Daily Question – 131

130 : Munshi Premchand, on whose works Oka Oori Katha and Shatranj Ke Khilari are based.

One of the earliest descriptions of encryption by substitution appears in a text written in the 4th century AD (itself based on manuscripts dating back to the 4th century BC.) The text recommends that women should be well versed in various arts including conjuring, chess, bookbinding and carpentry. Among the arts  is mlecchita-vikalpa, the art of secret writing. One of the recommended techniques involves randomly pairing letters of the alphabet, and then substituting each letter in the original message with its partner. This cipher is known by the name of the book or by that of the author. What cipher is this?

22 thoughts on “Daily Question – 131

  1. Thomas told me that a malu quizzer who goes by the name of KVK uncle gave him a copy of Kamasutra while KVK was in Kochi. He had told him to read only the chapter about cryptology. since Thomas could not understand it, he took it to his class teacher, Miss Susie and he hasnt seen the book ever sinece. KVK uncle-if you are readig this blog, could you send me another copy?

  2. I remember reading about this encryption in ‘The Code Book’ – the book in question is Kamasutra

    – Apurva

Comments are closed.