UPSC Mains Answer Practice GS 1: discovery of Tamil-Brahmi, Sanskrit & Prakrit inscriptions and impacts of melting glaciers | Week 141

QUESTION 2

“Glaciers are the sentinels of climate change.” Discuss the potential impacts of glacier retreat on global ecosystems.

QUESTION 1: Discuss the significance of the discovery of Tamil-Brahmi, Sanskrit and Prakrit inscriptions in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in understanding ancient India’s maritime and cultural links.

Relevance: This topic is directly relevant to GS I (Ancient History, maritime trade, cultural exchanges). Findings from the Valley of the Kings highlight early Indian Ocean trade networks and India’s civilisational outreach.

Note: This is not a model UPSC answer. It only provides you with a thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— In a study conducted in 2024 and 2025 around the dim corridors of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. The study documented close to 30 inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi, Sanskrit and Prakrit across six tombs in the Theban Necropolis. As their paper, “From the Valley of the Kings to India: Indian Inscriptions in Egypt,” makes clear, these inscriptions belong to “the period between the 1st and 3rd centuries C.E.”

— These were not merely traders docking at Red Sea ports and sailing home. They were travellers who ventured inland to Thebes, far from the coast, and left their names beside those of Greek and Latin visitors.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

— The most striking name among the inscriptions is repeated insistently: Cikai Koṟṟaṉ. The name Cikai Koṟṟaṉ appears repeatedly. It was inscribed eight times across five tombs. The name itself opens a window into linguistic and cultural entanglements. As Schmid explains in the report, “The name Cikai Koṟṟaṉ is revealing, as its first element may be connected to the Sanskrit śikhā, meaning tuft or crown.”

— The second element, Koṟṟaṉ, is “more distinctly Tamil,” derived from a root meaning victory and slaying, echoing Koṟṟavai, the Chera warrior goddess, and the term koṟṟavaṉ, meaning king.

(Special arrangement)

— The name Koṟṟaṉ has surfaced before. It appears in “Koṟṟapumāṉ”, inscribed on a pottery sherd from Berenike, the Red Sea port that has yielded Indian inscriptions since the 1990s. It is also attested in the Sangam corpus, where the Chera king Piṭṭāṅkoṟṟaṉ is addressed as “Koṟṟaṉ”. Such parallels tie the Egyptian graffiti firmly to the literary and epigraphic record of the ancient Tamil land, or Tamilagam.

— The name Kopāṉ itself has parallels in Tamil Nadu, including at Ammankovilpatti. Other Tamil names identified include Cātaṉ and Kiraṉ — both familiar from early Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in South India.

— Of the roughly 30 inscriptions documented, about 20 are in Tamil-Brahmi. The other 10 are in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Gandhari-Kharosthi, indicating that visitors from northwestern and western India, including regions such as Gujarat and Maharashtra, were also present. One Sanskrit inscription refers to an envoy of a Kshaharata king who “came here” — a significant detail since the Kshaharata dynasty ruled parts of western India in the 1st century C.E.

Conclusion:

— The Egyptian graffiti offers indirect evidence that certain merchant communities were comfortable carving their names in stone, even thousands of miles from home. The inscriptions are brief — names, formulae, declarations of arrival — but they testify to literacy, mobility and a sense of self.

— Classical sources such as Pliny and Ptolemy have long attested to Roman trade with India. Pepper, ivory, gemstones and textiles flowed westward. But whether this exchange was one-way or reciprocal has been debated.

— The Valley of the Kings, built in the 16th century B.C.E., became a kind of ancient tourist site in the Roman period. In these scratched letters — Tamil-Brahmi curves, Sanskrit syllables, Prakrit forms — the Indian Ocean world comes into sharper focus.

(Source: How Tamil, Sanskrit and Prakrit names ended up on the walls of Egyptian Pharaohs’ tombs)

Points to Ponder

Read more about Tamil, Brahmi and Prakrit languages

Related Previous Year Questions

Persian literary sources of medieval India reflect the spirit of the age. Comment. (2020)

The ancient civilization in Indian sub-continent differed from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece in that its culture and traditions have been preserved without a breakdown to the present day. Comment. (2015)

QUESTION 2: “Glaciers are the sentinels of climate change.” Discuss the potential impacts of glacier retreat on global ecosystems.

Relevance:This topic is under climatology and geomorphology — glaciers as regulators of global climate and albedo effect. It links to water security and river systems, especially Himalayan glaciers feeding major rivers in South Asia. It is relevant due to climate change, glacier retreat, and its socio-economic impact on vulnerable populations.

Note: This is not a model UPSC answer. It only provides you with a thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— Glaciers, which are essentially vast and thick slabs of ice created on land by the accumulation of snow over decades are susceptible to rising temperatures and are seen as key indicators of climate change. March 21 is designated as the World Day of Glaciers.

— The melting of glaciers leads to global sea level rise and increases the risks to coastal populations.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

Impacts of melting glaciers

— Glaciers, which are masses of ice and snow that move under gravity, are important sources of knowledge about our planet’s historical climate and environment.

— Glaciers are significant freshwater reservoirs, making them indispensable to the global water cycle and necessary for the survival of ecosystems and human societies. However, in other circumstances, glaciers’ continual retreat may result in the formation and extension of glacial lakes. These lakes will endanger downstream towns and infrastructure with glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).

— Rising temperatures in polar regions may potentially accelerate the process of calving, which occurs when massive chunks of ice break off from glaciers, influencing glacier and ice sheet dynamics. This process damages localised ecosystems while also contributing to global sea level rise.

Conclusion:

— The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region has the highest concentration of snow and glaciers outside of the polar regions. As a result, it is known as the “Third Pole” of the world. The HKH is the source of ten major rivers, including the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra, and hence serves as South Asia’s freshwater sources.

— The Indian government has launched the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) as part of the National Action Plan on Climate Change. NMSHE studies the effects of climate change on the Himalayan ecology.

(Source: UN urges to save glaciers, secure the planet)

Points to Ponder

Melting of glaciers in South America

How does melting of glaciers impact human life?

Related Previous Year Questions

How do the melting of the Arctic ice and glaciers of the Antarctic differently affect the weather patterns and human activities on the Earth? Explain. (2021)

How will the melting of Himalayan glaciers have a far-reaching impact on the water resources of India? (2020)

Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 140)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 141)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 140)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 141)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 138)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 139)

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