Evolution of Telugu script

Transcription

1 Appendix Evolution of Telugu script The history of linguistic scripts in India followed a totally different line from that of the languages themselves. Telugu belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. Literate south Indian languages except Konkani are Dravidian. Most people who speak the languages belonging to this family now live in southern India. However, pockets of people belonging to this group also live in several other parts of the world, e.g., Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Central Asia. It is more or less certain that the Indus seals (hieroglyphic or not) found in the remains of Mohenjodaro and Harappa represent the Proto-Dravidian language. Geographically the range of this language extended from the Sindh river all the way up to the borders of Ganga-Yamuna doab spreading over the Saraswati river basin in Pakistan and India. It flourished for well over a 1000 years from around 3000 Be. It had a well-developed script. There are more than four hundred symbols in this script. It is highly likely that these symbols are a mixture of hieroglyphs, ideograms, syllabic graphs and other such patterns. So far, the available examples of the script consist of very short phrases or sentences. comprised of 5 to 26 characters. In a recent discovery (May 1999), researchers unearthed at Harappa, what seems to be the earliest known writing in the world - dating from 3500 Be. There is hardly any direct evidence referring to the state of this language after 1700 Be. However, from indirect evidence and a combination of transformational and lexico-statistical analyses, it is concluded that this language eventually blossomed into Northern, Central, and Southern sub-families. The central Dravidian sub-family evolved into Telugu and several other tribal, ~. languages of central and eastern India. The southern sub family gave rise to Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Kodagu and Tu!u as well as some other non-literate tribal languages. The monumental Linguistic Survey of India (pub. 1906) carried out more than a century ago lists many of these languages. Further research may reveal that some of these languages -are actually dialects of other languages. Conversely, more languages may be re-classified

2 l from existing regional variants. But it is certain that dozens of languages of south India belong to the Dravidian family. This root family has most likely descended from the Saraswati-Sindhu civilization. Thus, the ancient predecessor to Telugu and other Dravidian languages had a script as depicted in the Indus seals. In spite of several imaginative attempts, this script remains undeciphered. Brahmi Script and Telugu For some inexplicable reason, later Indian languages that succeeded the Saraswati-Sindhu Proto-Dravidian language seem to have suspended the use of formal script for a long time -perhaps more than fifteen centuries. The arrival of Aryan tribes into the sub-continent might have triggered this in some fashion. Most current researchers believe that these Aryan tribes had migrated from central Asia via the middle-east and Iran. These tribes too did not employ formal script in India for many centuries after their arrival. It is interesting to note that since they came via the middle-east, these Aryan tribes must have had a very clear understanding of the scripts already in use there for a very long time. The Sumerian and other Mesopotamian cultures had thriving socio-political systems supported by rigorous record keeping. Yet, no evidence for formal writing had been unearthed in India or Pakistan between 1700 BC and fourth century Be. During this time, Indians developed a vast amount of philosophical and ritualistic literature. They also developed a keen sense of phonetics and complicated rules of grammar and pronunciation ~ In fact these rules are considered to be among the most sophisticated ever developed. Contrary to earlier understanding that these developments are entirely Aryan, both the Dravidian and Aryan systems seem to have influenced these developments significantly. It is difficult to imagine the clear establishment of the alphabet and all the allied rules, the development of huge kingdoms and enormous armies numbering several hundred thousand troupes without the help of written record keeping. Researchers are yet to satisfactorily e)(plain this seeming contradiction. It is said that the tradition of writing had been revived sometime after the death of Buddha although early European researchers tended to believe that this revival might have beer. around the eighth century before Christ. The catalyst for this revival seems to be the increased contact with central Asia. Perhaps the big factor in this is the so-called invasion (of parts of Indus valley) by Alexander of Macedonia in 326 Be. He 203

