Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s1.2

c6.s1.2

THE tradition of both the orthodox and the heterodox sects of India ascribes the invention of writing, or at least of the chief script, to the creator Brahmā, and thereby claims it as a national invention of the remotest antiquity. The former view is found in the Nārada-Smṛti,² a redaction of the Manusaṃhitā (mentioned by Bāṇa abont A. D. 620), and in Bṛhaspati's Vārttika on Manu,³ as well as in Hiuen Tsiang⁴ and in the Jaina Samavāyāṅga-Sūtra (traditional date about B. C. 300), the account of which latter work is repeated in the Paṇṇāvaṇā-Sūtra (traditional date B. C. 168).⁵ The story is also indicated in the representations of Brahmā at Bādāmi of about A. D. 580, where the deity holds in one of his hands a bundle of palm-leaves,⁶ for which in later representations an inscribed sheet of paper is substituted.⁷