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ON  THE  ORIGIN 


OF  THE 


INDIAN  BRAHMA  ALPHABET 


BY 


GEORG  BtiHLER. 


SECOND  REVISED  EDITION  OF  INDIAN  STUDIES,  NO  III. 


TOGETHEE   WITH   TWO   APPENDICES   ON   THE   ORIGIN 

OF  THE   KHAROSTHI   ALPHABET   AND   OF   THE 
SO-CALLED   LETTER-NUMERALS   OF   THE   BRAHML 


WITH  THEEE  PLATKS. 


STBASSBURG. 

KARL     J.    T  R  U  B  N  E  R 

1898. 

Ue  Oriental  Book-Supplying  Agency,  Poona. 


Printed  by  Adolf  Hokhausen,  Vienna. 


Preface  to  the  Second  Edition. 


As  the  few  separate  copies  of  the  Indian  Studies  No.  Ill, 
struck  off  in  1895,  were  sold  very  soon  and  rather  numerous 
requests  for  additional  ones  were  addressed  both  to  me  and  to 
the  bookseller  of  the  Imperial  Academy,  Messrs.  Carl  Gerold's 
Sohn,  I  asked  the  Academy  for  permission  to  issue  a  second 
edition,  which  Mr.  Karl  J.  Triibner  had  consented  to  publish. 
My  petition  was  readily  granted.  In  addition  Messrs,  von  Holder, 
the  publishers  of  the  Wiener  Zeitschrift  fur  die  Kunde  des 
Morgenlandes,  kindly  allowed  me  to  reprint  my  article  on  the 
origin  of  the  Kharosthi,  which  had  appeared  in  vol.  IX  of  that 
Journal  and  is  now  given  in  Appendix  I.  To  these  two  sections 
I  have  added,  in  Appendix  II,  a  brief  review  of  the  arguments 
for  Dr.  Burnell's  hypothesis,  which  derives  the  so-called  letter- 
numerals  or  numerical  symbols  of  the  Brahma  alphabet  from 
the  ancient  Egyptian  numeral  signs,  together  with  a  third  com- 
parative table,  in  order  to  include  in  this  volume  all  those 
points,  which  require  fuller  discussion,  and  in  order  to  make 
it  a  serviceable  companion  to  the  palaeography  of  the  Grund- 
riss.  The  chapters  on  the  Brahmi  and  the  Kharosthl  have  been 
throughout  revised  and  the  first  has  been  changed  most.  A  new 
comparative  table  of  the  Semitic  and  Brahma  signs,1  the  same 
as  has  been  used  for  the  Grrundriss,  has  been  given.  The 
Additional  Note  at  the  end  has  been  omitted,  as,  since  the 


In  using  the  plates,  those  of  the  Grundriss  ought  always  to  be  com- 
pared, as  the  signs  given  there  are  mechanical  reproductions  from  im- 
pressions and  as  such  more  reliable  than  any  drawn  by  hand. 


20048S9 


IV  Preface. 

appearance  of  M.  Sylvain  LeVi's  article 1  on  the  Turkish  kingdom 
of  Northwestern  India,  it  is  no  longer  required,  and  a  number 
of  other  alterations  and  additions  has  been  made  in  accordance 
with  the  results  of  further  researches. 

Thus  the  list  of  the  passages  from  the  Jatakas,  which 
mention  writing  and  written  documents,  has  been  considerably 
enlarged,  the  enlargement  having  become  possible  chiefly  through 
references,  kindly  communicated  to  me  by  Professors  S.  von 
Oldenburg  (p.  7ff.)  and  Rhys  Davids  (p.  120).2 

The  extensive  and  intimate  acquaintance  of  Lieut.  Col. 
R.  C.  Temple  with  the  actualities  of  daily  Indian  life  has  enabled 
me  to  adduce  an  interesting  confirmation  of  my  explanation  of 
the  term  rupa  which  occurs  in  the  oldest  known  Indian  trivium 
(p.  14,  note  3). 

A  valuable  paper  by  Dr.  von  Rosthorn,  based  on  Chinese 
sources,  has  furnished  a  correction  of  the  interpretation  which 
I  formerly  put  on  Hiuen  Tsiang's  statement  that  in  the  seventh 
century  A.  D.  the  instruction  of  the  young  Hindus  began  with 
the  twelve  chang  (p.  30).  It  now  appears  that  the  twelve  chang 
were  twelve  tables  of  simple  and  compound  letters,  of  which 
the  varnamdla  or  matrkaviveka  of  the  period  consisted.  And  a 


1  See  Journ.  Asiatique,  1895,   serie  IX,  t.  VI,  p.  380  f.     I   accept  M.  LeVi's 
conclusion   that  Major  Deane's   undeciphered   inscriptions  from  Swat  are 
Turkish  as   highly    probable,    and  I  may  add  that  a  key  prepared  from 
the  signs  of  Sanskrit  and  Prakrit  inscriptions  does  not  fit  them. 

2  I    regret    that  vol.  VI    of   Professor    Fausbo'll's    edition    of  the    Jatakas 
reached  me  too  late  for  utilisation.    It  furnishes  a  number   of  additional 
passages,    proving   the   use  of  writing,    among  which  that  on   p.  369  f.  is 
the  most  interesting.   According  to  the  story  told  there,  Amaradevl,  the 
daughter  of  the  Sheth  of  Yavamajjhaka,  noted  on  a  leaf  (pany.a),  when 
and  by  whom  king  Vedeha's  crest-jewel,  golden  garland,  golden  slippers 
and  precious  rug  were  sent  to  her  husband,  Mahosadha.  Afterwards  she 
produced  the  record  before  the  king  to  the  confusion  of  his   four  Pandits, 
who  had  accused  her  husband  of  the  theft  of  the  articles,  and  whom  she 
had  captured  and  confined  in  baskets  when  they  came  to  seduce  her.    As 
Prof.  Minayeff  has  first  seen,  the  scene  in  the  king's  court  is  illustrated 
by    the  Bharahut   relievo,    inscribed  yavamajhakiyam  jatakam,    Cunning- 
ham, Bharhut  Stupa,   pi.  XXV,  No  3.    The  story  teaches  that  already  in 
ancient  times,  just  as  in  our  days,  the  Vanias  allowed  their  daughters  to 
learn  to  write,   which   accomplishment   many  Hindus   still   consider  dan- 
gerous for  female  virtue. 


Preface.  V 

communication  from  Dr.  B.  Liebich  (p.  120  f.)  has  put  me  in 
possession  of  the  proof  that  the  Bengal  schoolmasters  until  a 
very  recent  period  used  a  set  of  twelve  such  tables,  called  phald 
or  in  Sanskrit  phalaka,  which  term  the  Chinese  expressions 
chang  and  fan  probably  are  intended  to  render. 

Dr.  Grierson's  important  researches  at  Mahabodhi  Gaya, 
the  results  of  which  lately  have  been  reprinted  in  the  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  1896,  p.  52  ff.,  have  made 
it  necessary  to  rewrite  the  passage  (p.  3 If.)  on  the  remnants 
of  the  masons'  alphabet,  found  there  by  Sir  A.  Cunningham, 
though  the  general  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  them  remain 
the  same.  A  communication,  kindly  placed  at  my  disposal  by 
M.  Sylvain  Levi,  has  furnished  from  Chinese  sources  a  distinct 
tradition  (p.  33),  asserting  that  the  signs  for  the  liquid  vowels 
really  are  later  additions  to  the  Brahma  alphabet,  as  the  state- 
ment of  the  Jaina  scriptures  regarding  the  original  number  of 
its  characters  and  the  palaeographic  evidence  suggested.  Mr. 
Rapson's  discovery  of  syllables,  both  in  Brahml  and  Kharosthi, 
on  the  Persian  sigloi  (pp.  51,  113)  has  further  corroborated 
the  conclusions  regarding  the  early  prevalence  of  both  alpha- 
bets in  Northwestern  India  and  has  raised  a  strong  presumption 
that  both  alphabets  were  used  in  the  same  districts  already 
in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  during  the  Akhaemenian  period. 
Finally,  Mr.  Takukusu's  article  on  Pali  Elements  in  Chinese 
has  brought  us  the  news  that  the  tradition,  asserting  an  early 
preservation  of  the  Buddhist  scriptures  in  MSS.,  is  more  ancient 
than  the  statement  in  the  Life  of  Hiuen  Tsiang  could  lead  us  to 
suppose,  and  nearly,  if  not  quite  as  old  as  the  contradictory  state- 
ment of  the  Dlpavamsa  and  the  Mahavamsa  (p.  91,  note).  And  the 
most  important  discovery  of  a  Kharosthi  MS.  at  Khotan  shows  that 
during  the  Kusana  period  Buddhist  MSS.  did  exist  in  Northern 
India  and  probably  had  been  in  use  for  some  time  (p.  122f.). 

