[Buddha-l] Brahmi Script

[JKirkpatrick]

On Behalf Of Christopher Fynn
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 12:21 PM


On 15/10/2010, Bernard Simon <bernie.simon at gmail.com> wrote:
> The new version of the Unicode standard includes the Brahmi
script.

> http://advogato.org/person/roozbeh/diary/163.html

> Of course, someone will have to also make the computer font.

According to theLalitavistara this is the script the Buddha is
said to have mastered in his youth.  The early form of the script
was definitely in use by the third century BCE - maybe earlier.

- C
_______________________________________________

Hi Chris,

If he did learn this script, how would he have used it? Do you
imply that it was used at court? such as for documents, land
grants, scriptural texts? What texts might have been written in
Brahmi that he would have been asked to learn, and by whom--the
court pandits or purohits? Might this have been the way he was
exposed to Vedic etc. ideas?
Stephen Batchelor thinks there is some evidence that supplies the
guess that he might even have travelled to and studied at
Gandhara.

Any comments?

Cheers, Joanna