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by Padma Edirisinghe

Humans of bygone days who considered themselves as a species much lower than the gods above were habituated to ascribe godly origins to activities they considered sacred and noble. So the early Egyptian idea that it was God Thoath who taught them writing during the reign of Osiris almost lay in the natural course of things in ancient history.

Many are acquainted with the word, Hieroglyphic by which the early Egyptian writings during the reign of Osiris almost lay in the natural course of things in ancient history.

Many are acquainted with the word, Hieroglyphics by which the early Egyptian wirings were known. It is a word many know without knowing what hieroglyphics are actually. In fact when accosted with very illegible writing a popular comment is made that they defy understanding like the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Condoning the godly origins the early Egyptians ascribed to their pictorial writing it had been the Greeks who christened these writings in 3rd century BC by the name of Hiero Glyphica which means Sacred Carvings. But the writings themselves had evolved thousands of years before.

Authorities in the field content that the primitive pictographs developed into hieroglyphic characters in the 4th Millennium BC, that is 4,000 years before Christ. This implies that even prior to that vast passage of time the primitive pictographs had been in the making.

One cannot but tend to agree with Capriceci, author of "5,000 years of civilisation" who gushes in this strain, "While populations elsewhere, still in their infancy were groping their way out of the stone age.... The Egyptians seem to have been born adult. They soon broke through the barriers of human possibility, 6,000 years ago, almost in virtue of experiences sustained in some other extraordinary civilised world."

In the beginning this pictorial writing where a picture represented a word had been carved in stone and coloured. Later they had begun to be traced on scrolls of papyrus in black or red ink in a form that continued for 3,000 years.

What are papyrus? They are a reedlike plant in common with our own "pan' and had been originally cultivated in the Nile Valley. The Egyptians used the leaves to make the famous papyrus paper and the pith was used as food.

Coming back to the actual compositions, writes Capriceci: As attempts were made to render concepts that became more complex and ample than those carved or painted on the walls writing on papyrus became more rapid and abbreviated in form until the signs were reduced to an indispensable minimum".

The sacred writings of Egypt had gone into oblivion and become adulterated with the advent of Christianity in egypt. The Greek alphabet made its entry and the sacred signs began to be regarded as some magic signs overlooking the copious literature written through them not only on papyrus leaves and clay tablets (a good part deposited in the library of Alexandria) but also inside structures as the tombs, the catacombs and great pyramid is and by historical monuments. A whole gamut of ancient literature including epics, poems, lyrics, historical poetry, scientific and theological texts, medicinal literature had been written via these hieroglphs.

Most remarkable of these are said to be 'the Books of Medicine" of Imhotep (2,700 BC), teachings of the great priest Kagemmi (2,350 BC) and "the wisdom of Pta-Hoptep" (2,400 BC).

It had been as late as the 19th century that the key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs had been found by a French man, Jan Francois Champollion. After studying Coptic he had begun the arduous task of deciphering the ancient hiergoglyphs that had plummeted into the position of mere magical symbols. The intense work of this young man had unearthed many a great work by this great country that before the rest of the world (perhaps with the exception of China) had invested the optimum concentration on the art of writing and books.

The Egyptians built the great pyramids that continue to amaze the world and were undoubtedly very proud of them but that they considered a book more eternal than their pyramids is evident from this passage.

"The book serves better than a stela, more than a solid construction.

The book takes the place of the temple of the pyramid so that your name will be remembered and certainly it is good, also for the after world, that your name remain in the mouth of the living" (from 3rd Millennium BC writings in Egypt).

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