the 1st millennium BCE in ancient India. Section 3.2.21 of Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī (around 500 BCE),[4] mentions lipi in the context of writing.[3][5][6] However, Panini does not describe or name the specific name of Sanskrit script. The Arthashastra (200 BCE - 300 CE), in section 1.2–5, asserts that lipi was a part of the education system in ancient India.[7]

According to Buddhist texts such as Lalitavistara Sūtra, young Siddhartha – the future Buddha – mastered philology and scripts at a school from Brahmin Lipikara and Deva Vidyasinha.[8][9] These texts list the lipi that the Buddha of ancient India knew as a child, and the list contains sixty-four scripts, though Salomon states that "the historical value of this list is however limited by several factors".[10] A version of this list of sixty-four ancient Indian scripts is found in the Chinese translation of an Indian Buddhist text, and this translation has been dated to 308 CE.[11]

The canonical texts of Jainism list eighteen lipi, with many names of writing scripts that do not appear in the Buddhist list of sixty-four lipi. The Jaina list of writing scripts in ancient India, states Buhler, is likely "far older" than the Buddhist list.[10]

  1. ^ Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 8–10 with footnotes. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.
  2. ^ Monier Monier-Williams (1899). Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. pp. 902–903.
  3. ^ a b Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.
  4. ^ Bronkhorst, Johannes (2016), How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas, Brill, ISBN 9789004315518
  5. ^ Juhyung Rhi (2009). "On the Peripheries of Civilizations: The Evolution of a Visual Tradition in Gandhāra". Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. 1: 5, 1–13.
  6. ^ Rita Sherma; Arvind Sharma (2008). Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought: Toward a Fusion of Horizons. Springer. p. 235. ISBN 978-1-4020-8192-7.
  7. ^ Takao Hayashi (2008). Gavin Flood (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. John Wiley & Sons. p. 365. ISBN 978-0-470-99868-7.
  8. ^ Lopon Nado (1982), The Development of Language in Bhutan, The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Volume 5, Number 2, page 95, Quote: "Under different teachers, such as the Brahmin Lipikara and Deva Vidyasinha, he mastered Indian philology and scripts. According to Lalitavistara, there were as many as sixty-four scripts in India."
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference georgbuhler6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 8–9 with footnotes. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.
  11. ^ Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.