3 brought with him a large army as well as a large entourage of courtiers that included scribes of various hues. The preferred script used by these scribes seems to be Aramaic. Incidentally, Aramaic became the international script of that time and even Jesus of Nazareth made use of Aramaic more than his native Hebrew. These scribes were prized for their skills and they spread out over a vast area of Asia. They introduced the Aramaic script to Indians. This was adopted by the peoples of the northwestern India in the form of Kharoshthi. The Nanda kings (and Mauryan emperors who succeeded them) at Pataliputra adopted a script inspired by it for all their official communications. From this developed the Brahmi script and, eventually, the modern day Devnagari. The Andhra (Satavaahana) dynasty introduced Brahmi to the present day Kannada and Telugu regions. The earliest inscriptions found in the Tamil land belong to more or less the same period. A number of early Satavahana coins and other remains were found in Tamil Nadu. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Satavahanas introduced the script to the Tamil country also. The Satavahanas were, for some time, vassals of the Mauryan Empire. Mauryan Emperor Asoka the great (reign: BC) and the rise of Buddhism played stellar roles in championing this spread of writing. Thus, Telugu and all the other south Indian languages had developed from the Proto-Dravidian language of the Indus valley while their scripts descended from the Brahmi. There are direct or indirect references to 'Iipi,' IiKh,' 'IEKha,' 'likhita,' etc., in the literature belonging to the periods before this perceived spread of Brahmi. Researchers, especially the western scholars tended to explain these references as belonging to the art of painting rather than of writing. In the absence of a convincing proof to the contrary, it may be safe to assume that the prevailing theories are reasonably representative of history. The essence of these theories is that, barring their connection with the Indus culture, existing Indian languages did not have any formal script before the fourth century Be. All the current Indian scripts including the Telugu script have descended from the Brahmi that was inspired, at least partly, by the Aramaic and other western scripts. Descent of Telugu Script from Brahmi The chart Figure 1 outlines the descent of various Indic scripts from the Brahmi. The figure indicates the most probable routes for the evolution of modern 204

4 scripts. Care must be taken in reading these routes. For example, Telugu script has been shown as a descendent of "old Kannada" script. It does not in any way mean that the language (as opposed to the script) has descended from Kannada. Kannada became a literate language slightly ahead of Telugu. For example, both Kannada and Telugu had produced poetry during the eighth century. Kannada writers had also produced full-fledged literary works in the ninth century. But it was two more centuries before major poetic works in Telugu became available. That is the reason for the combined Telugu-Kannada script to have been called as the "old Kannada." This in turn does not mean that Telugu people were nonliterate during the periods when Kannada and Tamil people were producing works of literature. Writers in Telugu land had been continuously engaged in creating literary, religious or philosophical works in Prakrit and Sanskrit from long before Christ. While the Tamil and Kannada writers had switched to writing in their local languages in the first century AD the eighth century AD respectively, Telugu writers waited till the 11th century. The major reasons for this state of affairs include socio-political factors such as royal patronage and the influence of Buddhism and Jainism, among other things. 205

5 \ \ malayaalam I I oidkmvrada I l\\. \ Figure 1: Shows the evolution of Telugu script Evolution of Telugu Character Graphs I modem hmnafja " I ti:-~'_ir ) ~~~fi' Prakrit was the official language of communication used by the Satavahana Kings. There is some evidence that the kings used a mother tongue that is different from the official language. It is highly likely that this tongue was a mixture of the precursor to modern Telugu and derivatlves from other languages such as Prakrit. Although Kannada evolved from the southern sub-family of old Dravidian and hence has a greater affinity with Tamil than Telugu, the scripts of the two languages were tied together for over two thousand years. This was mainly 206

6 possible because Telugu nadu and its neighbor Karri nadu (mostly consisting of the present day states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) were ruled by several. kings for over two thousand years who owed their origins and/or allegiance jointly to both regions. The Satavahanas influenced the northern Karnataka region for a long time before and after Christ. In fact, the earliest references to Satavahanas occur at the border between the modern day Andhra and Karnataka States. Bellari, Anantapur and Kurnool districts seem to be the first home of these kings. This region was the first to be referred to as Andhraapatha. Between the 5th and 9th Centuries, Rashtrakutas who ruled from Maharashtra and parts of northern Karnataka dominated the Telugu land for brief periods of time. In the sixth century, Chalukyas began their ascent over Kannada country and eventually over Telugu lands. From many indications, it appears that the present day Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh was the first home of Chalukyas. As early as 1st Century AD, they were mentioned as being the vassals and chieftains under the Satavahana rule. Their place of residence at that time was the Cuddapah area. They apparently migrated to the northern Karnataka area after suffering loses at the hands of Pallava kings. They eventually established one of the most brilliant and powerful empires of South Indian history. At their peak, they controlled the better part of western and southern India. They reentered the Telugu land via the present day Telangana. This region was their strong hold for over six centuries. Although they tended to favor Kannada in the beginning, it is in Telangana that they re-iearned Telugu. When the dynasty had branched off into Western and Eastern kingdoms, the eastern branch(es) had completely become Telugu speaking. Both branches continued to patronize Telugu and Kannada. The 'trinity' (ratna traya) of early Kannada literature Pampa, Ponna and Ranna all lived in Telu~u lands far from the border (because of their origin or patronage). More than any single ruling clan, it is the Chalukyas who influenced the modern form of Telugu script and its affinity with modern Kannada script. Figure 2 shows the Chalukya scripts belonging to the 7th, 10th and 11th Centuries. The later two are traditionally referred as the Vengi script -after the capitol of Eastern Chalukya kingdom in modern day West Godavari District. Examples of this script were found all over the Telugu Nadu. Figure 3 gives the 207

7 script at the time when the great poet Nannaya was composing Maha Bharatam at the court of Rajaraja Narendra. ""... "'.",='"=..,,.;)'2'" ~.s~ lf~;ro ' '.. L~n-o,;f<6(1"l... wo. C$";g~~S"':'O~- 8. t~x"::.~~il~:::-o,~.s:l.> [ :;,. ] :W~~ ~.,..::s,t;"" V""'Q "rr:; ~...,. ~ ""o:s:"t'> I::l~O:;::sJ:*,e~;\C$. ;:; "'''''C'o ~?!!s>. Fig. 2 Chalukya Shima II inscription of 10 th Century. ~ I. 2. ~J..~. J,;'.,... ~.~,.... c6~.l~ l>'c:>~ ~::'Xv.'7,v:~ ;500\...($:,;:3 'I";S;S;m ~ lll. >I. II:> ~t3'~~) L&Q"":\,),l' o:o~ #~~~t~:to"" ~:~~o:s:"cl:.i8 L::l~"".1.tJ::'o n(,~ tsij~..:s.. k~ ~.)')~~~~~: ~ '.",; *,~::.J..;\> i~ O(;o:s:"o~d:1J.j" ~~~ ~~""" ;!,o'lu ::u.,tr~i,d, B~~"~' 1~:"~di i ""~4lJ"'~~~::.j..'iI~e: rut$:1j;1.= 6'.rif. ~~,~..""n;s., ' ~t!~! :J:ll";s's I ""*,~,..,~ "..()~~.:s;ru;s.. <to'" ~ Fig. 3 Chalukya Rajaraja Narendra inscription (11 th Cent.). The period of 12th to 14th Centuries was a glorious era in Telugu history. It was the time of the Kakatiya Empire that spread from Warangal in Telangana to controi all of the Telugu land directly or indirectly. The Kakatiya emperors presided over a multi fold tlowering of arts and literature. Figure 4 shows the script used by them. The detail comes from the time when the greatest of Telugu writers, Tikkana Somayaaji was composing Maha Bharatam. 208

