Brahmi Script: Development in North-Western India and Central Asia (Set of 2 Volumes)- A Rare Book

The Book Brahmi Script – Development in North-western India and Central Asia in two volumes attempts to give a vivid picture of the Brahmi Alphabet in all its three stages viz., Early Brahmi, Middle Brahmi and Late Brahmi which remained current in North-western region of India and Central Asia and is presented in three parts.

In the first part source material including inscriptions, coins and manuscripts have been critically discussed. The second part represents a smooth flow of the development of the script and numerals. The third part consists of charts and forms of letters which is quite exhaustive. While all the three parts are quite interdependent, they can be studied and referred to independently of each other.

It is hoped this scholarly book will be welcomed by researchers in the Brahmi Script.

Dr.Ram Sharma was born in a small village Kaul of Kaithal District, Haryana on 15 October, 1930. He was awarded Ph.D. by the University of Punjab for his Thesis “Studies on the Aitareya Brahmana.” He secured a gold medal for getting first class first in M.A. (Sanskrit) and got M.O.L. (Master of Oriental Learning) in Sanskrit.

At an early age of fifteen years, he studied Sanskrit in Rajasthan and Punjab. Honorary titles “Vidhya Bhushan”, “Vidhya Vinod”, “Sahitya Ratan” have been conferred on him by different institutions.

He knows five languages viz., Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Punjabi and English and has mainly worked in the field of Epigraphy. He has published a number of papers on Ancient Indian History in various journals of repute. He retired as Deputy Director, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.

It is with pleasure to certify that Dr. Ram Sharma has completed his second thesis entitled: Development of Brahmi Script in North-western India and Central Asia. His first thesis ‘Studies on the Aitareya Brahmana’ was completed by him in 1973 under my guidance whereupon Punjab University honoured him by conferring the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Ram Sharma has been keeping busy with his studies on the present topic for quite some time. I am glad to say that he has completed this also nicely. The present work contains three parts. In the first part source material including inscriptions, coins and manuscripts have been critically discussed. The second part represents a smooth flow of the development of the script and numerals. The third part consists of charts of forms of letters. This part is also quite exhaustive. Thus, while all the three parts are quite interdependent, they can be studied and referred to independently of each other. I hope this will prove to be a very good contribution to the learning. I wish all success to the Author of this highly technical work.