Lipi (script)

Lipi (लिपि) means 'writing, letters, alphabet', and contextually refers to scripts, the art or manner of writing, or in modified form such as lipī (लिपी) to painting, decorating or anointing a surface to express something. The term lipi appears in multiple texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, some of which have been dated to the 1st millennium BCE. Section 3.2.21 of Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī, composed before the mid 4th century BCE, for example, mentions lipi in the context of writing. However, Panini does not describe or name the Sanskrit script. The Arthashastra, in section 1.2–5, asserts that lipi was a part of the education system in ancient India. According to Buddhist texts such as Lalitavistara Sūtra, young Siddhartha – the future Buddha – mastered philology and scripts at a school from Brahmin Lipikara and Deva Vidyasinha. These texts list the lipi that the Buddha of ancient India knew as a child, and the list contains sixty-four scripts, though Salomon states that "the historical value of this list is however limited by several factors". A version of this list of sixty-four ancient Indian scripts is found in the Chinese translation of an Indian Buddhist text, and this translation has been dated to 308 CE. The canonical texts of Jainism list eighteen lipi, with many names of writing scripts that do not appear in the Buddhist list of sixty-four lipi. The Jaina list of writing scripts in ancient India, states Buhler, is likely "far older" than the Buddhist list. Lipi means 'script, writing, alphabet' both in Sanskrit and Pali. A lipika or lipikara means 'scribe' or 'one who writes', while lipijnana and lekhā means the 'science or art of writing'. Related terms such as lekhā (लेखा, related to rekhā 'line') and likh (लिख) are found in Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts of Hinduism, as well as in regional languages such as the Pali texts of Buddhism. A term lip (लिप्) appears in verse 4.4.23 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, verse 5.10.10 Chandogya Upanishad, verse 2 in Isha Upanishad and verse 5.11 in Katha Upanishad.