8 ~,... l35l,;.~8'b~ -~~ :. (1)'50 X l);jfjq~;'.) _'l:'<5o',;m.}-;'. ~. ~. 13 os ~B'f.m)..' Fig. 4 Kakatiya Ganapati Deva inscription (13 th Cent.). After the demise of the Kakatiya Empire, Telugu was ably supported by the Reddi kingdoms in central coastal districts during the 14th and 15 th Centuries. To them belongs the credit of nurturing the great Errana and the incomparable Srinatha. The scripts of that time are shown in Figure 5., 7~0'l~1f S"()~ ~~, {~ ; :i~~ 3~~) ' 1. "o ~::i;o~ fcru-n~~:s~ ~r:f6~1!"-.,.',;.~. 2.' ;:St". "..:;.L.o~;$) ~A:s.;:s... :ld"!:::si't~:s(. t. ~~'.B;:S.s~ ; :~.' '8. o:!> A ~o($o:!> ~~O'tl' ~:! "~:Il~'r ~"' :)i!'j 6::;lll~1\1 I "'-':;rs ~. :;S';)~6f ~.. :i) ~~0r~E ;jo".:"'l~:74ts :Jbd~c1 DQCi..; :;~E'"' I Fig. 5 Inscription frorn the time of poet Errana (14 th Cent.). 209

9 , i~;;i-~~,~ '!l~ '- r~6,.s:~ ~tl~ ~~ ;:':)Xl- ~. -So,140~.1 0),~j J1.t.~~i1~~ '. ~~t? ~,..' 0 ~.,' ",. '1'" 2,.., ;:1> :<;U,,~J.ou ;Si,~.)8 r (C", ~.~ ~;; "":./:t :~:'''':';>.~~;,:) ~ -'~ "."';,Al ;;;, "/;':o~~~~ i~~:s~~1 ;5",,,, 4.,: :iuc~,,:j;ii;f~lfo";~ ~if.~, G. 1 ~Q"'~ ~' ';::l"oti.~.i:~",' ~~p~ :,,~~.. " ~.' " 6. ""I!Z>O'ou>;S tjo':1lj~ 7. if..-on>:5 l!~,:!e~i:l~v"e::; 8, :l~'q 0~:l:T',)."o ~~ :>.;rc 9. " ls>, O~ ;S''',/(;S,).J$.1';)-.(» :5;::' 10. ol:<>ow~ ' ~~~V",~ca>o II. ~.,~~!)~tl ; i6 IS',.O :S~t'>. ',-,,i ~~..;:;~f?~ ~ ~ ~M~O~~~~ ctx~ ~ 1)~,1~ ~,~~~~", ~t~:~ ::~~i'?' ~S :S,lS,, ; 1': I~!~~0~~~~.);So,~jS ~,)"., ~:t-~. 16 ~ " ' 1i.:ru:s.:..~.O :::;1''- tr-:5:! :!6 16, '%l~otl~';".? ~.. :s:>e:-ior.> I ;;l 17. ' :J~ ~,;~. :~;;" t~':'sr:~ :"'<lo& ;>.~ ~ ;:.,.:.,.:,i.....:~.}?*'+.. :.:; <.:~ :~~ ~.~... ',. '18. ' '''~1I ::lo~o ' ~ (f;;sow.,.;i'~~.... -:~r..~:::.:... '".;",,~,. ~.~~~'" Fig. 6 Inscription from the time of poet Srinatha (King Peda Komati Vema Reddi: ) The end of the Kakatiya Empire also sowed the seeds for the rise of the finest Empire in the South Indian history at Vijayanagara. This empire over saw the development of all the four southern languages for several centuries. The script used for Telugu and Kannada during this time is shown in Fig, 7. This is very similar to the modern day written script. ":lg~ S"~.el~ (s.)~g!~t7~!) ~.s~ -~, ~, 1516) t. f(,01!'~~.l!~:il~,..... e-.. _.:Uf~J*,SCf ~ro",.oj)~, 2, /(0<' ",a..,..c$j!).".::- vo:1. 'i\~~is""oes;o",,{o~ oso;s;:!v-"'s 3; ; ~ =l....?"'ti' t! ::'d'(?~:),,~~~:).u~'i1"~q), =-"oso ~., ;:S/I'V';:S '!ld~~""~~!!. :lr:5e' el\..,.~ o:!.rol!~!l;i!.:l' Ii, AtSM ro~~ ("'od:lo V'.. :s,~.ol"";sll'o.wlso:s 6, 0:1)"1T'..." ;d--qo~!lo;:'''c~ :l<!~!l :ls~ I!.. ~(.>S-;:o:;, Fig. 7 Inscription from the time of Emperor Krishnadeva Raya (1516 AD). 210