While  the  new  facts,  contained  in  these  recent  contribu- 
tions, have  been  duly  utilised,  it  has  not  been  possible  to  pay 
much  attention  to  M.  J.  HaleVy's  two  controversial  papers  in  the 
Revue  Se"mitique  of  1895,  pp.  223  ff.,  372  ff.,  beyond  omitting 
in  note  1  on  p.  52  his  derivation  of  the  Brahma  numeral  symbol 
for  8  (supposed  to  contain  the  first  two  letters  of  asta),  from  . 
the  Kharosthi  Ma,  which,  as  he  now  tells  us,  is  a  misprint 


VI  Preface. 

for  as  (a  non-existing  and  impossible  ligature1  originally  in- 
vented by  Dr.  I.  Taylor),  and  beyond  adding  a  protest  against 
the  derivation  of  the  circular  cipher,  which  belongs  not  to  the 
ancient  Brahma  system  of  numeral  symbols  but  to  the  later 
decimal  notation,  from  the  Kharosthi  da? 

I  regret  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  in  the  two,  some- 
what excitedly  written,  articles  any  facts  or  suggestions,  likely 
to  benefit  serious  students  of  Indian  antiquities.  While  repeating 
the  ingenious,  but  extravagant,  theories  of  the  earlier  paper,  they 
teem  in  addition  with  statements  which,  though  put  forward  with 
the  author's  characteristic  apodictiveness  and  self-confidence, 
fill  the  Sanskritists  rather  with  astonishment  than  with  respect- 
ful admiration,  and  which  fully  justify  their  continued  unwilling- 
ness to  take  his  opinions  on  Indian  matters  into  serious  con- 
sideration. There  is  hardly  a  single  subject  of  Indian  research, 
on  which  they  do  not  contain  assertions,  conflicting  with  per- 
fectly well  known  and  undisputed  facts. 

The  quality  of  their  scholarship  and  method  is  perhaps 
best  illustrated  by  the  results  of  the  'examen  serieux'  of  the  age 
of  the  Jatakas  represented  on  the  Stupas  of  Sanchi  and  Bharahut,3 


1  The    supposition   that    such    a  ligature   is   possible,    betrays    a  want   of 
acquaintance  with  the  principles   of  Indian  spelling.    The  Hindus  divide 
a-xta   (not  as-fa),  i-sta   (not  is-t.a)  u-pta   (not  up-ta)   and  so  forth.     Their 
ligatures    represent    elements   of  one   and  the  same   syllable,   and  hence 
they  do  not,  and  cannot,  form  ligatures  like  a?  or  06,  is,  up  etc. 

2  It  is    a   matter    of    course    that    M.  Halevy   sticks  to   the    derivation   of 
the   Brahma  symbols  for  4 — 9  from  the   Kharosthi   initial   letters   of  the 
Sanskrit  numerals.     The  untoward    fact   that,    except    in  the   case  of  5, 
either    the  supposed  phonetical  values  or  the  forms  of  the  signs  do  not 
agree   with    the    requirements    of   the    theory,    is  easily   got  over.     The 
busy    Gandharian   inventors   of  the  Brahma  symbols,    we  are  told,   had 
no  time  to  look  up  Panini,  and  so  they  put  cha  for  catuh  and  so  forth. 
Again  if  the  contemporaneous  forms  of  the  symbols  and  the  letters  will 
not    agree,   those   of  different  periods    are    chosen    for    comparison,    and 
e.  g.  the  Brahma  6  of  the  3rd   cent.  B.  C.  is  declared  to   be  a   modifica- 
tion  of  the  "cursive"  Kharosthi  sa  of  the  1st  cent.  B.  C.     The   equally 
untoward  fact  that  the  Brahma  numeral  signs  include  symbols  for  20  — 
100  and  for  1000,   which  cannot  be  derived   from  Kharosthi  letters,  is 
carefully  kept  out  of  sight. 

8  Nouvelles  Observations  sur  les  Ventures  Indiennes,  p.  18f.  (Revue  S£m., 
p.  241  f.). 


Preface.  VII 

which;  as  it  would  lose  in  effect  by  curtailment,  I  translate  in 
full: —  "These  monuments  offer  inscriptions  in  Asoka  characters; 
these  insrs  consequently  cannot  be  earlier  than  B.  C.  221, 
because  otherwise  the  writing  would  run  from  the  right  to 
the  left,  as  in  the  legend  of  the  Eran  coin.  How  far  can  the 
lower  limit  of  their  date  go?  Let  us  not  put  it  too  close  to  the 
relic  caskets  of  Bhattiprolu,  which  are  at  least  fifty  years  later, 
and  which  show  already  some  altered  forms,  and  let  us  put 
between  the  latter  and  the  Stupas  an  interval  of  twenty  years. 
The  inscriptions  of  Sanchi  and  Bharahut  date  therefore  from 
about  191,  i.  e,  one  hundred  and  thirty  four  years  later  than 
the  introduction  of  writing  (quaere,  of  the  Brahma  letters'?) 
into  India.  It  is  in  this  interval  that  the  composition  (sic). 
must  necessarily  be  placed,  in  the  middle  of  the  Greek  epoch 
and  in  no  way  in  the  Persian  period.  Very  luckily  for  us,  the 
Katahaka-jataka  (sic)  mentions  the  writing- board,  phalaka,  and 
the  texts  of  the  Stupas  the  canonical  term  pitaka  "a  box  for 
tablets  of  card-board  or  wood",  in  which  the  Jainas  usually 
keep  their  MSS., 1  with  its  derivative  petaki  "he  who  knows 
the  Pitaka  or  Pitakas",  where  naturally  not  the  box,  but  the 
tablets  or  leaves,  contained  in  it,  are  meant.  These  are  real 
revelations;  for  the  terms  phalaka  and  pitaka,  which  have  no 
etymology  in  Sanskrit,2  are  nothing  but  the  Greek  words  xXa£ 
(-x6q)  and  Tucnavuov;3  the  identity  of  sound  corresponds  to  the 
identity  of  meaning.  The  Jatakas  (sic)  carry  on  their  forehead 


1  "Pitaka  is  only  "a  box"  and  corresponds  to  the  modern  dabado  or  card- 
board of  wood  (sic)  in  which  the  Jainas  usually  keep  the  MSS.  of  their 
parish  libraries.  (O.  I.  BA.,  p.  87.)" 

2  "The  root  phal  'to  profit'  gives  birth  to  phalaka  "profit,  gain"  and  (meta- 
phorically) "the  catamenia",  but  does  not  explain  the  homophonous  pha- 
laka "board,  plaque  and  tablet". 

3  "These  two  words  have  the  identical  meaning  of  "plaque"  and  "tablet". 
In  Syriac  Dip^o  is  the  same  as  «m^>  (Duval,  B.  B.,  p.  1575)  and  «pnc  (also 
very  common   in   the  Talmud)   means  "leaflet,    leaf".    IIitTaxiov  is  a  po- 
pular word,    which  has  come  into  literary   use  only  rather  late;    but  its 
antiquity  is  guaranteed  by  the  proper  name  IIiTTaxoj  (sic)  borne  by   one 
of  the   Seven   Sages    of  Greece,    a    contemporary    of  Solon.     The  word 
auTtpov  "un  blanc"1  presents  an  analogous  case;    though   it  has  come  late 
into  literary  use,  one  finds  it  once  in  an  ancient  decision   of  the  Misna 
(Ma'aser  seni  II  IDS  >-ICDX)  and  in  the  Agpereno  of  the  Avesta." 


