10. Conclusion

From the facts presented above, we are somewhat clear that Tibetan scripts, dBu can and dBu med are not derived from Lantsa and Wartu script as assumed and asserted in many of the Tibetan texts. Lantsa and Wartu were the product of Ranjana scripts which were used only from 11th century onward, and it is used mostly for ornamental purpose in the monasteries. We are also not sure when Thonmi Sambhota really visited India and who were his teachers. According to some texts, his visit to India was in 633 CE or it corresponds to the time of Indian King Harsha, Nepalese Amsurvarman and Huentsang's journey to India. But writings on Harsha, Amsuvarman and Huentsang have nothing on Thonmi Sambhota, and the later too has said or written nothing on them and on his journey to India. Nepal King Amsuvarman's was said to have died in 616 CE^[1] or 623^[2], this further derails the theory that Thonmi visited India around 633 CE and later accompanied Minister mGar to receive the Nepalese Princess Bhrikuti.

Regarding the discovery and invention of six letters [rGya la med pa'i yi ge drug], it is clear that ca, cha and ja as scripts and sound are already there in India since Brahmi script in third century of BC era. It is the tsa, tsha, dza, zha, za, and 'a which are not in Indian language. Scholar dGe 'dun Chos 'phel has also commented on this^[3].

From the Tibetan point of view, it would be funny to say that these six syllables: ca, cha, ja, zha, za and 'a were invented by Thonmi Sambhota, because these words are already there in Tibetan language and used in their daily life, i.e. Ca for gcig [one], co-co [brother], lcag [iron] etc., cha for chos [religion], cha [pair], chang [Tibetan wine] etc.; ja for ja [tea], 'jig-med [indestructible], 'jigs-rten [universe] etc..; Zha for Zhangzhung, zha-mo [hat], zhi-mi [cat] etc..; Za for za-ma [food], za-ba [eat], gzam-pa [bridge] etc..; 'a for 'a-zha [name of a region], 'a-mo [fox], 'o-ma [milk] etc.. In fact the sound [sgra] like 'a, ca and ja were already in the question Thonmi Sambhota asked to the stranger: gang nas 'aongs ['a], ci byed-pa yin [ca], thag ji tsam yod [ja], and there was no need to wait for the answer to discover the letter. Zhangzhung script which inspired Tibetan scripts has these syllables already.

Manikabum text mentions that during King Lha Thothori's time, when the King was at the roof top of Yum bu gla sgang, from the sky came a glass stupa of fifteen inches [Khru gang], a seal [bK'a rtag gi phyag rgya] in the size of a pan [sLa nga], and scriptures of mdo za-ma tog, spang skong phyag rgya pa, rten 'brel bcu gnyis mdo and dge ba bcu'i mdo in written in Tibetan in bedurya ink on golden leaves [gleg-bam]. Contradictory part here is that while it has mentioned that the texts were written in Tibetan, the next sentence says that a voice from the sky was heard saying "the meaning of the text shall be known from the fifth lineages of the King."^[4] Although contradictory, it is indicative of the fact that some forms of Tibetan writing was there during Lha Thothori's time. The text might be in transliterated in archaic Tibetan form.

Tshe ring thar has in his work "Bod yig gi 'byung gzhir gsar du dpyad pa" quoted Bu ston Rin chen drub as saying that Srongtsan Gampo was able to read at a very young age^[5] implying that there was some literacy before Srongtsan assuming the throne. lDe'u Jo sras has in lDe'u chos 'byung noted that during the reign of eight King Dri gum btsanpo, Bon and literacy came^[6]. Sakya Sonam Gyaltsen in rGyal rabs gsal ba'i me long writes that during the reign of King Bya khri alias sPu de gung rgyal, gYung drung Bon flourished, someone by sTon pa gShen rabs Mi bo was born in sTag gzig 'Ol mo lung rings. Bon teachings like Khams chen brgyad were translated from Zhangzhung and Bon religion was established^[7]. Samten Karmay, a noted Tibetologist has said that based on many evidences, it would be appropriate to credit Thonmi Sambhota for improving and polishing the already existing Tibetan writing system^[8].

