Old Bramhi Inscriptions In Udaygiri And Khandagiri

Author(s): Benimadhab Barua
Publisher: University of Calcutta

Page 12

PREFACE
nay, even misguided, by Mr. R. D. Banerji, to treat the table of Brāhmi alphabet inscribed in scarlet colour, not to say written in red ink, on a dressed portion of the back wall of one of the chambers of the Tattva-Gumphā on the Khaņdagiri hill as of the same date as the Hāthi-Gumphā and other old Brāhmī inscriptions in the Udayagiri caves. On my visit to Udayagiri and Khaņdagiri, the caretaker appointed by the Archæological Department informed me that the late lamented Mr. Panday doubted the contemporaneity of this table with Khāravela's inscription. Mr. Panday might be right, but he did not substantiate his opinion with any definite evidence. Till nothing was found to upset Mr. Banerji's assumption, I thought I should make the best use of it in including the fourteen old Brāhmi inscriptions, as well as the TattvaGumphā table in a complete and coherent scheme of treatment. Whatever be the actual date of this curious table, it is certain that the general forms of the Brāhmi letters which appear in it closely resemble those of the Brāhmi characters in the Hāthi-Gumphā and other old Brāhmi inscriptions. Certainly the importance of this table lies in the fact that it clearly indicates the first step to the engraving of inscriptions with chisel and by means of whetting on pieces of stone or rocky surfaces. It goes at once to show that the engravers used first to make designs of the letters to be engraved in some sort of colour or ink. As the Hatthipāla-Jātaka (Fausböll, Vol. IV, p. 489) goes to prove, inscribing in letters of vermilion upon a wall (jātihingulakena bhittiyā akkharāni likhanam) was a common practice in India. It was not, moreover, unusual, as some of the Central Asian manuscripts attest, to annex a table of alphabet as a key to the reading of the manuscript. Whatever be the actual date of this "table, I find no difficulty in supposing its purpose to be
that of serving as a key to the reading of the whole set of old Brāhmi inscriptions in the Udayagiri and Khaņdagiri caves. I am sure that it will not make any differ.