Inscriptions have been discovered from Indus culture areas, belonging to the intervening centuries between the eclipse of this culture and the appearance of Asokan edicts. The author analyses them and shows a distinct continuity of evolution of the characters from Indus to Brahmi script in the lapse of 2000 BC to 500 BC. Phonetics of Brahmi characters have been successfully used by Professor B.B. Chakravorty as bridges to decipher Indus legends. Similarly, Dr. S.K. Rao has used the phonetics of a majority of Semitic characters similar in shape to the Indus pictograms and obtained the picture of a relevant logical pre-Vedic language on decipherment. The author has established that all Brahmi characters excepting three on four can be created by applying the principle of acrophony to the ancient Indo-Aryan language. The remaining letter were either created from Austric words or from other foreign languages, when trade contacts grew intensively around fourth-fifth century BC. Therefore, he concluded the source of both Brahmi and Semitic alphabets are the Indust character themselves.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amalendu Banerjee
Professor Amalendu Banerjee, an engineer by Profession, received higher technical education in West Germany. He was Head of the Electrical Department of the Birla Institute of Technology, Calcutta, for about 13 years. Born in 1930, he had been addited to history and Archaeology from his very childhood and this was his "fist love". He left his teaching assignment long before his retirement only to take of plunge into the realm of archaeological explorations which took him to numerous ancient ruins in almost 400 villages scattered in 10 districts of West Benga covering a period of about two decades. He was often rewarded by antique find which were later arranged in displays showcases to create the "Bhuban Museum and Art Gallery" of which he is the Founder-Secretary. His chance discovery of several rock shelters in the Valley of Subarnarekha River near the border of Orissa reveals Neolithic implements found on surface and Microlithic tools have been dug out near the vicinity of the rock shelters. He has also recently discovered a large number of ruins of ancient copper smelting furnaces in northwest Midnapur district.
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