Tsewang Lhamo, a Ph.D scholar who has done research on the origin of Tibetan writing system, concluded her thesis that sMar chen and sMar chung script of Zhangzhung were the original source of Tibetan writing system^[9]. A noted Tibetan scholar Dung dkar blo bzang 'phrin las has also stated that there was Tibetan script before Srongtsan Gampo and it was the old Zhangzhung scripts.^[10]. These scholars have strongly supported the fact that there already existed some forms of writing and literacy during and before Srongtsan Gampo's time. As language and writing system is fundamental to the growth and development of any civilization, it would be wrong to say that Tibetans remained without any arts, literacy and culture until seventh century,

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in one of his public teachings in 1999, has commented on the existence of writing system in Tibet before Srongtsan Gampo:

Recently an ancient material [dNgos-po] has been found in Tibet with the inscription of sMaryig scripts. The material was said to have been some three to four thousand years old. This has demonstrated that sMar-yig existed some three to four thousand years ago, supporting the Bonpo's assertion that there existed a Tibetan scripts based on sMar-yig and the Tibetan writing system greatly improved during Srongtsan Gampo's time. Therefore, our Tibetan scripts and letters are very ancient.^[11]

Therefore, the assertion that there was no writing system in Tibet before seventh century is unfounded and it contradicts the fact that Tibet was an ancient civilization; it would dispense the history of thirty two Kings before Srongtsan and eighteen Zhangzhung Kings before Nyatri Tsanpo in the realms of myth and fairy tales. The real fact is that Tibet was an ancient civilization with an advanced culture and a literary system. This writing system was based on the indigenous Zhangzhung sMar yig scripts. Thonmi Sambhota, the intelligent minister of Srongtsan Gampo, improved, polished and systematized the language in seventh century.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Shrestha and Singh, The History of Ancient and Medieval Nepal, p-13

[2]:

Sailendra Nathe Sen, Ancient Indian Hisorty and Civilization, p-301

[3]:

Khri gYung drung, brda sprod gzi mig dgu pa, p-50

[4]:

Ma-ni bka'-'bum, p-396 ff. "gSer gyi glegs bam la be durya zhun mas bod yig tu bris pa'i mdo za ma tog bkod pa dang….." རྒྱལ་པོ་ལྷ་ཐོ་ཐོ་རི་ག཈ན་བཙན་སྐུ་མཁར་ཡུམ་བུ་གླ་སྒང་གི་རྩེ་ན་བཞུགས་པའི་དུས་སུ། ཐུགས་རྗྩེ་ཆྩེན་པོའི་ཐུགས་ཀ་ནས་འདོ་ཟྩེར་གྱི་སྣ་ལ་རིན་པ་ོཆྩེའི་གའུ་སྦྱར་གྱི་ནང་ དུ། ཤྩེལ་གྱི་མཆོད་རྟྩེན་ཁྲུ་གང་བ་ཅིག་དང་། བཀའ་རྟག་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་སླ་ང་ཙམ་ཅིག་དང་། གསྩེར་གྱི་གླྩེགས་བམ་ལ་བྩེརྱ ་ཞུན་མས་བོད་ཡིག་ཏུ་བྲིས་པའི་མདོ་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ་དང་། སྤང་སྐོང་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་པ་དང་། རྟྩེན་འབྲྩེལ་བཅུ་ག཈ིས་ཀྱི་མདོ་དང་། དགྩེ་བ་བཅུའི་མདོ་དང་བཅས་པ་བཅུག་ནས་཈ི་མའི་ཟྩེར་དང་འགྲོགས་ཏྩེ་ཕོ་བྲང་གི་སྟྩེང་སུ་བབས་པ་དང་། ད་སྟྩེ་གདུང་ རབས་ལྔ་ནས་འདིའི་དོན་ཤྩེས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ་ཞྩེས་ནམ་མཁའ་ནས་སྒྲ་བྱུང་ངོ་།

[5]:

Khri gYung drung, brda sprod gzi mig dgu pa, p-227

[6]:

lDeu jo sras, lDeu chos 'byung, p-160

[7]:

Sa kya bSod nams rgyal mtsan, rGyal rabs gsal ba'i me long, p-71

[8]:

Khri g.Yung drung, brDa sprod gzi mig dgu pa, p-224

[9]:

1)Tshe dbang lha mo, p-111 "Bod kyi brda sprod rig pa'i rnam bshad sngon med rig pa'i 'phrul shel" 2)ibid, p-51,

[10]:

Khri-gYung-drung, brDa-sprod gzi-mig dgu-pa, p-50

[11]:

DIIR, Bod mi'i rang dbang bdun re'i gsar shog