brahmi? (was Re: Origin of Dravidian languages)

[Anshuman Pandey]

On Mon, 9 Feb 1998, Jacob Baltuch wrote:

[message about B. inscription at Ninnaur snipped]

> And something completely different:
>
> I was surprised (given the metaphore) to read in some translation
> of azoka's edicts he styled himself deevaanaaMpriya. What's the earliest
> attested metaphorical use?

According to what I read some time ago, the epithet "devanaampiya" was
used by Ashoka's predecessors (namely, grandpa Chandragupta) and that
Ashoka merely retained the name in his inscriptions. I think scholars
initially thought that "devanaampiya" was a personal name, but after
discovering inscriptions pre-dating Ashoka they believed it to only be an
epithet. I'll dig up the text in which I read this and confirm/deny my
statements. Dr. Richard Salomon would surely know.

Regards,
Anshuman Pandey