Category: Translation
Rights: All rights available (excluding Kannada)
Chapada: The Journey of an Alphabet by Dr H G Sreedhara recounts the introduction of the written word and the impact it had on a small town called Isila, in present-day Karnataka, during the height of the Mauryan empire Ashoka’s rule (268 to 232 BCE). In an act of breath-taking subversion, the Ashokan edict was signed by one Chapada, the sculptor of the inscription. Chapada is a rare example of a common artist’s name surviving through the ages.
Chapada imagines the challenges the sculptor must have gone through, from travelling across the landmass of the subcontinent, to incorporating a new writing system, that of writing the Pali in Brahmi script, never used that way until then, to grappling with spelling mistakes, inadequate tools, and importantly, trying to convey the idea of writing to a people alien to it until then.
The author, via giving Chapada’s life a full story, uses sociolinguistics, archaeology and available research in linguistics to document the early history of writing in southern India.
The translator: Deepa Bhasthi