VIII  Preface. 

the  date  of  their  birth,  to  wit,  the  century  which  follows  the 
conquest  of  Alexander." 

What  occurs  to  a  Sanskritist  with  regard  to  this  remark- 
able statement  of  results,  is  as  follows: — 

(1)  The  assumption  that  all  the  Asoka  inscriptions  date 
from  B.  C.  221,  which  is  the  basis  of  M.  Halevy's  contention 
that  no  inscription  in  Asoka  characters  can  be  older  than  B.  C. 
221,  and  which  is  another  version  of  his  statement  on  p.  12, 
declaring  the  Asoka  edicts  to  have  been  incised  about  (vers) 
221,  is  a  sad  blunder  which  a  writer  on  Indian  palaeography 
ought  not  to  make.  And  it  is  the  more  unpardonable,  as  Pro- 
fessor Max  Mtiller,  whose  Hibbert  Lectures,  translated  by  M.  J. 
Darmesteter,  M.  Halevy  quotes  (p.  12,  note  1)  as  his  authority, 
explicitly  gives  B.  C.  221  only  as  the  date  of  the  so-called 
three  New  Edicts  of  Sahasram,  Rupnath  and  Bairat,  following 
my  calculations,  and  does  not  touch  the  question  of  the  dates 
of  the  other  numerous  Asoka  inscriptions. 

The  dates  of  the  incision  of  the  following  Asoka  inscrip- 
tions are  clearly  ascertainable  and  undisputed,  (1)  of  the  Bara- 
bar  Hill  Cave  inscrs  A  and  5,  dated  in  Asoka's  13th  year, 
(2)  of  the  Barabar  H.  C.  inscr.  C,  dated  in  the  20th  year,  (3)  of 
the  Nigliva  and  Pacjeria  pillar  inscrs,  dated  in  the  21st  year, 
(4)  of  the  first  six  so-called  Pillar  Edicts,  dated  in  the  27th 
year,  and  (5)  of  the  seventh  edict  on  the  Dehli-Sivalik  pillar, 
dated  in  the  28th  year.  If  Asoka's  coronation  is  fixed  with 
Professor  Max  Miiller  in  B.  C.  259,  these  inscriptions  range 
from  B.  C.  246 — 231;  according  to  Professor  Lassen's  views 
they  would  fall  each  four  years  earlier,  and  according  to  Pro- 
fessor Kern,  six  years.  As  far  as  the  evidence  of  the  Asoka 
edicts  goes,  the  Sanchi  and  Bharahut  inscriptions  might,  there- 
fore, be  placed  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier  than  the 
'examen  se>ieux'  assumes. 

(2)  An  undated  fragment  of  an  A&oka  edict,  found  on 
one  of  the  broken  gate-pillars  of  the  Sanchi  Stupa,  proves  that 
the  structure  certainly  existed  before  the  end  of  that  king's 
reign  or,  with  Prof.  Max  Miiller's  initial  date,  before  B.  C.  222/21, 
and  the  presumption  is  that  all  the  Sanchi  inscriptions,  show- 
ing Asoka  characters,  were  incised  before  that  year.  By  the 
attempt  to  fix  the  erection  of  the  Sanchi  Stupa  between  B.  C. 


Preface.  IX 

221 — 191,  M.  Halevy  collides  with  the  clear  epigraphic  evidence, 
and  commits  a  mistake  which  he  might  easily  have  avoided, 
if  he  had  looked  up  the  works  on  Sanchi.  His  attempt  to  drag 
down  the  age  of  the  Bharahut  Stupa  goes  against  the  probability, 
as  the  inscriptions  on  the  representations  of  the  Jatakas  show 
the  same  characters  as  the  Asoka  edicts.  All  these  represen- 
tations thus  give  the  reign  of  Asoka  as  the  lower  limit  for  the 
existence  of  the  Birth-stories.  They  teach  nothing  definite  re- 
garding the  time  of  the  composition  of  these  fables,  except  in 
so  far  that  they  raise  the  presumption  of  their  having  been  long 
current  and  generally  known.  For  the  archaeology  of  all  nations 
proves  that  myths  and  scenes  from  religious  legends  are  trans- 
ferred to  stone  only  when  they  have  become  thoroughly  fami- 
liar to  the  people.  Consequently,  the  assertion  that  the  com- 
position of  the  Jatakas  must  "necessarily"  be  placed  between 
B.  C.  221—191,  is  not  warranted. 

(3)  M.  Halevy's  attempt  to  bring  the  Jatakas  into  the 
period  after  Alexander  by  deriving  their  term  phalaka  from 
the  Greek  xXa£  and  the  word  pitaka  (which  itself  does  not 
occur  "in  the  texts  of  the  Stupas")  from  TUTWCVUOV.  only  shows 
that  his  knowledge  of  Sanskrit  is  open  to  improvement  and 
that  he  does  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  consult  the  standard 
dictionaries.  Both  words  are  regular  derivatives  from  Sanskrit 
roots.  Phalaka  "a  board",  comes  from  the  very  common  verb 
phal,  (phalati)  "to  split",  mentioned  in  all  Sanskrit  dictio- 
naries, and  means  etymologically  "a  piece  (of  wood)  split  off"; 
compare  the  Latin  scindula  from  scindo  and  the  Greek  cyJSa, 
ox(8a!-,  oyjSa  from  cr/'.o  (<ryj£t*).  The  etymology  is  duly  given 
in  the  larger  Petersburg  Dictionary  under  phalaka.  Pitaka 
means  primarily  and  usually  "a  basket"  (used  for  any  pur- 
pose, as  for  carrying  earth,  storing  meat,  measuring  grain,  etc.), 
more  rarely  "a  box",  as  I  have  translated  it,  in  which  latter 
sense  the  cognate  petaka  is  more  common.  Its  employment  to 
denote  a  receptacle  for  MSS.,  or  the  contents  of  such  a  recep- 
tacle, or  a  division  of  the  sacred  books,  is  mainly  or  entirely 
confined  to  Buddhistic  literature.  Pitaka  is  derived  from  the 
Sanskrit  root  pit  (petati)  'to  heap  up,  to  store',  as  the  larger 
Petersburg  Dictionary  indicates  under  that  verb,  and  it  means 
etymologically  "an  implement  for  heaping  up  or  storing  (ob- 


X  Preface. 

jects)".  Whatever  may  be  the  truth  about  the  age  of  the  Ja- 
takas,  these  two  words  are  certainly  useless  for  M.  Halevy's 
purpose.  The  triumphant  tone,  with  which  he  brings  forward 
his  supposed  discoveries,  and  the  display  of  misplaced  learning 
in  the  notes,  especially  the  appeal  to  king  Pittakos'  name  in 
support  of  the  antiquity  of  the  !5iamx.u)t£pov  term  Tunax-iov,  make 
the  passage  most  amusing  to  every  scholar,  possessed  of  philo- 
logical training. 

