How Are Inscriptions Deciphered? So far, we have been studying excerpts from inscriptions amongst other things. But how do historians find out what is written on them? .
Deciphering Brahmi Most scripts used to write modern Indian languages are derived from Brahmi, the script used in most Asokan inscriptions. From the late eighteenth century, European scholars aided by Indian pandits worked backwards from contemporary Bengali and Devanagari (the script used to write Hindi) manuscripts, comparing their letters with older specimens. Scholars who studied early inscriptions sometimes assumed these were in Sanskrit, although the earliest inscriptions were, in fact, in Prakrit. It was only after decades of painstaking investigations by several epigraphists that James Prinsep was able to decipher Asokan Brahmi in .
. How Kharosthi was read The story of the decipherment of Kharosthi, the script used in inscriptions in the northwest, is different. Here, finds of coins of Indo-Greek kings who ruled over the area ( c . second-first centuries BCE ) have Fig.
. An Asokan inscription Fig. . Asokan Brahmi with Devanagari equivalents Do some Devanagari letters appear similar to Brahmi?
Are there any that seem different?