10 The only major change after this time is the regularization of the letters with the advent of modern printing. ~e~~(5:j-s o'cn.o;:5 '~?le~~if~tlo i)~ o~;s' I~{;)'\ -Q og.'1 w~o:).)l<:j"~~is$~~'q.) ~c;j II' 01 '..t.l~:lll 2 2 S_~. Fig. 8 Printed Telugu from the 1817 grammar by William Brown 2! 1

11 1. Name: Chellapilla Vasantha Lakshmi 2. Date Of Birth: BIODATA 3. Address For Correspondence: C. Vasantha Lakshmi, Lecturer, Department of Physics and Computer Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra. 4. Academic c:; ualifications: Exam Year Of Subjects Name Of The Board Percentage Passing I University S.S.C 1986 Maths, Sc., Eng., Board Of Secondary 83.1% Soc.Sc. etc Education A. P. Intermediate 1988 Maths, Phy, Chem, Board Of Intermediate 83.1% Eng, etc Education A.P B.Tech Electronics & Jawaharlal Nehru 81% Communication Technological Engg. University, Kakinada M.Tech Computer Science University Of 68.8% Hyderabad, Hyderabad Area of M.Tech Thesis: Neural Networks. A paper based on the above work was presented in the NSC-94, organized by Systems Society of India at Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra and got Best Presentation award. List of Publications 1. Atul Negi, N. Vasantha Lakshmi, and K.5.K. Venkatesh, "A preprocessing technique to reduce Backpropagation training", Proc. of the NSC-94, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra, January, C. Patvardhan, T.S. Babu, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, "Group Technology Cell formation using Genetic Algorithms", Proceedings of the International Conference on CAD, CAM, Robotics and Factories of the Future, New Delhi, Dec., C. Vasantha Lakshmi and C. Patvardhan, "ART~ 2 Neural Networks based algorithm for rapid determination of part families", Proceedings of the International Conference on CAD, CAM, Robotics and Factories of the Future, New Delhi, Dec., C. Vasantha Lakshmi, E. Laxmi Narayana, and C. Patvardhan, "Sequencing of Flexible Flowshops using Stochastic Search approaches", Proc. of International Conference on Cognitive Systems, New Delhi, Dec., E. Laxmi Narayana, C. Patvardhan and C. Vasantha Lakshmi, "A Guided Evolutionary Simulated Annealing approach to the Flexible Flowshop Sequencing problem", Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Vol. II, University of Roorkee, Roorkee, Feb., C. Patvardhan, T.S. Babu, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, and K. Hans Raj "Group Technology cell formation using ART-2 Neural Networks", Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Vol. II, University of Roorkee, Roo ~ kee, Feb., C. Patvardhan, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, T. S. Babu, K. Hans Raj, "Group Technology Cell formation with Similarity Coeffcients and ART-2 Neural Networks paradigm", Production Engineering Division of the Journal of the Institution of Engineers (India), May, 1997.