To  this  specimen  of  M.  Halevy's  scholarship  and  method 
may  be  added  another,  found  in  his  remarks  on  Kebuka 
(N.  O.  E.  I,  p.  56),  where  he  lays  down  the  law  to  a  native 
Pali  commentator.  "Kebuka,  he  informs  us,  is  the  name  of 
a  place  belonging  to  Seruma;  the  idea  of  the  commentator 
that  it  is  the  name  of  a  river  has  not  the  slightest  foundation." 
And  he  then  goes  on  to  treat  us  to  the  ingenious  conjecture 
that  Kebuka  is  the  Caucasus  which,  as  he  alleges,  in  Persian 
bears  the  name  Kabak  or  Kabkh,  essentially  corresponding  to 
the  Pali  word.  A  Sanskritist  who  reads  vs.  106  of  the  Jataka, 
No.  327  (Fausboll,  vol.  Ill,  p.  91): 

Katham  samuddam  patari  katham  patari  Kebukam  | 

Katham  satta  samudddni  katham  simbalim  aruhi  || 
can  only  translate: — 

"How  didst  thou  cross  the  ocean,  how  didst  thou  cross 
Kebuka,  how  the  seven  oceans?  How  didst  thou  climb  the 
cotton-tree?" 

and  recognises  at  once  from  the  use  of  the  verb  patari 
"didst  thou  swim"  or  "cross  in  a  boat",  that  Kebuka  has 
something  to  do  with  water  and  can  only  denote  a  river,  a  lake, 
an  ocean,  or  water  in  general.  The  Jataka  No.  539  fully  confirms 
this  inference,  as  it  says  explicitly,  kebukam  vuccati  udakam,1 
"kebuka  means  water". 

If  it  were  worth  the  while,  the  list  of  positive  mistakes 
and  more  than  hazardous  speculations  might  be  enlarged  ad 
infinitum  by  examples  from  passages  on  Indian  phonetics,  epi- 
graphy, antiquities,  Dharma  and  so  forth.  Similar  instances 
might  also  be  adduced,  where  the  papers  show  a  weakness  in 


1  FausbSll,  The  Jatakas,  vol.  VI,  p.  42,  1.  11;  compare  also  vs.  133,  p.  32, 
where  kebuka  is  used  to  denote  a  tank. 


Preface.  XI 

other  subjects,  e.  g.  in  Greek,1  or  collide  with  the  statements 
of  the  Greek  historians.2  But  what  has  been  given,  will  be 
amply  sufficient  to  convince  even  others  than  Sanskritists  that 
a  fuller  discussion  of  their  contents  cannot  serve  any  useful 
purpose. 

Recent  utterances  of  Professors  O.  Donner,  Konow,  Lud- 
wig,  Macdonell,  Oldenberg,  Windisch  and  others  on  writing 
in  India  and  on  the  Indian  alphabets  make  it  apparent  that 
the  object,  for  which  the  Indian  Studies  No.  Ill  and  its  supple- 
ment were  written,  has  been  attained.  Among  the  Sanskritists 
it  is  now  more  generally  recognised  that  there  are  good  reasons 
for  believing  that  writing  was  practised  in  India  long  before  Near- 
chus  saw  the  Hindus  write  on  cloth,  prepared  from  their  native 
cotton,  and  before  another  unnamed  companion  of  Alexander, 
whose  statements  Q.  Curtius  has  preserved,  saw  them  use  for 
the  same  purpose  the  tender  inner  bark  of  trees,  i.  e.  the  well 
known  bhurja  from  the  Himalaya.  Equally  the  conviction  has 
become  stronger  that  the  Brahmi  is  the  most  ancient  Indian 
alphabet  and  that  the  development  of  the  Kharosthl  is  one  of 
the  results  of  the  Persian  domination  over  Gandhara  and  Sindh. 
The  settlement  of  the  general  outlines  of  the  enquiry,  —  to 
which  belongs  also  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  Brahmi 
is  the  alphabet  of  the  Pandits  and  the  Kharosthl  a  script  of 
the  clerks  and  men  of  business,  similar  in  character  to  the 
simpler  and  defective  Nagarl,  Lande,  Takkari,  Kaethl,  Mo<Ji 
and  Gujarat!  which  have  been  developed  out  of  the  more  ela- 
borate Brahmi,  some  in  later  and  some  in  earlier  times,  —  is 
all  that  can  be  carried  through  for  the  present.  The  details  of 
the  derivation,  which  are  particularly  difficult  in  the  case  of  the 


1  See    e.  g.   N.  O.  E.,    Note  1    on    p.  15,   where    we    find    the    instructive 
sentence,  "D'ailleurs   le  nom  'Icavfs   (sic),    et   encore  mains  la  forme  non- 
contractee  'la<ovt$   (sic),   n'etait   plus   usite    au    temps    d'Alexandre    comme 
designation  collective  des  Gh-ecs  (sic)". 

2  See  e.  g.  N.  O.  E.  I,  p.  60,  where  the  establishment  of  an  administration 
of  the   Macedonian    type   is  asserted   to   have  taken   place  about   B.  C. 
330  in  the  countries  west  of  India,  though  the  Greeks  give  us  the  names 
of  the  Persians  and  other  Orientals  appointed  by  Alexander  as  his  Satraps, 
who,    as  far  as  is  known  at  present,   were  not  forced  to  pass  previously 
a  Greek  Civil  Service  examination. 


XII  Preface. 

Brahmi  with  its  forms,  pointing  partly  to  very  archaic  and 
partly  to  transitional  North -Semitic  characters,  may  at  any 
moment  require  modifications  on  account  of  new  epigraphic  dis- 
coveries in  India  or  in  Western  Asia.  And  important  epigra- 
phic discoveries  will,  no  doubt,  soon  be  made  in  India,  since 
of  late  ancient  sites  have  been  identified,  which  were  famous 
places  of  pilgrimage  before  the  times  of  the  Mauryas. 


Table  of  Contents. 


Preface,  pp.  Ill— XII. 

I.  Former  derivations  of  the  Brahml  lipi,  pp.  1—5. 
II.  Literary  evidence  for  the  antiquity  of  writing, 
from  the  Vasistha  Dharmasutra,  pp.  5 — 7, 
from  the  Jatakas  and  the  Vinayapitaka,  pp.  7 — 22, 
from  the  Lalitavistara  and  the  Jaina  Agamas,  pp.  22—35. 

III.  Palaeographic  evidence  for  the  antiquity  of  the  Brahml  lipi, 

from  the  Asoka  Edicts,  pp.  35—43, 

from  the  legend  of  the  Eran  coin,  running  from  the  right  to  the  left, 

pp.  44—45, 

from  the  Bhattiprolu  alphabet,  pp.  45 — 47, 
from  the  legends  of  the  Taxila  coins,  pp.  47—50. 
from  the  Persian  Sigloi,  pp.  51 — 53. 

IV.  The    derivation    of   the   Brahma    letters    from   the    most    ancient   North- 

Semitic  signs. 

General  principles,  pp.  53—56. 
The  borrowed  signs,  pp.  56—72. 

The  derivative  consonants  and  initial  vowels,  pp.  72—77. 
The  medial  vowels,  pp.  77—82. 
The   approximate   date   of  the  introduction   of  the  Semitic   letters  into 

India,  pp.  83—91. 

Appendix   I.   The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthl  Alphabet,  pp.  92—114. 
Appendix  II.   The  Origin  of  the  ancient  Brahma  Numerals,  pp.  115—119. 
Addenda  and  Corrections: 

Further  passages  from  the  Jatakas,  pp.  120—124. 

The  twelve  Phala  in  the  Bengal  schools,  pp.  120—124. 

The  Petroffski  MS.  from  Khotaii,  pp.  120—124. 


