Who deciphered ‘Brahmi’ and ‘Kharosthi’ scripts in 1838?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → James Prinsep
In the 1830s James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi, the two scripts used in the earliest inscriptions and coins; he deciphered Asokan Brahmi in 1838.
Note: A same/similar question was asked in CUET (UG) in the papers below.
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| 13-05 S1* | 13-05 S2 19-05 S1* | – | 05-06 S3* 13-06 S2* 14-06 S2* 21-06 S1* 02-07 S3* | – |
* A similar question.
NCERT (2026-27): “1. Prinsep and Piyadassi … Some of the most momentous developments in Indian epigraphy took place in the 1830s. This was when James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi, two scripts used in the earliest inscriptions and coins.… 7.1 Deciphering Brahmi … Scholars who studied early inscriptions sometimes assumed these were in Sanskrit, although the earliest inscriptions were, in fact, in Prakrit. It was only after decades of painstaking investigations by several epigraphists that James Prinsep was able to decipher Asokan Brahmi in 1838.…” |