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The Bhattiprolu script is a variant of the Brahmi script which has been found in old inscriptions at Bhattiprolu, a small village in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, South India. It is located in the fertile Krishna river delta and the estuary region where the river meets the Bay of Bengal. The inscriptions date to before 3rd century - 1st century BCE,〔''A History of Indian Buddhism: From Sakyamuni to Early Mahayana'', p. 241, Akira Hirakawa, Motilal Banarsidass Publ.〕〔Salomon (1998), p. 34f. cites one estimate of "not later than 200 BC", and of "about the end of the 2nd century B.C."〕 putting them among the earliest evidence of Brahmi writing in South India.〔The Bhattiprolu Inscriptions, G. Buhler, 1894, Epigraphica Indica, Vol.2〕〔Buddhist Inscriptions of Andhradesa, Dr. B.S.L Hanumantha Rao, 1998, Ananda Buddha Vihara Trust, Secunderabad〕 Bhattiprolu differs from Ashokan Brahmi in two significant ways. First, the letters ''gh, j, m, l, s'' are "radically different": ''m'' is upside-down compared to Brahmi, while ''gh'' appears to derive from ''g'' rather than from Semitic ''heth''. Secondly, the inherent vowel has been discarded: A consonant written without diacritics represents the consonant alone. This is unique to Bhattiprolu and Tamil Brahmi among the early Indian scripts.〔Richard Salomon (1998) ''Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages''〕 ==Discovery== Excavations that started in the year 1870 by Boswell, Sir Walter Elliot, Robert Sewell, Alexander Rea, Buhler and continued in 1969 by R. Subrahmanyam revealed a complex of Buddhist stupas (an area of 1700 square yards, drum diameter of 148 feet, dome diameter of 132 feet, height of 40 feet and a circumambulatory path of 8 feet). Bricks of 45 x 30 x 8 cm dimensions were used for the construction.〔Bhattiprolu Stupa, Its Vastu and Inscriptions, Dr I. K. Sarma〕 Alexander Rea discovered three inscribed stone relic caskets containing crystal caskets, relics of Buddha and jewels in 1892.〔The Bhattiprolu Stupa, A. Rea, 1892, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities, Vol 4〕〔The Buddhist Architecture in Andhra, Dr D. J. Das, 1993, Books and Books, New Delhi〕 The most significant discovery is the crystal relic casket of ''sārira-dhātu'' of the Buddha from the central mass of the stupas. The Mahachaitya (great stupa) remains of a large pillared hall, a large group of ruined votive stupas with several images of Buddha, a stone receptacle containing copper vessel, which in turn, contained two more, a silver casket and within it, a gold casket enclosing beads of bone and crystal were found.〔Buddhist Relic Caskets in Andhradesa, Dr B. Subrahmanyam, 1999, Ananda Buddha Vihara Trust, Secunderabad〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bhattiprolu alphabet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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