12 8. C. Vasantha Laksmi and C. Patvardhan, "Group Technology Cell formation using Stochastic search techniques", Indian Journal' of Engineering and Materials Sciences (CSIR), June, C. Patvardhan, C. Vasantha Lakshmi and K. Hans Raj, "Soft Computing strategies in Intelligent Manufacturing", Proceedings of the International Conference on Cognitive Science, ICCS - 97, New Delhi, December, C. Patvardhan, Deepak Gupta, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, and Ranjit Singh, "A Morph - based Simulated Annealing approach to the Minimum cost Group Technology Cell formation", Proceedings of the International Conference on Cognitive Science, ICCS - 97, New Delhi, December, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, C. Patvardhan and K, Hans Raj, "Group Technology Cell formation using Vector Analysis and Neural Networks", Proceedings of the National Systems Conference - 97, Hyderabad, January, 1998, pp C. Vasantha Lakshmi, C. Patvardhan, Ranjit Singh, and V. G. Das, "An ART-2 based approach for Telugu Character Recognition", Proceedings of International Conference ADCOMP - 98, Pune, India, December, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, Anurag Agarwal, P. Gupta, C. Patvardhan, "A neural networks based Optical Character Recognition system for Devnagari Script", Proceedings of International Conference on Cognitive Systems, ICCS 99, New Delhi, December, C. Patvardhan, C. Vasantha Lakshmi and Ranjit Singh, "A morph-based Simulated Annealing approach for minimum cost Group Technology Cell formation", JI. Of Institution of Engineers (India), Vol 81, September, 2000, pp C. Patvardhan, M. M. Agarwal, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, "A Morph-Based Simulated Annealing Approach For Early I Tardy Flowshop Sequencing", Journal of Institution of Engineers, India. 16. C. Vasantha Lakshmi, C. Patvardhan and Ranjit Singh, "A novel basic symbol approach for Telugu OCR with neural networks", Accepted for publication in the Journal of the Computer Society of India. 17. C. Vasantha Lakshmi and C. Patvardhan, "Optical Character Recognition of Basic Symbols in printed Telugu text", accepted for publication in the JI. Of Institution of Engineers, India. 18. C. Vasantha Lakshmi, C. Patvardhan and Ranjit Singh, "Printed Telugu Character recognition using ART-2 Neural Networks", communicated to the JI. Of Institution of Engineers, India. 19. C. Vasantha Lakshmi and C. Patvardhan," A Multi-Font OCR System For Printed Telugu Text", communicated to Paritantra, a Journal of System Society of India. 20. C. Vasantha Lakshmi, C. Patvardhan, Ranjit Singh, "A novel basic symbol approach for Telugu OCR with Neural networks", National Seminar on Soft Computing and its Engineering Applications, Jodhpur, February, C. Vasantha Lakshmi and C. Patvardhan, "Skew Detection in images of printed telugu text documents", Proceedings of the National Seminar of Emerging Convergent Technologies and Systems, DEI Faculty of Engineering, Agra, March, C. Vasantha Lakshmi, C. Patvardhan and Ranjit Singh, "A neural networks approach for OCR of printed Telugu text", Proceedings of the National Seminar of Emerging Convergent Technologies and Systems, DEI Faculty of Engineering, Agra, March, C. Vasantha Laksmi and C. Pavardhan, "Recognition of basic symbols in Telugu by Neural networks", STRANS-2002, March, 15th - 17th, 2002, lit Kanpur, Kanpur. 24. C. Vasantha Laksmi and C. Pavardhan, "A multi-font OCR system for Telugu text", Post-proceedings of Language Engineering Conference (IEEE Computer Society press), University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Dec., C. Vasantha Lakshmi and C. Patvardhan "TOPS: A Telugu Document Preprocessing System", communicated to the Journal of the Computer Society of India.

13 26. C. Vasantha Lakshmi and C. Patvardhan, "An OCR system for Telugu text: A basic symbol approach", communicated to Pattern Recognition (Elsevier Science Publishers). 27. C. Vasantha Lakshmi and C. Patvardhan, "High accuracy recognition of printed Telugu text", communicated to IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. Awarded Production Engineering Division Medal of the Institution of Engineers (India) for the paper "Group Technology Cell formation with Similarity Coefficients and ART-2 Neural Networks paradigm", in the 13th Indian Engineering Congress, 1999, Chandigarh.