Ijver  since  Mr.  J.  Prinsep  succeeded  in  deciphering  the 
Edicts  incised  by  order  of  the  god-beloved  king  Piyadasi  of 
Pataliputra  on  the  pillars  and  rocks  of  Eastern,  Central  and 
Western  India,  the  attention  of  the  European  Orientalists  has 
been  directed  to  the  question  of  the  origin  of  their  curious 
alphabet,  which  is  the  parent  of  all  those  now  used  from  Cape 
Comorin  to  the  Himalayas  and  of  many  others  occurring  be- 
yond the  confines  of  India  proper.  And,  while  there  has  been 
not  much  difference  of  opinion  regarding  the  derivation  of  the 
second  alphabet,  in  which  Piyadasi's  servants  placarded  their 
master's  sermons  in  the  Northwestern  corner  of  his  dominions, 
the  views  regarding  the  source  of  the  more  common  characters 
have  diverged  very  widely.  There  has  been  almost  from  the 
beginning  a  pretty  general  consensus  that  the  alphabet  of  the 
Shabazgarhl  and  Mansehra  Edicts,  called  by  the  Europeans  the 
Arian,  Ariano-Pali,  Bactro-Pali,  Gandharian,  Northwestern  or 
Northern  and  by  the  Hindus  Kharosthl  lipi,1  is,  as  the  direction 
of  its  letters  from  the  right  to  the  left  at  once  suggests,  of  Se- 
mitic origin,  and  that  it  has  been  derived  from  one  of  the  later 
types  of  the  Northeastern  Semitic  alphabet.  But  for  the  charac- 
ters running  from  the  left  to  the  right,  called  by  the  Europeans 
Lath,  Southern,  Indian  Pali,  Indian  or  Maurya  and  by  the 
[2]  Hindus  Brdhmi  lipi,  not  less  than  five  different  derivations 
have  been  proposed,  of  which  a  detailed  demonstration  has 
been  attempted.  The  number  of  general,  more  or  less  vague, 


1  Regarding  the  Hindu  names  of  the  two  alphabets  see  below  p.  23. 
Bukler,  Indian  Studies.  III.  1 


2  Indian  Studies.   No  HI. 

suggestions  is  even  greater.1    Leaving  the  latter  aside,  the  five 
theories  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows:  — 

(1)  According  to  Sir  A.  Cunningham   the   Indian   Pali    or 
Brahma    alphabet,    is   an  Indian  invention   and    is   based    on    a 
system  of  indigenous  hieroglyphics;2 

(2)  According  to  Professor  A.  Weber  it  is  derived  directly 
from  the  oldest  Phoenician  alphabet;3 

(3)  According   to  Dr.  Deecke   it   is    descended  from   the 
Assyrian  cuneiform  characters  through  an  ancient  Southern  Se- 
mitic  alphabet,    which  was  also  the  parent  of  the  Himyaritic;4 

(4)  According  to  Dr.  Isaac  Taylor  it  comes  from  an  alpha- 
bet of  Southern  Arabia,  the  parent  of  the  Himyaritic;5 

(5)  According  to  M.  J.  Halevy  it  is   of  a  composite   cha- 
racter   eight    consonants    having    been    taken    directly  from  the 
Aramaic  alphabet  of  the    fourth    century  B.  C.,    six    consonants 
and   two    initial    vowels    as  well  as  the  medial  vowels  together 
with  the  Anusvara  from  the  Ariano-Pali  or  Kharosthi,  and  five 
from  the  Greek;    and  this  hotch-potch  is  alleged  to  have  been 
concocted  about  325  B.  C.6 

It  must,  however,  be  noted  that  the  first  among  these 
theories  seems  to  have  been  almost  given  up  by  its  chief 
advocate  some  time  before  his  death.  For  in  his  last  dis- 
cussion of  the  Indian  alphabet 7  Sir  A.  Cunningham  says,  "The 
origin  of  the  Indian  alphabet  is  still  unsettled.  According  to 
Lassen,  Dowson,  Thomas  and  myself,  its  origin  was  indigen- 
ous, [3]  that  is,  it  was  invented  by  the  people  of  India.  But  con- 
tinental scholars  are  generally  in  favour  of  its  derivation  from 
some  unknown  Western  source",  and  in  the  sequel,  after  cri- 
ticising the  latest  theory,  which  he  takes  to  be  that  of  Dr. 
Taylor,  he  adds,8  "It  seems  not  improbable  that  this  old  Indian 

1  See  the  exhaustive  review  of  earlier   opinions  in  Dr.  R.  N.  Gust's  Ling- 
uistic and  Oriental  Essays.     Second  series,  pp.  27—52. 
Corpus  Inscr.  Indicarum,  vol.  I,  p.  52  S. 

Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlandischen  Ges.,  Bd.  X,  389  ff.;  Indische 
Skizzen,  p.  225  -250. 

Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morg.  Ges.,  Bd.  XXXI,  598  S. 
The  Alphabet,  vol.  H,  p.  314  ff. 

Journ.  Asiatique,  serie  VIII,  tome  VI  (1885),  p.  268  ff. 
Coins  of  Ancient  India,  p.  38  f. 
Op.  cit.,  pag.  41.     The  italics  are  mine. 


I  Former  Derivations  of  the  Brahmi.  3 

alphabet,  when  it  was  first  framed  or  adopted,  did  not  possess 
any  cerebral  letters."  These  utterances  indicate  that  in  1891 
Sir  A.  Cunningham  himself  no  longer  felt  as  certain  of  the  sound- 
ness of  his  views  as  in  1876,  when  he  wrote  the  introduction 
to  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Indicarum.  As  far  as  has  become 
known,  they  have  not  gained  of  late  any  new  adherents,  and 
with  the  death  of  the  illustrious  archaeologist  they  have  pro- 
bably become  entirely  a  matter  of  the  past.  Sir  A.  Cunning- 
ham himself  has  furnished  a  very  strong  argument  in  favour 
of  the  opposite  theory  by  publishing,  op.  cit.,  Plate  XI.  18,  a 
coin  from  Eran,  which  shows  an  inscription  in  Brahma  cha- 
racters running  from  the  right  to  the  left.  This  is  really  the 
link,  which  was  wanted  in  order  to  complete  the  chain  of  argu- 
ments, proving  the  Semitic  origin  of  the  Brahma  alphabet. 

The  remaining  theories  coincide  in  the  main  point  that  the 
ancient  Indian  characters  are  derived  from  a  Semitic  source, 
and  Sir  A.  Cunningham  is  no  doubt  right,  when  he  says  that 
this  is  the  prevailing  belief  among  Sanskritists,  not  only 
however  among  those  of  the  European  continent,  but  pretty 
nearly  all  over  the  Western  world.  This  belief  is  probably 
founded  not  so  much  on  special  studies  in  Indian  palaeography, 
which,  as  well  as  epigraphy,  are  mostly  neglected  owing  to 
the  force  of  unfavourable  circumstances,  as  on  the  general  im- 
pression that  certain  Indian  characters  strongly  resemble  Semitic 
letters  and  on  the  conviction,  supported  in  several  cases  by  the 
clearest  evidence,  that  the  Indo- Aryan  civilisation  includes  many 
and  various  elements,  borrowed  from  Western  nations,  Semites, 
Persians  and  Greeks.  But  I  doubt  that  even  half  a  dozen 
Sanskritists  could  be  found,  who  would  care  to  make  a  definite 
choice  between  the  rival  theories,  except  in  so  far  that 
they  might  be  inclined  to  reject  M.  Halevy's  ingenious,  but 
untenable  combinations,  which  rest  on  a  priori  improbable  as- 
sumptions [4]  and  partly  on  errors  regarding  facts,  and  which  in 
their  final  results,  e.  g.  the  conclusion  that  the  Vedas  were  com- 
posed in  the  time  of  the  Mauryas,  disagree  with  all  the  lessons 
taught  by  Indo-Aryan  research.1 

1  With  respect  to  the  statement,  that  M.  Halevy's  theory  has  not  found 
much  favour  with  Sanskritists,  I  would  point  to  Professor  A.  Weber's 
remarks  in  his  paper  "Die  Griechen  in  Indien",  p.  17  (Sitz.  Ber.  der 

