Bhattiprolu
Bhattiprolu in Guntur district, one of the prominent Buddhist sites in the state, famous for it's stupa and also the birthplace of the Telugu script.
It’s ancient name was Pratipalapura, a flourishing city in the Sala kingdom. As per inscriptions Kuberaka ruled over here during 230 BCE, and the famous stupa here was built during 3rd-2nd century BCE. The mounds here were discovered around 1870 AD, and in the excavations undertaken by Alexander Rea in 1892, three inscribed stone caskets were found with relics of Buddha, and jewellery.
The Bhattiprolu stupa is around 40 m in diameter and a basement 2.4 m wide running all around. The crystal Sarira Dhatu relics of Buddha is found in the central area of the stupas. While the Mahachaitya, has remains of a large pillared hall, a group of stupas mostly in ruins, a stone receptacle containing a copper vessel,which in turn has a silver and gold casket within containing beads of bone and crystal.
However the most significant aspect about Bhattiprolu, is the script in Brahmi, that is believed to be the origin of the Telugu script, written on an urn containing the relics of Buddha.
The script dating between 3rd and 1st centuries BCE is believed to be the earliest evidence of Brahmi in the South. This is different from the Ashokan Brahmi, the letters m,gh,j,l,s are radically different. For eg m is written upside down here.
Also unlike the Ashokan Brahmi this version of Brahmi does not have an inherent vowel, the consonant here written represents it fully. As per linguists Mauryan Brahmi that evolved in 3rd century BCE had come here to Bhattiprolu during that era.
The Bhattiprolu script has more similarity to the Tamil Brahmi. As per most linguists the script was originally invented to write a Southern language, but added influences of Prakrit. And many historians claim this to be the genesis of the Telugu script we know. Also this script is believed to have led to Kadamba script, that became the foundation for Kannada, which explains why it's script is similiar to Telugu.
But the general theory of most linguists is that the Bhattiprolu script and Tamil-Brahmi script, were modified versions of the existing Mauryan Brahmi to represent the Southern languages more.