Since we have been talking about ancient scripts, today we will talk about one another forgotten script of this land. It is called Sharda. This has been the most popular script of medieval Kashmir.
Thousands of ancient Sanskrit manuscripts and records are written in this Alphabet. Besides number of epigraphs have been found across Jammu and Kashmir in Sharda inscriptions.
This script is believed to have evolved from the Gupta Brahmi in about 7th century AD. It is also written from left to right. It is an excellent ancient alphabet which has remained more popular in Kashmir during early medieval times.
It served the basic alphabet for writing of Sanskrit from Karkota era upto Sultanate period for about seven hundred years. Later on during Sultanate period when Sanskrit was taken over by Persian and Arabic language, Sharda was also replaced by Persian alphabet. However, it was not totally finished.
The Sharda script and Sanskrit survived till nineteenth century, but it lost its official patronage. Kashmiri pundit scholars cultivated it in their individuals literary workshops and produced brilliant manuscripts and epigraphs in Sharda characters.
Sharda letters on a stone slab, Sun temple Martand
Hundreds of Sharda epigraphs have been discovered over years from various parts of Jammu and Kashmir, mostly prominently in Kashmir valley and Kishtwar area.
Unlike Kharoshti and Brahmi, Sharda served as the indigenous script of Kashmir. Almost all the ancient Sanskrit literature of Kashmir is written in this script. The earliest Sharda epigraphs are known of Lahoura era while later ones are known of 18th century.
The entire copper coinages of Lahoura, Utpala, Yassikara and later rajas of Kashmir are inscribed in Sharda characters. The coins of Didda Rani, Harsha, Kalsa, Ananta, Sangramdeva and other rulers of 10th, 11th,12th,13th and early 14th century carried legends in Sharda characters.
Dr. B.L. Dembi, a Kashmiri pundit scholar in his monumental book, tilted Corpus of Sharda inscriptions of Kashmir has documented almost all the Sharda inscription found in Kashmir up to early twentieth century.
While tracing the origin of this script Dr. B.L. Dembi writes “In the second half of the 8th century we find in the Brahmi alphabet of North Western India a distinct development of a new alphabet which though agreeing in many respects with that used in the epigraphic and literary records of the 6th and 7th centuries, including the famous Gilgit manuscript, shows several essential differences in the forms of several characters. This alphabet is known the SHARDA alphabet.
Though an alphabet of Kashmir, par excellences, the Sharda has remained for several centuries a popular script of an extensive area of North West India including Ladakh, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Delhi’.
This much is certain that it must have originated in Kashmir which from the earliest times has been the principal seat of SHARDA, or the Goddess of learning.’
Sharda inscription found way back at kothair, south Kashmir archaeological site
Alberuni records the prevalence of Sharda in the Northern and North-Western India, and records that it was also known by the names of Sidham or Sidha-matrika.
Sharda legend on Bull/ horse type coins of Hindu Shahis of Kabul
The earliest phase is represented by the inscriptions and the coins of the 8th to 10th centuries; the second by those of the 11th to 14th centuries; and the third and final by the epigraphic and literary record of the 14th and the subsequent centuries.
Sharda legends on ancient coins of Kashmir, reading Sri Harsha
Jammu and Kashmir museums houses scores of Sharda inscriptions which have been found time to time in Kashmir. Besides, number of manuscripts written in Sharda are also preserved in the manuscript collections of museums and research libraries. In the National Museum Delhi is preserved the earliest manuscript in Sharda, which belongs to 9th century A.D.
Dealing with astrology and written in Sharda script of Kashmir on the birch-bark in Sanskrit, it is a rare specimen of the art of writing. The Museum also has the Manuscript of Mammata’s Kavya-prakash (12th Century) written in Sharda along with illustrations. Mammat’s ‘Kavya Prakash’ still remains the most authentic and authoritative work on poetics in the whole gamut of Sanskrit literature.
The SPS museum at Srinagar also houses number of manuscripts and epigraphs in sharda alphabets, while in its numismatic collections hundreds coins of Hindu rajas inscribed in sharda letters are also preserved.
Several Sharda inscriptions are also scattered in different sites of the valley, one of sharda inscription is found on rock in Khonmoh area of Srinagar district.
Early Sultanate period trilingual inscription at Mazari Sulateen Bahu Ud din Ganjbakash, old Srinagar city.
One of the historic and more significant trilingual inscription, in Sharda, Persian and Arabic characters of early Sultanate period are found at the tombstone of one Sayyied Khan. It is in Mazari Sulateen of Hazrat Bahu Ud Din Ganjbakash (RA) dated to AH 789 (1387) mentioning his martyr on the slopes of Kohi Suliman in the year AH 789.
This inscription is very much significant in the epigraphic history of Kashmir as it symbolises the composite epigraphic heritage of this land; such composite epigraphs are rarely found anywhere in Jammu and Kashmir.
Another sultanate period Sharda inscription has been recorded by Prof SL Shali in his book, Kashmir history and archaeology through the ages. It is a stone sculpture inscription found in a temple at Ganpathyar old Srinagar.
The Sharda inscription reads, Sri Sikindra sa ha Reoya Sangapaty Rahulya Kastvehkene. In explaining this inscription the expert write that this stone sculpture has been laid here in the reign of Sultan Sikander on the date given in the inscription.
It is in place to mention here that hundreds of manuscripts and number of epigraphs of Sharda are housed in several museums of this state.
These manuscripts and epigraphs need to be documented and preserved, we are not advocating to revive this outdated script but what we need is to preserve the epigraphy and manuscript treasure for the future generations.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK