Indian Postage Stamp with a woman writing a letter!

Research Paper written by London Swaminathan
Post No. 1312; Dated 26th September 2014.

This is part of my series of articles on Mahavamsa.

This article gives more proof for the Art of Letter Writing in Ancient India from the Sri Lankan Chronicle Mahavamsa.

Scholars in the past have debated whether Indians knew writing and if at all they knew writing when they started to write. We knew that the writing existed during the Indus valley civilization. But we did not know what they wrote. Still it remains undeciphered. Then there was a big gap. Just before Asokan’s time (Third Century BCE) we see writing again. During Asoka’s time we had inscriptions from Karnataka to Afghanistan. And in Sri Lanka also we have had writing on inscriptions around that time.

The fact of the matter is Asoka was the first one to write on stone. Even before Asoka ,we had been writing, but only on perishable materials such as palm leaves and tree barks. Unfortunately all those perished and disappeared. Mahabharata itself is a proof for writing. We have heard the story of Ganesh writing Mahabharat just to help Vyasa. We have similar stories in Ramayana where we read about Ram’s name on arrows and rocks. But historians and archaeologists don’t take into account these stories from epics and mythology.
If the writing was understood by people from Afghanistan to Kandy in Sri Lanka, then writing should have existed several centuries before Asoka. This is a logical conclusion. If people could not understand the script, Asoka would not have embarked on a huge mission.

We know about the love letter written by Rukmini to Lord Krishna before 3100 BCE. We have ample references to letter writing from Kalidasa’s time. Tamil epic Silappadikaram also mentioned letter writing in several places. I have given all these references in the following two articles posted here in this blog:
Love Letters from Ancient India – posted on 21st April 2012
Techniques of Secret Writing in India –posted on 19th March 2013

Letter Writing in Mahavamsa
Sri Lankan chronicle Mahavamsa mentioned letter writing in at least in six places. In one of them it says that Asoka received letters from 84,000 centres on the same day. Even if we ignore the number 84,000, we knew for sure he received letters from lot of centres on the same day. This proves improved communication between people and the administration and a well established Postal system. More over the letter writing existed at his time. His stupas were in Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu as well. Let us look into the details:

Chapter 5:Asoka received letters from 84,000 centres
“On every side from the 84000 cities came letters on one day with the news “The Viharas are completed”. Then he proclaimed that there will be a festival in seven days time” — Mahavamsa
About 84,000 cities I would like to add something interesting from 2000 year old Sangam Tamil Literature. The most famous Tamil poet Kabila says in one of his verses that the chieftain of Parambu Hills, Pari, was ruling over 300 towns. So it is no wonder that Asoka had control over 84,000 towns. I wouldn’t think it as an exaggeration.

10th Century of Letter Writing in Kolkatta Museum

Chapter 8: Vijaya’s Letter
Vijaya who was banished by his father and the general public for his atrocities in Bengal, settled in Sri Lanka. He married a local Yakshini girl and then a Tamil princess from Pandya Kingdom of Madurai. Since Yakshini wife was forced to leave the palace with her children and the Tamil princess had no issues, he wrote a letter to his brother Sumitta. He requested him to come down and rule Sri Lanka.Then more people from Bengal came in to Sri Lanka and continued the royal line, according to Mahavamsa. Vijaya wrote his letter in fifth century BCE.

Chapter 10:
In chapter 10 also we have a reference to letter writing. When Pandukabhayan defeated all his uncles who were against him, the king wrote to him that he should not cross the Ganges (all rivers in Sri Lanka are called Ganga) but he can retain the lands he had won on the other side of the river.

Chapter 22: Love Letter and Murder

In chapter 22, we come across an interesting love letter and murder. King Kakavanatissa had a wife by name Vihara Devi. There is a story behind this strange name. In Kalyanai region of Sri Lanka there was a king by name Tissa. His younger brother Ayya-Utika loved the queen. When his brother came to know about it he became furious. But before he took any action, Ayya Utika escaped to a forest where from he sent a love letter through a man disguised as a Buddha Bikshu. He entered the palace with the Thera and dined with the king. While the royal couple were leaving the dining hall, this disguised Bikshu threw the love letter in front of the queen. When the king heard the rustle of the paper, he turned back. When he came to know what happened he killed the genuine Thera and the disguised Bikshu together without thinking.
After he threw the bodies in to sea, there was a Tsunami and the sea invaded the land. The king put his daughter Devi in a golden vessel and floated it in the sea just to pacify the sea god. When the vessel reached the shore near Lanka Vihara, the king Kakavanna tissa noticed the princess and married her. That is how she got the epithet “Vihara Devi”. We come to know sending love letters through disguised ascetics existed in those days.

Chapter 23
A gigantic strong man, but very idle, earned the wrath of his brothers. So his mother sent him to the king. He wanted to check his strength and capacity and so sent him to a Brahmin friend by name Kundali who lived in far away town. He sent a letter to Kundali asking him to send him some goods. The idle man succeeds in his mission and gets a big job.

Chapter 33
In Chapter 33, we come across a rebel Brahmin fighting against the king. At that time Seven Tamils from Tamil Nadu lands in the area and joined him in the fight. They send a written message to the king to surrender. But the king followed the Divide and Rule policy. He persuaded the Brahmin to support him saying that the land belonged to him. Here we see written threat.
Maha vamsa covers a period between 543BCE to 361CE. We have seen letter writing from the earliest Vijaya period to Common Era.

My conclusion is that Indians from Kashmir to Kandy were literate and they used letter writing to send the messages of love, threats and administrative matters even in the Sixth Century BCE!
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