Sanskrit
the Key to
Indian Religious History
I. The Brahmi alphabet of northwestern India of the 3rd century
B.C., generally called the Mauryan
alphabet, is represented in:
(1) The Kalsi Rock Edicts
(2) The Delhi-Topra pillar-edicts
(3) The Pathyar (District Kangra,
Himachal Pradesh) rock inscription
3c BC
2c BC
I. The Brahmi alphabet of north-western
India of the 3rd century B.C.
II. The Brahmi alphabet of northwestern India of the 2nd century B.C.
to the beginning of the Christian era,
usually called the post-Mauryan
alphabet, is represented among
others by the following records:
1. The coins of the Indo-Grecian
Kings Agathocles the Pantaleon
2. The inscriptions of the ksatrapa
Sodasa
3. The Kanhiar (Dist. Kangra, H.P.)
rock inscription
4. The Bathtsal (Jammu) cave
inscription
I. The Brahmi alphabet of north-western India of the 3rd
century B.C.
II. The Brahmi alphabet of north-western
India of the 2nd century B.C. to the
beginning of the Christian era, usually
called the post-Mauryan alphabet, ..
III. The inscriptions of the
Kusana kings-Kaniska, Huviska
and Vasudeva, discovered form
Mathura and its vicinity,
illustrate the next step in the
develcpment of the Brahmi of
north-western India.
Mid 2 c BC – 3 c AD
I. The Brahmi alphabet of north-western India
of the 3rd century B.C.
II. The Brahmi alphabet of north-western
India of the 2nd century B.C. to the
beginning of the Christian era, usually
called the post-Mauryan alphabet, ..
III. The inscriptions of the Kusana kings
4c – 5c AD
IV. Further development of our alphabet is
illustrated by the following records of the 4th
and 5th centuries A.D. which represent the
western variety of the northern Indian alphabet
of the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., generally
called the Gupta alphabet:
1. The Abbotabad inscription of the time of
Kadambesvara dasa (Gupta) year 25 = A.D.
344
2. The Mathura inscription of Chandragupta II,
G.E. 61 = A.D. 380
3. The Mathura stone inscription of
Chandragupta II
4. The Shorkot inscription of the year 83
5. The Tussam (Dist. Hissar) rock inscription
6. The Lahore copper seal inscription of the
Maharaj Mahesvaranaga
7. The Bower manuscript
I. The Brahmi alphabet of north-western India of the 3rd
century B.C.
II. The Brahmi alphabet of north-western
IV. 4th and 5th centuries
India of the 2nd century B.C. to the
beginning of the Christian era, usually
A.D.== western variety of the
called the post-Mauryan alphabet, ..
northern Indian alphabet of the
6c – 7c AD
III. The inscriptions of the Kusana kings
4th and 5th centuries A.D., called
the Gupta alphabet:
V. In the following records of the 6th and the 7th
centuries A.D., discovered in northwestern India, we
find further development of the forms of the Western
Gupta alphabet leading to those of the Sharada in
the 9th century.
1. Kura inscription of Toramana
2. The Nirmand plate of Mahasamanta Maharaja
Samudrasena
3. The Sonepat Seal of Harsavardhana
4. The Hatun rock inscription of Patoladeva
5. The Gilgit manuscripts
The basic Brahmi script
5th century BCE to 4th century CE
Development of Indian Languages from Brahmi Script
The first epigraphic evidence of Sanskrit is
seen in 150 AD and this inscription is in the
Brahmi script. (Encyclopedia Britannica,
1982).
From the fifth century A.D. classical Sanskrit is
seen to be the dominant language in the
inscriptions.
Earlier documents used Pali and Prakrit
Asoka who took every care to make his messages intelligible to
the common man and used all existing scripts and languages.
These 3rd Centaury inscriptions do not include Sanskrit.
It included Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic.
But no Sanskrit is found
because it was not in existence at that time
Sanskrit was developed out of Prakrit and other existing
languages during the interval of 100 AD to 150 AD
Classical Sanskrit is found as an inscription dating around
A.D.150 in the Brahmi script
.It records the repair of a dam originally built by Chandragupta
Maurya, and also contains a panegyric in verse, which can be
regarded as the first literary composition in classical Sanskrit. It is
at Girnar in Kathiawar and was inscribed by Rudradamana, the
Saka Satrap of Ujjayini, on the same rock on which the Fourteen
Rock Edicts of Asoka were also found.
750 BCE: vedic (Sanskrit?)
500 BCE: Prakrit texts of Buddhists and Jains
400 BCE: Panini composes his Sanskrit grammar
transition from Vedic to Paninian Sanskrit
322 BCE: Brahmi script inscriptions by Mauryas in
Prakrit (Pali)
250 BCE: Classical Sanskrit emerges.
100 BCE-100 AD: Sanskrit gradually replaces
Prakrit in inscriptions
320 AD The Gupta or Siddha-matrika script
emerges.
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/hindiint.html
Thus apart from portions of the Veda which were not written
in Sanskrit, all other Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmanas and
Puranas etc were written down later than 100 AD at liberal
estimate. They must have been written down much later in
actual fact. A more realistic estimate will be around 6th
Centaury AD.
FOUR VEDAS
UPANISHADS,
BRAHMANAS,
PURANAS
BC
AD
Thus for instance the vast amalgamation of Puranic
tradition known as the Skandapurana,
as far as we can speak of it as a single work at all,
cannot be older than the 16th century,
as has been shown in the Groningen Skandapurana
project (see Adriaensen et al 1994).
It should be noted here that the names of the gods and the
Rishis with which each Sukta begins were selected long after
the collection of the VEDAS. These were determined in the
Index known as the Anukramanee. Katyayana composed the
Anukramanee, which has been followed in the Rik-Sanhita in
adopting the names of the gods and the rishis. Katyayana
came after Yáska and it is therefore evident that the names
were invented many centuries afterwards without having any
historic truth in them. There is nothing in the Suktas
themselves, which can throw any light in elucidating these
words.
Rajeswar Gupta http://phoenicia.org/rigveda.html
If the horoscope given to us is correct Krishna was
born in the month of Sravana on the 23rd day on the
night of full moon in Lagnam Edavam at midnight
and if Guru (Mars), Kujan (Mercury), Ravi (Sun) and
Sukran (Venus) were at their own home, Budan,
Chandran (moon) and Sani (Saturn) were in their
highest time, then Krishna was born in AD 600.
Dates for Panini
are pure guesses
5c BC
“ Mahabaharatha as given to us could not have been
written before A.D fourth Centaury. Panini, who is the
famous grammarian, has mentioned several important
personalities of the epics of that period. While the reprints
published later have made several errors, variations and
exaggerations, the main characters and the imports of the
stories remain in tact. There is no doubt that Geetha came
into existence only during the period of Gupta Empire.”
K.M.Panicker ( A Survey of Indian History p.67)
400 AD
Manu 1500 BC?
It is certain that Manu did not know anything about the
Trinity or their functions as Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer.
Yet by A.D 6th Centaury this concept was popular as is clear
from the works of Kalidasa
Ramesh Chandra Dutt,
History of Civilizations in India Vol II P.191
Kalidasa
3c AD
As the story is woven, the imagination of the storyteller takes
control and describes these in vivid details and normal human
life situations. Thus even the Gods are presented with human
qualities and falls into acts of immorality, jealousy and fight. We
thus have imaginative weapons and methods of warfare.
Because art forms of this type were basically presented
through the temple, these took on the form of “scripture”.