1* 


4  Indian  Studies.    No  III. 

My  own  attitude  with  respect  to  this  problem  has  been 
for  a  long  time  exactly  the  same.  During  the  last  fifteen  years, 
whilst  I  have  devoted  a  portion  of  my  time  to  early  Indian 
epigraphy,  it  has  been  with  me  an  open  question  whether  the 
Brahma  characters  came  from  western  or  from  southern  Asia. 
I  have  always  believed  in  their  Semitic  origin.  But  I  have 
vacillated  more  than  once  between  their  derivation  from  a 
pre-Himyaritic  alphabet  of  Arabia  and  that  from  the  ancient 
northern  Semitic  characters,  which  show  almost  identical  forms 
in  Palestine,  Phoenicia,  Cyprus  and  Assyria.  And  I  have  he- 
sitated to  take  up  the  enquiry  in  real  earnest,  because  it  seemed 
to  me  that  one  preliminary  condition  to  a  new  attempt  on  the 
problem  was  the  preparation  of  perfectly  trustworthy  impres- 
sions and  facsimiles  of  the  oldest  Indian  inscriptions,  and  a 
second,  the  careful  study  of  all  these  documents  from  a  pa- 
laeographic  and  from  a  philological  point  of  view.  The  first 
condition  has  now  been  fulfilled  thanks  to  the  unwearied  la- 
bours of  Messrs  Burgess,  Fleet,  Fiihrer,  Hultzsch,  Rice  and 
Senart.  Really  good  facsimiles  of  all  the  versions  of  the  Edicts 
of  Asoka  have  been  prepared  and  mostly  published,  as  well  as 
faithful  reproductions  of  the  closely  allied,  quite  or  nearly  con- 
temporaneous inscriptions  in  Dasaratha's  caves,  on  the  Bharhut 
or  Bharaut  and  Sanchi  Stupas,  on  the  Ghasundi  slab,  on  the 
Sohgaurfi  Copper  plate,  in  the  Hathigumpha,  Nanaghat  and  Pabhosa 
caves.  Moreover,  the  palaeographic  store  has  been  unexpectedly 
enriched  by  Mr.  Rea's  discoveries  in  the  Bhatfiprolu  Stupa, 
which  have  brought  to  light  a  new  type  of  Brahma  characters, 
showing  a  certain  independence,  and,  as  it  would  seem  to  me 
on  further  consideration,  at  least  some  very  archaic  forms. 
The  explanation  of  these  [5]  ancient  documents,  too,  has  so  far 
advanced  as  is  requisite  for  the  palaeographic  enquiry. 

Under  these  circumstances  I  believe  it  possible  to  resume 
the  discussion  regarding  the  origin  of  the  Brahma  alphabet  with 
some  hope  of  success,  and  I  may  state  at  once  that  the  re- 


Berliner  Akademie,  1890,  XXXVII),  to  Professor  A.  Ludwig's  interesting 
paper  on  "Yavananl",  Sitz.  Ber.  der  k.  Bohm.  Ges.  der  Wiss.,  1893,  No.  IX, 
to  Mr.  S.  Soerensen's  Om  Sanskrits  Stilling  i  den  almindelige  Sprogud- 
vikliug  i  Indien,  Copenhagen  1894,  p.  288,  note  1,  and  to  Professor  Kern's 
remarks  in  Dr.  Gust's  Essay's,  p.  39. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  5 

suits,  at  which  I  have  arrived  in  general  confirm  the  views  of 
Professor  Weber,  who  has  already  given  the  correct  identifi- 
cations for  the  majority  of  the  signs.  In  the  case  of  most  of 
the  letters  it  is,  of  course,  now  possible  to  adduce  forms  which 
come  closer  to  each  other  than  those  which  his  table  contains. 
This  is  chiefly  due  to  the  numerous  discoveries  in  Semitic  epi- 
graphy, which  have  been  made  during  the  last  thirty  nine  years. 
Mesa's  stone,  the  oldest  Sinjirli  inscription  and  the  inscriptions 
on  the  Assyrian  weights,  which  are  datable  more  or  less  ac- 
curately, each  furnish  something  valuable.  And  these  discoveries 
make  it  also  possible  to  adhere  strictly  to  the  general  rule,  to 
be  observed  in  such  inquiries,  that  only  the  signs  of  one  period 
should  be  chosen  for  comparison. 

Before  I  proceed  to  this  comparison,  it  will  be  desirable 
to  call  attention  to  some  passages  in  Indian  literature,  recently 
made  accessible,  and  to  some  peculiarities  in  the  oldest  forms 
of  the  Brahma  alphabet,  revealed  by  the  new  facsimiles  and 
by  a  tabular  arrangement  of  the  signs,  which  I  have  lately 
undertaken  for  my  ,,Grundriss  der  indischen  Palaeographie".1 
Both  the  passages  in  the  literary  works  and  the  characteristics 
of  the  oldest  alphabet  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Hin- 
dus extensively  used  the  art  of  writing  at  least  about  three 
centuries  before  the  time  of  Asoka-Piyadasi. 

II. 

When  thirty  five  years  ago  Professor  Max  Miiller  wrote 
his  excursus  on  the  Introduction  of  Writing  in  India,2  the 
oldest  Brahminical  works  which  he  could  quote  as  witnesses 
for  the  use  of  letters  were  Panini's  Grammar,  Mann's  and  Ya- 
jnavalkya's  Institutes  of  the  Sacred  Law,  the  Mahabharata  and 
Kalidasa's  Dramas,  and  he  had  to  declare  that  in  the  Vedas  [6] 
and  in  the  later  literature  of  the  Vedic  schools  no  certain  trace 
of  the  use  of  writing  could  he  found,  while  they  contained  very 
strong  evidence  for  the  prevalence  of  oral  teaching  and  for 


Grundriss    der    Indo-Arischen    Philologie    und    Alterthumskunde ,    Bd.  I, 

Heft  11,  Strassburg  i.  E.  1896. 

History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,  p.  497  ff. 


6  Indian  Studies.    No  IH. 

their  having  been  preserved  by  a  purely  oral  tradition.  From 
the  heterodox  literature  he  was  only  able  to  adduce  a  passage 
of  the  Lalitavistara  which  describes  the  first  visit  of  prince 
Siddhartha,  the  future  Buddha,  to  the  writing  school,  and  from  non- 
Indian  sources  the  seemingly  conflicting  utterances  of  Nearchos 
and  of  Megasthenes,  one  of  the  most  careless  reporters  on  Indian 
subjects.  Professor  Max  Miiller's  final  conclusion  was,  there- 
fore, that  the  art  of  writing  became  known  in  India  about  400 
B.  C.  in  the  middle  of  his  Sutra-period  and  that,  then  and 
even  later,  it  was  not  applied  to  literary  purposes. 

With  the  further  exploration  of  Indian  literature  various 
additional  pieces  of  evidence  have  come  to  light,  which  some- 
what modify  the  above  inferences  and  tend  to  show  that  writ- 
ing was  extensively  used  for  the  most  various  purposes  at  an 
earlier  period.  A  closer  scrutiny  of  the  ancient  Dharmasutras 
has  proved  that  there  is  at  least  one  among  them,  the  so-called 
Vasistha  Dharmasastra,  which  in  general  mentions  written  do- 
cuments (lekhya)  as  a  proof  of  ownership  (XVI,  10)  and  en- 
joins in  particular  (XVI,  14 — 15)  that  in  disputes  about  houses 
and  fields  the  judicial  decisions  shall  be  given  in  accordance 
with  the  documents  if  the  evidence  of  the  neighbours  disagrees, 
and  that  they  shall  be  based  on  the  statements  of  the  old  men 
and  of  the  guilds,  in  case  conflicting  documents  are  produced.1 
Regarding  the  age  of  Vasistha' s  Institutes  of  the  Sacred  Law 
nothing  definite  is  known.  It  is  only  possible  to  say  that  this 
work  is  a  real  Dharmasutra,  that  it  was  originally  composed 
for  the  use  of  the  students  of  a  northern  school  connected  with 
the  Rgveda  and  was  considered  to  be  of  general  authority  be- 
fore the  eighth  century  of  our  era.2  With  respect  to  its  rela- 
tive position  among  the  works  on  the  sacred  law,  it  is  possible 
to  assert  that  it  is  older  than  the  famous  Manusamhita,  where 
one  of  its  rules  is  quoted  and  the  name  of  its  supposed  author 
[7]  is  mentioned,  while  in  its  turn  it  quotes  the  ancient  Dharma- 
sutra of  the  Manavas,  on  which  the  homonymous  metrical  law- 


Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XIV,  p.  XXVI  and  p.  80.    The  first-men- 
tioned passage  is  a  verse,   quoted  by  the  author   either   from   the   tradi- 
tion of  the  learned  or  from  an  older  work. 
Rumania,  Tantravarttika,  p.  179,  Benares  edition. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  7 

book  is  founded.1  It  is  also  later  than  Gautama's  Dharmasutra 
and  probably  belongs  to  the  period,  when  special  law-schools 
had  come  into  existence  and  taught  the  sacred  and  civil  law 
iu  rivalry  with  the  teachers  of  the  Vedic  schools.  These  cir- 
cumstances make  it  difficult  to  deduce  from  its  mention  of 
written  documents  more  than  the  obvious  general  conclusion 
that  the  art  of  writting  was  commonly  used  in  daily  life  and 
its  importance  for  legal  purposes  was  recognised  during  the 
period,  when  new  Vedic  schools  were  still  founded,  and  that 
it  is  erroneous  to  consider  the  admission  of  written  documents 
as  legal  evidence  to  be  a  distinctive  mark  of  the  metrical 
manuals  of  the  special  law-schools.  On  general  grounds  it  is 
probable  that  the  composition  of  the  Vasistha  Dharmasastra 
falls  some  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  our  era.  To  such 
a  conclusion  points  inter  alia  the  fact  that  it  is  older  than  our 
Manusamhita.  But  for  the  present  it  would  be  hazardous  to 
say  anything  more  definite  regarding  its  age. 

More  instructive  are  the  numerous  passages  in  the  canon- 
ical works  of  the  Southern  Buddhists  which  testify  to  an  ex- 
tensive use  of  writing  in  very  early  times.  All  those  sections 
of  the  Tripitaka,  which  contain  descriptions  of,  or  allusions  to, 
the  national  life  of  ancient  India,  furnish  some  contribution  to 
the  subject.  In  the  Jatakas,  where,  of  course,  most  may  be 
expected,  most  is  also  found.  Private  and  official  correspon- 
dence by  means  of  letters  is  referred  to  again  and  again  as 
something  quite  common.  In  the  Katahaka  Jataka  we  are  told 
how  Katahaka,  a  slave  of  the  Sheth,  or  great  banker  and  mer- 
chant of  Benares,  by  means  of  a  forged  letter  passed  himself 
off  as  the  son  of  his  master  and  obtained  the  daughter  of  the 
Sheth  of  another  town: — 

"He  (Katahaka)  who  performed  in  the  Sheth's  house  the 
work  of  a  store-keeper  thought,  'These  people  sha'nt  make  rue 
always  do  the  work  of  a  store-keeper  and  treat  me  as  a  slave, 
striking,  imprisoning  and  branding  me,  if  they  find  fault  with 
me.  In  a  neighbouring  kingdom  there  is  a  Sheth,  a  friend  of  [8] 
our  Sheth.  If  I  take  to  him  a  letter  (lekha)  written  in  our  Sheth's 
name,  and  if  I  go  to  him  and  say  that  I  am  the  Sheth's  son,  I 


1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XXV,  p.  XXIX  f. 


8  Indian  Studies.   No  III. 

may  deceive  him,  obtain  his  daughter  and  live  comfortably'. 
He  himself  took  a  leaf  (panna),  wrote  as  follows,  1  have  sent 
my  son  N.  N.  to  thee;  mutual  connexion  by  marriage  is  suit- 
able for  us;  give,  therefore,  thy  daughter  to  this  boy  and  let 
him  live  there;  when  I  have  time,  I  will  also  come',  and  he 
sealed  the  letter  with  the  Sheth's  seal.  Then  he  took  money 
for  the  journey,  perfumes,  clothes  and  so  forth  according  to 
his  pleasure,  travelled  to  the  neighbouring  kingdom  and  stood 
before  the  Sheth  there,  respectfully  saluting  him.  Then  the 
Sheth  asked  him,  'Friend,  whence  hast  thou  come?'  'From  Be- 
nares.5 'Whose  son  art  thou?'  'The  Benares  Sheth's.'  'For 
what  purpose  hast  thou  come?'  Thereupon  Katahaka  handed 
over  the  letter,  saying,  'You  will  know  it,  when  you  have  read 
this.'  The  Sheth  read  the  letter,  and  exclaiming,  'Now  I  live 
indeed!',  he  gave  him  joyfully  his  daughter  and  established 
him  there."1 

Again  the  Mahasutasoma  Jfitaka  mentions  a  correspond- 
ence by  means  of  letters  (panna)  between  a  teacher  of  Tak- 
kasila  and  his  former  pupils,2  and  the  Kama  Jataka3  narrates, 
how  a  prince,  who  had  renounced  the  throne  and  lived  in  a 
village,  was  asked  to  write  and  actually  wrote  a  letter  (panna) 
to  his  brother,  the  reigning  king,  requesting  a  remission  of  the 
royal  taxes  for  the  people  who  had  hospitably  received  him.4 

An  official  letter  is  mentioned  and  its  preparation  is  de- 
scribed in  the  Punnanadi  Jataka,5  which  gives  an  account  of 
the  manner,  in  which  the  future  Buddha  was  re-installed  in 
his  position  as  Purohita  of  the  king  of  Benares,  after  having 
been  banished  in  consequence  of  the  intrigues  of  his  enemies. 
"Afterwards  the  king  remembered  his  (the  Bodhisattva's)  vir- 
tues, and  reflected  thus,  'It  is  not  proper  to  send  somebody 
in  order  to  call  my  teacher;  but  I  will  compose  a  verse,  write 
a  [9]  letter  (panna),  order  crow's  flesh  to  be  cooked,  tie  up  the 


1  FausbOlI,  Jatakas,  vol.  I,  p.  451,  1.  22  S. 
*  Op.  cit.,  vol.  V,  p.  458. 
8  Op.  cit.,  vol.  IV,  p.  169. 

4  Compare  also  the  Harita  Jataka,  No.  331,  op.  cit.,  vol.  Ill,  p.  498,  1.  18, 
where  the  ministers  send  a  panria   to   the   king   regarding  Harita's  mis- 
conduct (reference  kindly  supplied  by  Prof.  S.  v.  Oldenburg). 

5  Op.  cit.,  vol.  II,  p.  173f. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  9 

letter  (panna)  and  the  flesh  in  white  cloth,  seal  it  with  the 
royal  seal  (rajamuddika)  and  send  it  to  him.  If  he  is  clever, 
he  will  come  after  reading  the  letter  and  recognising  the  crow's 
flesh;  if  he  is  not  clever,  he  wo'nt  come5.  He  then  wrote  the 
verse,  which  begins  with  the  words  punnam  nadim,  on  a 
sheet."  Of  course  the  future  Buddha  was  clever,  and  came 
back  to  Benares. 

Further,  some  other  passages  mention  official  correspond- 
ence between  kings.  In  the  Cullakalinga  Jataka1  we  are  told 
how  powerful  Kalinga,  the  king  of  Dantapura,  eager  for  war- 
fare, tried  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  the  princes  of  India,  whom 
he  found  disinclined  to  gratify  his  bellicose  inclinations.  In 
order  to  effect  his  purpose  he  sent  his  four  beautiful  daughters 
in  a  covered  cart  through  the  territories  of  his  neighbours  and 
ordered  their  guards  to  proclaim  that  any  prince,  who  might 
take  them  into  his  harem,  would  have  to  fight  their  father. 
Assaka  (Asmaka),  the  king  of  Potali,  dared  to  ai'rest  their  pro- 
gress, and  made  all  the  four  maidens  his  queens.  Thereupon 
the  Kalinga  marched  out  with  his  army.  But  Nandisena,  the 
minister  of  the  Assaka  king,  the  Jataka  continues,  "hearing  of 
his  approach  sent  a  royal  decree  (sasana)  to  the  following  ef- 
fect, 'Let  him  stop  within  the  boundaries  of  his  territory,  let 
him  not  cross  our  frontier,  (else)  a  fight  will  take  place  between 
the  two  kings5.  When  he  (the  Kalinga)  had  heard  this  letter 
read  (lekham  sutva),  he  stopped  within  his  own  territory."  Here 
the  term  sasana,  literally  'an  order",  is  of  considerable  interest, 
as  it  is  the  representative  of  the  Sanskrit  sasana,  which  occurs 
so  frequently  as  the  technical  term  for  landgrants.2 

