Week-long workshop on Brahmi script held

Shimla, November 29

As many as 140 participants attended a week-long workshop on Brahmi script held in Shimla. The participants came from 22 universities and 27 colleges from within the country and abroad. “We had top scholars of Brahmi script as resource person and keynote speaker for the workshop. TS Ravishankar, who retired as Director Epigraphy from Archaeological Survey of India, Mysore, was the resource person for the workshop,” said Kishori Lal Chandel, organising secretary of the workshop.

The renowned scholars of the ancient Indian scripts, Richard Salomon, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, US, and Professor Suchandra Ghosh from University of Hyderabad, were the keynote speakers. In their lectures, these scholars dwelt on the importance of Brahmi script in global history and its wide influence.

TS Ravishankar, who has an experience of around four decades in working on the script, said the objective of the workshop was to teach the ancient Indian script to the students of history and archaeology. “There is so much information on our inscriptions in Brahmi. The history and archaeology students must know how to decipher it,” said Ravishankar.

Attending the workshop turned out to be an enriching experience for the participants. “If we know the script, we can decipher the inscriptions ourselves. The knowledge of the script will help us critically evaluate the translations done by other scholars,” said the participants from Himachal Pradesh University.