The book titled Guide to Palaeography and Epigraphy of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh which has hit the book stalls, is a study of ancient scripts, languages and inscriptions, wherein have been illustrated and documented the ancient forgotten human records engraved or embossed on huge rocks. Authored by senior archaeologist Iqbal Ahmad, the book also provides its readers the interesting story of ancient scripts and languages of this land and its people.
The book in its chapters has described the various ancient scripts in a chronological order. These included the scripts and epigraphs in Kharoshti, Ashokan Brahmi, Gupta Brahmi, Sharada, Persian, Arabic, Gurmukhi and Takri alphabets. The inscriptions illustrated and documented are found in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. In the chapter dealing with linguistics, various written and spoken dialects which includes little known dialects as well have also been described nicely.
Since we all know that the story of scripts and languages is as old as the development of human civilisation, the story of the writings on rocks and metallic objects goes thousands of years back and with the inception of archaeological researches, thousands of epigraphs inscribed in a variety of classical scripts and languages have so far been discovered and identified.
At the official level there is an epigraphic centre working under the aegis of archaeological survey of India, entrusted with job of identification and documentation of ancient scripts and epigraphs of India. The centre has identified and documented hundreds of ancient epigraphs, which includes the rock edicts of Maharaja Ashoka. There are more than 100000 inscriptions believed to had been listed and documented by archaeological survey of India
Hundreds of inscriptions written in Kharoshti, Brahmi, Sharda, Persain, Arabic, Gurmukh, Tibetan and Takri Alphabets have also been found in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, but there is no such official documentation available of the Jammu and Kashmir epigraphs. Indeed scores of Sharda and Persian epigraphs have also been identified and deciphered, but those have been done by individual experts.
In Jammu and Kashmir the identification and documentation of this heritage has not been taken up so seriously at any institutional level. It has been observed that at several sites, which include the rock inscription from Ladakh and tomb stone inscriptions in ancient royal graveyards of old Srinagar, Anantnag, Bijbehera, Baramullah and other historical towns of Jammu and Kashmir, this heritage has been facing the challenges of unchecked weathering and human vandalism; as such number of epigraphs on its open tomb stones and rocks have defaced and there writings have become quite illegible. Number of inscriptions have defaced, which not only has affected the aesthetics of the stone but also leads to long term damage to several bilingual and trilingual inscriptions.
At institutional level there has been very little effort to preserve the epigraphic heritage by documenting it. Iqbal Ahmad with his technical knowhow in this field has documented scores of Persian and Arabic inscriptions in his earlier book on inscriptions of Kashmir. And now he has made an illustrative documentation of Kharoshti, Brahmi, Sharda, Persian Arabic, Gurmukhi and other little known alphabets found in Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh. This is a fresh work on palaeography and epigraphy. The author has documented several significant epigraphs of Kushan era which dates to first century AD, besides the trilingual inscriptions of Mazaari Shiekh Bahauddin Sahib.
The epigraphic research of this land had been originally taken up during the colonel period. In early 20th century, archaeology, numismatic and epigraphic fields, were an interesting subject of study for the European scholars. George Buhlar in his monumental book, Indian palaeography has devoted one section to the ancient Alphabet of Kashmir called Sharda. Leeche’s grammar of Kashur language published in the Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal in the year 1894 has also provided certain information about ancient languages and scripts of Kashmir. Sir George Grison’s paper in the journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1916 also contains the tables of ligatures of the Sharda script and he declares this Alphabet as the indigenous character of Kashmir. Alexander Cunningham, Arual Stein, Richard Temple, Richard Solomon and Sten Konow have also made certain discoveries and studies in the ancient scripts and inscriptions of this land. But the most voluble contribution in studying the ancient scripts of Jammu and Kashmir is from Dr J. Ph Vogal. He has made detailed studies of the Sharda alphabet. In his monumental book, The antiquities of Chamba state, he has documented the inscriptions found in Chamba.
Among the local scholars who have made outstanding research in Kashmir scripts mention shall be made of Dr, B. K. Koul Dambi. He has been the first scholar from Kashmir to have studied ancient scripts of Kashmir particularly the Sharda alphabet. In his monumental book Corpse of Sharda Inscriptions of Kashmir, he has thoroughly explored the Sharda Alphabet of Kashmir with its origin and development. He has identified scores of Sharda inscriptions and decoded them. In his book, he provides illustrative documentation of Sharda inscriptions found in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions of this erstwhile state. But his palaeographical and epigraphic researches have remained confined up to Sharda alphabet which no doubt has been the ancient and most popular Alphabet of indigenous nature. There have been some individual efforts by few local scholars to study the ancient Persian and Arabic inscriptions. In this context mention may be made of Ram Chand Kak, Mohammad Yousuf Taing, Ghlam Rasool Bhat of Solina Srinagar, Prof T. N Ganju of Barbarshah Srinagar and Prof S L Shali.
But now it is Iqbal Ahmad who has been involved in archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic research of this land and has been documenting this heritage. He has earlier documented the archaeology and numismatic heritage of this land and this time he has consolidated the forgotten human records of epigraphic heritage. The book is very much available in the leading bookstalls and on Amazon with its digital issue. This is very informative and valuable study of palaeographical, epigraphic and linguistic heritage of this land which has been taken on professional lines. The people interested to explore the ancient human records would find this book beneficial.