Thirke

Thirke is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ancient Brāhmī script.[4][5] It was developed and in use during the 14th century CE in Kodagu, in present-day Karnataka.[6][4]

Thirke
Letters found in a 14th Kodagu temple inscription
Script type
Time period
14th century
Region India
LanguageKodava
Related scripts
Parent systems
Sister systems
Malayalam script
Tigalari script
Brahmic scripts
The Brahmi script and its descendants
Northern Brahmic
Southern Brahmic

Etymology

Mookonda Kushalappa called this script "thirke" ("temple" in Kodava).[4][5] Kodava is the language native to Kodagu.[4]

History
Bhagamandala Inscription in Kodava Language

Two inscriptions dating to 1370-1371 AD with the thirke script were found in the Bhagandeshwara temple in Bhagamandala and the Palurappa Mahalingeshwara temple in Palur.[4][5][6][7]

Letter combinations found in a 14th Kodagu temple inscription
words found in the 14th century Kodagu inscription (c.1370-1371)

Decipherment

The inscriptions have been attributed to a King Bodharupa. The Coorg Inscriptions volume of the Epigraphia Carnatica mentioned these two 14th century inscriptions. Authored by B. L. Rice in 1914, the two inscriptions were deciphered for him by Narasimhachar and Krishna Shastri. They did not believe the inscriptions to be a unique language.[6][4][5] Narasimhachar said that the "characters are a jumble of Grantha, Malayalam, Tamil and a few Vatteluttu. There is no doubt about portions being in Tamil, but other portions are in a language that is neither Malayalam nor Tulu but is related to them. I think the inscriptions are older than 1400 AD. Some of the characters appear to go back to the 11th century."[6][4][5]

Linguistic Survey of India (1906) map of the distribution of Dravidian languages

Discovery

Mookonda Kushalappa separated the characters used in the two inscriptions and put together the alphabet used.[4][5]

References
  1. Himelfarb, Elizabeth J. (2000). "First Alphabet Found in Egypt". Archaeology. Vol. 53, no. 1. p. 21.
  2. Salomon 1996, p. 378.
  3. Salomon, Richard, On The Origin Of The Early Indian Scripts: A Review Article. Journal of the American Oriental Society 115.2 (1995), 271–279, archived from the original on 22 May 2019, retrieved 27 March 2021
  4. Kushalappa, Mookonda (4 February 2022). "The discovery of an old alphabet". Deccan Herald. The Printers (Mysore) Pvt Ltd. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  5. Kushalappa, Mookonda (24 January 2022). "Discovering alphabets of old Kodava script". Star of Mysore. Star of Mysore. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  6. Rice, B L (1914). Coorg inscriptions: Epigraphia Carnatica (Revised Edition), Volume 1. Madras (now Chennai): Government Press. p. 4.
  7. Rice, B L (1914). Coorg inscriptions: Epigraphia Carnatica (Revised Edition), Volume 1. Madras (now Chennai): Government Press. pp. 28, 54, 55.

Notes
  1. A Semitic origin for the Brāhmī script is not universally accepted.

Sources
  • Salomon, Richard (1996). "Brahmi and Kharoshthi". In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0.


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