Know Your City | An online window into ancient Kannada inscriptions of Bengaluru and beyond
What knowledge was very esoteric and rare is now in the hands of the people, thanks to Akshara Bhandara.
3 min read
Among other features, the tool enables users to view how vowels and consonants, and even numbers, were rendered in carvings early on in the history of Kannada, century by century, allowing them to see the progression and changes the script underwent over time. (Express File) Over time, languages and scripts morph. The English of Shakespeare is different from the English this article is written in, and the English of the great epic Beowulf, written centuries before him, would be virtually incomprehensible.
The same goes for Kannada. Sometimes, one might misread an older inscription of the city or even mistake it for another South Indian language, thanks to archaic features of the older script. For those fascinated by what these ancient carvings say or how the Kannada script has changed over the centuries, the Mythic Society’s Akshara Bhandara tool is a valuable addition.
Among other features, the tool enables users to view how vowels and consonants, and even numbers, were rendered in carvings early on in the history of Kannada, century by century, allowing them to see the progression and changes the script underwent over time. The very earliest of these date back to the 6th century AD. It is also linked to an interactive map of various inscriptions in and around Bengaluru documented by the Mythic Society, including markers of inscriptions that can no longer be traced in the present day.
So far, 169 of these inscriptions have been uploaded to the website, including details such as the coordinates, the material of which the inscription is composed, as well as a direct scan of the inscription stone along with a summary of its contents.
Udaya Kumar P L, Honorary Director, Mythic Society Bengaluru Inscriptions 3D Digital Conservation Project, said, “We have been working on the data used in the project for almost five years now. The code has been in the works for two years.” He added, “On average, we see around 150-200 people across India and the world using it—we see users from the USA, the Middle East, Germany, etc.”
On the intention behind the project, he said, “There are all kinds of audiences. One is the academic audience, but what is even more is the common people and hobbyists. High school students enjoy it thoroughly. We had around five to 10 thousand people visit our stall in Mandya last week. Most of them were from rural backgrounds. What knowledge was very esoteric and rare is now in the hands of the people—our pitch is that thanks to the digital world, you now have ancient Kannada in the palm of your hand.”
According to software engineer Karthik Aditya, who is responsible for the code behind the website, he started helping the Mythic Society with their initiative after noticing their displays on the history of Bengaluru at the Lalbagh Flower Show early in 2023. He said, “The end goal would be to use AI and be in a position where a user can scan an inscription and we automatically read the characters, identify the letters and show the user the meaning behind it—though it may not be in the near future. We are also working on optimising the performance of the website. We will also be adding 200-300 more inscriptions in the coming months.”
Akshara Bhandara is available free of cost in English and Kannada at https://mythicsociety.github.io/AksharaBhandara/#/.
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