Story of scripts –Part 1 Introduction

The Story of Scriptsby S. Swaminathan(sswami99@gmail.com)

About the presentation …….ONCE I made a presentation of the Story of Scripts to a Tamil audience. I opened the lecture with a provocative statement. I was mentioning that I will be talking about the development of Tamil scripts but also be introducing two magnificent ancient civilizations, the Sumerian and the Egyptian, and their 'lifeless' writing and also 'lifeless' and 'bodiless', but vibrant and kicking, soulful Chinese characters.

All Indian languages and the European languages have alphabet, and there are vowels and consonants. In Tamil, a vowel is known as a uyir-letter (literally, 'life-letter') and a consonant is mey-letter (literally, 'body-letter'), an excellent coinage. The script for Semitic languages is consonantal, meaning that there are no vowels or very few vowels. (Even modern Arabic is devoid of vowels.) Hence I called them 'lifeless' script. The Chinese script, on the other hand, has neither vowels nor consonants, as it is logographic, meaning expressing an idea. Then it becomes 'lifeless-bodyless', just a 'pindam'. We, Indians, cannot imagine a script without vowels and consonants. I was making it clear in the presentation that with these ‘impediments’ the Sumerians, the Egyptians and the Chinese don't seem to be handicaps at all. For example, the Chinese accomplishment in every branch of knowledge is remarkable.

The Meso-American scripts are a class by themselves. Here I will be taking you to a totally different word, some may call even weird!

In this presentation I will be attempting to narrate the exciting story of writing. I start the story by tracing the origin of scripts from the rock-paintings of pre-historic man, through the natural progression: from pictogram, to ideogram and, finally, to phonetic writing. Then I would attempt to follow development of writing in the ancient cultures of the world: cuneiform of Sumeria, hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, Chinese and Meso-American scripts.

The scene will now would shift to India. I will start with how Brahmi is the fountainhead of not only of scripts of all Indian languages, but of most of the languages of Asia. Then the discussion would focus on the development of scripts in Tamilnadu, whose beginning was made in the 3rd century BC in the form of Tamil Brahmi.

Hangul, the script of Korean, is supposed to be the world’s most scientific script. This forms the next section. I will, then, extend the discussion to some other dimensions of scripts: spiritual and esoteric aspects, through Siddham and Tibetan, and aesthetic capabilities through the Arabic script.

Being visual, my presentation is attempted as a curtain-raiser. But indications are made on points for future discussions. It has been a great pleasure following the endeavour of the humankind in expressing itself through the writing medium. This presentation of mine is claimed to be neither erudite, nor original nor scholarly. But my attempt to understand and appreciate scripts around the world has been long and followed with passion. What I am managing to put together here, is what would not be available from a single source for common persons like me.

Of course, I have avoided all technical terms. Some times I have even compromised. For example, I have used the term ideogram, where logogram would be correct. This attempt is merely to share my pleasure with you, who, in turn, may find it limited or endless.S. Swaminathan

An illiterate world …Can we imagine what life would be without writing, a world without newspapers, without books? But there existed such a time in the past, when information, whatever little that was required, was passed on only verbally.

Beyond oral communicationPictures could be better than oral communication for certain kind of information like keeping track of cattle etc. But for complex ideas pictures are inadequate.

Achievement through WritingWriting, as we have today is, truly, one of world’s greatest inventions.This took millennia to develop.Our great strides in science and technology would not have been possible but for writing.

Story of writingThe story of writing is long.The scripts various cultures developed, reflected their need, creativity and genius following amazingly different courses.

Rock paintingsBeginning of writing could be traced to paintings done by pre-historic man in his cave-dwellings. These depict hunting scenes and life around.

But these paintings cannot be called letters of a script, for they referred to the objects painted and conveyed nothing else, definitely not any idea.

Story of scripts of the worldThere has been different starting points and different end points.Some disappeared with no clues or with very little.Even for some living ones origins are shrouded in mystery.All these make the study of scripts of the worldfascinating and exciting.

Is writing necessary?We consider writing as a sign of civilization.But, is writing an absolute requirement for communication?

Is writing necessary?In fact, there has been intellectual arguments against writing.Plato branded writing detrimental to human intellect, making man’s brain lazy!

Achievement of illiterate culturesMany non-writing cultures have made enormous stridesin communication.

Achievement of illiterate culturesVedic IndiansThe Vedic Indians,passed vast body of literature from generation to generation orallywithout any change.

Achievement of illiterate culturesVedic IndiansTheir procedure was clearly scientific:systematic alphabet,logical vocabulary andscientific grammar.Without resorting to writing they ended up with near perfect language.

Achievement of illiterate culturesSouth AmericaThe Incas and earlier Andean civilizations,instead of writing, used the quipu(a series of ropes with knots indicating amounts)for record keeping, and complex tapestries as calendars.

Achievement of illiterate culturesSouth AmericaThe Inca rulers continuously monitored:inventory of stores, tax collected,output of mines, census, etc.The messages were transmittedusing runners.The messages in quipu-swere clear, compact, and portable.

Quipu of the IncasA quipu is an assemblage of coloured knotted cotton cords.The colors of the cords, how the cords are connectedtogether, the placement of the cords, the spaces between the cords, the types of knots, and the placement of the knots are all part of a logical-numerical recording.A researcher claims that the quipus contain a seven-bit binary codecapable of conveying more than 1,500 separate units of information.

