High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The earliest traces of epigraphy in South Asia are found in the undeciphered inscriptions of the Indus Valley Civilization (Indus script), which date back to the early 3rd millennium BC. According to most scholars, the earliest deciphered epigraphic inscriptions are the Ashoka inscriptions of the 3rd century BCE, written in a form of Prakrit, with Dravidian language Jain inscriptions appearing soon afterwards in Sri Lanka and South India (Tamil Brahmi, Bhattiprolu script). Some scholars have made claims for earlier appearances (6th to 4th century BCE) of small written fragments on South Indian potsherds, but these are as of yet not generally accepted. Writing in Sanskrit (Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit, EHS) appears only later, in the early centuries AD.