When did the gods become literate? Was: Are the gods literate?

[Carlos Lopez]

You might want to consultH. Falk  Schrift im alten Indien.  Ein
Forschungsbericht mit Anmerkunger(Gunter Narr Verlag: TUbingen1993)...there
is a section on the literary evidence for writing...


Carlos Lopez
Harvard U
Dept. of Sanskrit

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK]On Behalf Of George
> Thompson
> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 7:55 PM
> To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
> Subject: When did the gods become literate? Was: Are the gods
> literate?
>
>
> A related question:
>
> It is generally acknowledged, I think, that there is no
> reference to writing
> in Vedic.
>
> There is interesting discussion in Allchin's *The Archaeology of Early
> Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States*
> [Cambridge Unv.
> Press 1995] of the first attestations of the Brahmi and
> Karosthi scripts.
>
> But I am not aware of discussion of, or even identification
> of,  the first
> unambiguous reference to writing in Indic literature .
>
> Can anyone point to early text-places where writing is
> unambiguously referred
> to? Is there a generally acknowledged first reference to
> writing in India?
>
> George Thompson
>