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Reference.org
Lipi (script)
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<p><i>Lipi</i> means 'writing, letters, alphabet', and contextually refers to scripts, the art or manner of writing, or in modified form such as <i>lipī</i> to painting, decorating or anointing a surface to express something. </p><p>The term <i>lipi</i> appears in multiple texts of <a href="/facts/Hinduism/oxV9YvQh">Hinduism</a>, <a href="/facts/Buddhism/G0wsjrSl">Buddhism</a>, and <a href="/facts/Jainism/h0glxhjH">Jainism</a>, some of which have been dated to the 1st millennium BCE in <a href="/facts/Ancient_India/ntYkAYDQ">ancient India</a>. Section 3.2.21 of <a href="/facts/P%25C4%2581%25E1%25B9%2587ini/C2brRvXB">Pāṇini</a>'s <i><a href="/facts/A%25E1%25B9%25A3%25E1%25B9%25AD%25C4%2581dhy%25C4%2581y%25C4%25AB/tFel2l4D">Aṣṭādhyāyī</a></i> (around 500 BCE), mentions <i>lipi</i> in the context of writing. However, Panini does not describe or name the specific name of <a href="/facts/Sanskrit_script/ychfjhlx">Sanskrit script</a>. The <i><a href="/facts/Arthashastra/Sm0NRGrW">Arthashastra</a></i> (200 BCE - 300 CE), in section 1.2–5, asserts that <i>lipi</i> was a part of the education system in ancient India. </p><p>According to Buddhist texts such as <i><a href="/facts/Lalitavistara_S%25C5%25ABtra/E5rFmXjR">Lalitavistara Sūtra</a></i>, young Siddhartha – the future <a href="/facts/Buddha/8UchTM1s">Buddha</a> – mastered philology and scripts at a school from Brahmin Lipikara and Deva Vidyasinha. These texts list the <i>lipi</i> that the Buddha of ancient India knew as a child, and the list contains sixty-four scripts, though Salomon states that "the historical value of this list is however limited by several factors". A version of this list of sixty-four ancient Indian scripts is found in the Chinese translation of an Indian Buddhist text, and this translation has been dated to 308 CE. </p><p>The canonical texts of <a href="/facts/Jainism/h0glxhjH">Jainism</a> list eighteen <i>lipi</i>, with many names of writing scripts that do not appear in the Buddhist list of sixty-four <i>lipi</i>. The Jaina list of writing scripts in ancient India, states Buhler, is likely "far older" than the Buddhist list. </p>