Recognition and translation of Ancient Brahmi Letters using deep learning and NLP

Abstract

Inscriptions are major resources for studying the ancient history and culture of civilization in any country. Analyzing, recognizing and translating the ancient letters (Brahmi letters) from the inscription is a very difficult work for present generation. There is no any automatic system for translating Brahmi letters to Sinhala language. However, they are using manual method for translating inscriptions. The method that used in epigraphy is being taken a long period to decipher, analyze and translate the inscribed text in inscriptions. This research mainly focuses on recognition of ancient Brahmi characters written the time period between 3 rd B.C and 1 st A. D. First, we remove the noise, segment the letters from the inscription image and convert it into the binary image using image processing techniques. Secondly, we recognize the correct Brahmi letters, broken letters and then identify the time period of the inscriptions using Convolution Neural Networks in deep learning. Finally, the Brahmi letters are translated into modern Sinhala letters and provide the meaning of the inscription using Natural Language Processing. This proposed system builds up solution to overcome the existing problems in epigraphy.