oral traditions

[Paul Kekai Manansala]

thompson at jlc.net (George Thompson) wrote:

> In re-reading Richard Salomon's recent article "On the Origin of the Early
> Indian Scripts: A Review Article" [in JAOS 1995 and on the Indology web
> site], I notice that there is a possible reference to writing in Panini
> ("lipi" in 3.2.21).  Beyond this disputed reference, much of the discussion
> centers on possible references in the Pali canon [e.g. the verb likh- and
> its derivatives] and in general the conclusions of von Hinueber and Falk
> appear to be rather negative about the existence of writing before, say,
> the 3th century BCE.
> 

Of course, they must mean evidence of writing prior to the 3rd century BCE
*outside of the Harappan script.*

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala