Ancient History of the Deccan c3.s1.5

c3.s1.5

The Siddâpura edicts (near Brahmagiri, in Molakâlmuru taluk; see Ep. Carn. Vol. XI, MK, 21, 14, 34, and Mysore and Coorg from inscriptions by Mr. Rice, page 11; see also Fleet, J. R. A. S., for 1903, page 829 and J. R. A. S., for 1904, pages 1 and 355) present certain peculiarities which have been pointed out by Bühler and especially "the particular uncouth form of "ma" with its abnormally large upper limbs" (which re-occurs in the inscriptions on the crystal prism from the Bhaṭṭiprôlu stûpa, Ep. Ind. Vol. III. page 135). These details are very important. One is indeed led to believe that the edicts were engraved by the emissaries of Aśôka who came from the north, but that the people of those distant countries, where the edicts were published, understood very little of those inscriptions that were written in a language and an alphabet almost unknown to them. We may also suppose that at the time of Aśôka the people of Mysore were almost savages. On the contrary, the Siddâpura inscriptions prove that South India had a special alphabet which Bühler has called "Drâviḍi" and that the art of writing was known many centuries before Aśôka, for, in the III century B.C. the alphabet of the South has had time to vary from that of the North. Besides, the special alphabet used in the Siddâpura inscriptions proves that the edicts of Aśôka were engraved by some Southerners who must therefore have understood the language of Aśôka and attained as high a degree of civilisation as the northerners.