Inscribed lid of stone reliquary
District, Andhra Pradesh. About 3rd-2nd century BC.
a village in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, where Alexander Rea
discovered inscriptions on stone caskets, the script of which is of a special variety.
This stone casket is
considered to be the Rosetta stone of South India as Tamil and Asokan Brahmi
scripts are incised side by side enabling correlation.
Some of the letters
are peculiar and differ substantially from letters of the Asokan variety denoting the
same values. The inscription speaks of the members of the guild- Vacha, Cagha, Jeta,
ambha,Tisa, Reta, Acina, sabhika, Akhagha, Kela, Kesa, Maho, Seta, Chadika, Okhabula,
Sonutara, samana, Samanadasa, samaka, Kamuka, Citaka.