Quipu of the IncasFor example, the knot for 1 would have one loop, while for more numbers there would be equal number of loopsHere is the arithmetic.

Quipu of the IncasBut this system was not a mode of writing or a system of calculating numbers. Modern archeologists are now suggesting that authors used the quiputo compose and preserve their epic poems and legends. Quipus

Felt need for scriptWhat could have been the reason for inventing ‘writing’?The early man had to remember things: the cattle he owned, the days between full moons etc. One cannot remember many things, and for a long time; it would be useful to write down. Experts identify three major reasons,for developing writing.

Record KeepingTo maintain ownership records of land, of agricultural products, noting time for planting crops, for commercial transactions etc.The ancient Sumerians kept record oftheir transactions in writing.

Religious PurposesIt is very likely that the priestly class of certain cultures needed writing for their divination and communication with supernatural world. The development of writing by the ancient Egyptians was for religious purposes.

Enforcing royal authorityWriting became very useful for governing; for royal proclamation, for record keeping of taxes, dues collected etc.Emperor Asoka engraved his messages on variety of objects, like stone and erected pillars etc.

Stages of development of writing.

Rock paintingsA rock-painting from Bimbetka, Madhya PradeshBeginning of writing could be traced to paintings done by pre-historic man in his cave-dwellings. These depict hunting scenes and of life around.

There are such drawings in Tamilnadu also. These paintings are done using natural substances found around:Red ochre (kaavi, in Tamil), charcoal, lime etc, formed the palette, with the cave-wall, animal-hides and tree-bark forming the canvases.Hunting scenes from Vettai-k-karan-malai and Ayyanar-malai

Thus, our ancestors more than 10000 years ago expressed some of their thoughts through such paintings. But these paintings cannot be called letters of a script, for they referred to the objects painted and conveyed nothing else, definitely not any idea.A rock-paintings from Bimbetka, Madhya Pradesh

PictogramThe early man might have drawn a simplified picture of an animal to represent it, like a pair of horn for a cow.Ancient Chinesesymbol for COW and to indicate the quantity as many pictures or simply dots close to the symbol.Ancient Egyptiansymbol for COW Such symbols referring to objects are called pictograms

IdeogramA symbol for a picture can denote that object only.Later these symbols came to refer to certain ideas associated with the object.For example, symbol for the sun came to representheat, light and day.

IdeogramBy association new ‘words’ were coined.The Chinese drew the symbol of the sunbehind that of a tree,and this came to mean EAST.

PhoneticsThe next stage was truly revolutionary.A sign which stood for an object, later for an idea, finally came to refer only to a sound; and phonetic writing was born.For example, in ancient Egypt the word for owl started with the sound m, and a picture of owl stood for the letter m.

Phonetic systemsThere are two main phonetic systems.Alphabetic writing, like English, where there are letters for vowels and consonantsSyllabic writing, like the Indian languages, where there are letters for consonant-vowels, in addition, and each letter is a syllable.

Alphabetic and syllabicLet me cite an example how a word is written in Roman script which is alphabetic, andin Tamil and in Devanagari, both syllabic.PO – DHI – KAI- Roman Script(Each syllable comprises one or more letters of the alphabet)पो–दि – कै - Devanagariபொ− தி− கை - Tamil (Each syllable is letter by itself)

The materials used in writing play an important role in the way writing develops.

Writing materialsChinaInitially, metal stylus were used to engrave on wooden block and wooden pencils on silk cloth. It was possible to have uniform strokes in all directions. Curves posed no special problem.Later brush was used for writing on paper; higher speed in writing was possible, but curves had to be avoided.

Writing materialsAncient EgyptPapyrus, the stem of a plant, was used as paper and writing was done with a reed pen.It was possible to write Hieroglyphic writingwhere the letters resembled pictures.

Writing materialsSumeriaThe abundantlyavailable clay in the river-beds was chosen, andconical impressions on clay tablets were made with a wedge-shaped stylus.

Writing materialsIndiaIn India too, impressions were made on clay during theIndus valley civilization.

Writing materialsIndiaFrom the period of Asoka we have inscriptions on stone using metal chisels.Straight lines were easier. Brahmi script consisted predominantly of short straight strokes.

Till a few centuries ago, we used a metal needle to engrave on palm leaves.In this, rounded letters were preferable, as straight strokes may tear the leaf, particularly, along the length. In the regions, where palm-leaf was the predominant writing medium, the script was rounded, like of all southern languages and of Orissa.

An early Buddhist Manuscriptwritten on bhoja-patra,In North India, it was a pen on tree-bark, called, bhoj-patra, using a reed pen.Devanagari and the north Indian scriptsdidn’t have to avoid straight lines, particularly the top line.

Writing - Places of originWe understand that writing originated in five places:Sumeria - Cuneiform writing (3300 BC)Egypt - Hieroglyphic writing (3100 BC)China (1500 BC)India - Indus Script (2500 BC) and Brahmi Script (300 BC), andMeso-America (500 BC)

ThreeAncient ScriptsLet us to take up first development of writing in three ancient cultures:Sumerian,Egyptian and Chinese.

Three Ancient ScriptsThat all the three began as pictogram is a common feature. Sumeria and Egypt belong to the same geographical location, and their scripts shared many common traits.Both languages and scripts became extinct too.Chinese, on the other hand, developed along their own distinctive path.

Story of scripts –Part 1 Introduction

Story of scripts –Part 1 Introduction

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Story of scripts –Part 1 Introduction