Below are the links to all the posts on the Tamil writing proposal:
- Overview
- A modest proposal towards modernizing the Tamil language
- Response to some comments
- Harvard-Kyoto - an explanation
- More comments, examples
- A note of thanks
And in closing, something pretty. Below the fold is the brAhmI alphabet/alphasyllabary. It is, of course, studied by Buddhists for them to be able to understand ancient Buddhist texts, some of which were written in Pali. Just in and of itself, the brAhmI alphabet bears witness to the extraordinary influence that Panini still has around the world. I have a Theory of History which I have never posted about before. Want to know more? Click below to go to the rest of the post.
The Theory of History, ahem, is this. No, wait, that has to be a different post. But as a teaser trailer, consider just this kind-of-sort-of Lemma in the Theory. This kind-of-sort-of Lemma is as follows : it was the introduction by Panini of a comprehensive and more importantly scientific theory of grammar that led to Buddhism being as influential as it was. In a sense, Panini was one of the earliest innovators. It was his innovation with writing systems that helped launch the Axial Age.
Now, behind this Theory of History is a second Theory of History (TOH2). It is somewhat obvious but it takes some thinking to get to; however, since it is somewhat obvious, I will simply refer to it as TOH2. TOH2 states that scientific innovation has a very long history predating the discovery of the scientific method itself. The idea that scientific innovation has a history predating the discovery of the scientific method may come as a surprise to you. The natural reaction for many people is this : how could scientific innovation have a history from, say, prior to the Christian Era when the scientific method itself was only discovered during the 17th century? That question will be answered and the Theory of History will be developed in future posts. But as one example, consider Panini. By introducing a writing system, he was able to help send the ideas of the Buddha around the subcontinent which may well have been impossible without that standardization.
As a continuing tribute to Panini, below is a picture of the brAhmI script.
