. Origin of Present Tibetan Script
A majority of Tibetan historians have acknowledged that the present Tibetan script was invented by Thonmi Sambhota in the 7th century AD. Besides the promotion of political and social welfare of the people as a cause for the invention of the Tibetan script; the immediate cause, as recorded in many of the
Tibetan historical documents, that in King Songtsen Gampo’s enthronement ceremony at the age of thirteen, all Royal Houses of Tibet’s neighbouring countries had sent their representatives with greetings and letters, and also inventories of their gifts in their own written languages. As Tibet had no written
language the king was compelled to reply in the written languages of others or otherwise had to send oral messages. This prompted him to mull over the need to have Tibet’s own language, for he thought, without a written language it was hard to regulate his kingdom, and also that Tibet might be ridiculed by other
kingdoms. Thus he sent Thonmi Sambhota to India to learn Indian languages. In India, it is said that Thonmi had learnt Indian languages thoroughly for about seven years and returned back to Tibet. When he returned to Tibet, he invented the prototype of the-present day Tibetan script on the model of Indian
script in the Marukha Palace. But there is no unanimous consensus amongst Tibetan Historians regarding the type of Indian script that the Tibetan script was modelled on. Two prominent views have divided the views of Tibetan historians. First is that earlier Tibetan historians believed the Tibetan script was
modelled on Indian Sanskrit script. Thonmi had invented “U-Chen” script, and another modelled on the Kashmiri Script: “U-Mey” script was also invented. But contemporary Historians, following the view of noted historian, Gedun Choephel, state that when Thonmi Sambhota was sent to India, Gupta script was widely
used in India, and that Thonmi had shaped the Tibetan U-Chen script on the model of Gupta script. It is also said that he reduced the sixteen Indian vowels into four and
thirty four Indian consonants into twenty three in Tibetan suitable to a Tibetan tongue. Then out of necessity he invented six more consonants and in Tibetan the letter did not function in the capacity of a vowel - as it does in Indian language - Thonmi instead placed the letter into the consonant
category. This is how Thonmi had composed the present day Tibetan alphabet in the seventh century. If one juxtaposed the present day Tibetan and Indian alphabets close to each other and flung an appraisal glance on these two systems, one would not fail to detect a conspicuous linguistic relationship between India and Tibet.