Another  case  occurs  in  the  Asadisa  Jataka,3  according  to 
which  seven  kings  besieged  the  town  of  Benares  and  sent  to 
Brahmadatta,  its  ruler,  a  letter  (panna),  asking  him  either  to 
give  up  his  kingdom  or  to  fight.  The  future  Buddha,  who 
was  then  Prince  Asadisa,  king  Brahmadatta's  elder  brother, 
came  to  the  asistance  of  the  latter.  He  cut  (achindi)  on  an 


1  No.  301,  op.  cit.,  vol.  UI,  p.  4  ff. 

2  Two   other  cases,   in  which  letters,   called  panna  and  sasana,  are  men- 
tioned occur  in  No.  186,  op.  cit.,  vol.  II,  p.  104,  1.  1.  8  and  9,  and  No.  462, 
op.  cit.,  vol.  IV,  p.  133,  1.  1.  4  and  9  (Oldenburg). 

3  No.  181,  op.  cit.,  vol.  II,  p.  89  ff. 


10  Indian  Studies.    No  III. 

arrow  the  following  letters  (akkhardni):  "I,  Prince  Asadisa, 
have  come,  and  shall  destroy  with  one  arrow  the  lives  of  all 
[10]  of  you;  let  those  fly  who  wish  to  live,"  and,  being  unrivalled 
in  the  archer's  craft,  he  shot  his  arrow  on  the  knob  of  the 
golden  dinner-vessel  of  the  besiegers.  The  latter,  who  where 
just  sitting  at  dinner,  read  the  letters  and,  of  course,  speedily 
raised  the  siege. 

The  Jatakas  contain  also  a  passage,  mentioning  the  use 
of  writing  for  legal  purposes.  In  the  Ruru  Jataka1  a  debtor 
invites  his  creditors  to  come  with  the  bonds  (inapannani), 
which  he  had  given  to  them,  to  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  in 
order  to  receive  payment.  The  same  Jataka,  (p.  257)  mentions 
further  the  custom  of  inscribing  particular  important  records 
or  compositions  on  gold-plates.  Khema,  the  queen  of  Benares, 
had  dreamt  of  a  gold-coloured  deer  and  had  notified  to  her 
husband  that  she  must  die,  if  the  deer  was  not  found.  The 
uxorious  king  composed  this  verse: — 

'To  whom  shall  I  give  a  rich  village  and  women  decked  with  ornaments? 
Who  will  tell  me  of  that  deer,  the  best  deer  among  deer?" 

which  he  caused  to  be  engraved  on  a  gold-plate.  The  plate 
he  made  over  to  his  prime  minister  and  caused  the  inscription 
to  be  read  to  the  townspeople.2  While  in  this  case  the  text  en- 
graved is  a  kind  of  proclamation,  we  learn  from  the  Kanha  Ja- 
taka3 that  in  rich  families  statements  regarding  the  acquisition  of 
property  were  preserved  in  this  peculiar  manner.  The  future 
Buddha,  the  story  says,  who  had  been  born  as  the  son  af  a  Brah- 
man possessing  eighty  millions,  after  the  death  of  his  parents 
"one  day  examined  his  treasury.  Seated  on  a  splendid  couch, 
he  caused  a  gold-plate  to  be  brought  and  looked  at  the  letters 
(akkharani),  incised  on  it  by  his  ancestors,  which  stated,  'So 
much  wealth  has  been  gained  by  such  a  one  and  so  much  by 
such  another  one'." 


1  No.  482,  op.  cit.,  vol.  IV,  p.  256. 

2  According  to  No.  159,  op.  cit.,  vol.  II,  p.  36,  the  king  of  Benares  caused 
the    information    about  a  gold-coloured    peacock    to   be   engraved   on   a 
gold-plate,   which   one   of  his   successors   caused  to  be  read  out  (Olden- 
burg). 

3  No.  440,  op.  cit.,  vol.  IV,  p.  7. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  11 

Three  other  cases,  mentioned  respectively  in  the  Kurudhamma 
Jataka,1  the  Tesakuna  Jataka  and  the  Sambhava  Jataka  are 
again  different.2  All  three  stories  narrate,  how  particularly 
valued  moral  maxims  were  engraved  on  gold-plates  apparently 
in  order  that  they  might  [11]  not  be  forgotten.  In  the  first  the 
inscription  records  at  the  king's  command  the  Kurudhamma, 
the  law  of  the  Kurus,  which  is  identical  with  the  five  great 
precepts,  imposed  by  all  Indian  religions  on  laymen,  fNot  to 
slay,  not  to  steal,  not  to  commit  adultery,  not  to  lie,  not  to 
drink  intoxicating  drinks.3  According  to  the  second  story  the 
future  Buddha  caused  the  vinicchayadhamma  "the  maxims  con- 
cerning righteous  judgment  and  the  behaviour  of  kings",  which 
he  had  preached,  to  be  perpetuated  in  the  same  way.3  In 
addition  to  these  testimonies  for  the  use  of  writing  the  Kafahaka 
Jataka,  already  quoted,  gives  a  hint  regarding  the  existence 
of  writing-schools  and  the  manner  in  which  writing  was  taught 
in  ancient  India.  But,  this  had  be  better  reserved  for  a  fuller 
discussion  of  that  subject. 

Equally  valuable  are  a  number  of  passages  of  the  Vinaya- 
pitaka,  which  Professor  Oldenberg's  Index  makes  easily  acces- 
sible. Writing  (lekhd)  and  writers  (lekhaka)  are  mentioned 
in  the  Bhikkhu  Pacittiya  II.  2  and  in  the  Bhikhun!  Pacittiya 
49.  2.  In  the  former  passage  writing  is  enumerated  among 
"the  excellent  branches  of  learning,  which  are  not  blamed,  nor 
despised,  nor  contemned,  nor  disregarded,  (but)  esteemed  in  the 
various  countries."  In  the  Parajika  section  a  curious  practice 
is  forbidden  to  the  Buddhist  monks,  in  which  writing  plays 
an  important  part.  "(If  one)  cuts  (chindati),  the  text  says,  an 
inscription  (lekham)  to  this  effect,  cHe  who  dies  in  this  manner, 
will  obtain  wealth,  or  will  obtain  fame,  or  will  go  to  heaven/ 
(the  cutter)  is  guilty  of  a  Dukkata  (dushkrta)  sin  for  each 
single  letter  (akkharakkharaya).  (If  anybody]  sees  the  inscrip- 


1  No.  276,  op.  cit.,  vol.  II,  pp.  371,  381. 

2  No.  522,  op.  cit.,   vol.  V,   p.  125,   compare  No.  515,   op.  cit.,  vol.  V,  p.  59 
(Grierson). 

8  According  to  Jataka  No.  509,  op.  cit.,  vol.  IV,  p.  488  f.,  information  about 
hidden  treasure  was  written  on  gold-plates.  The  same  story  narrates 
that  Visvakarma  wrote  with  jatihiiigula  on  the  walls  of  the  pa^asalas 
which  he  built  by  order  of  Indra  (Oldenburg). 


12  Indian  Studies.   No  III. 

tion,  and  forms  the  painful  resolution  to  die,  (the  engraver  will 
be  guilty)  of  a  Thullaccaya  (sthulatyaya)  sin;  (in  case  the 
reader  actually)  dies,  (the  engraver  will  be  guilty)  of  a  Para- 
jika  offence."  l 

The  passage  indicates  that  it  was  the  practice  of  religious 
teachers  to  incite  their  lay-hearers  by  the  promise  of  rewards 
in  the  next  birth  to  commit  suicide,  and  that  they  distri- 
buted tablets  of  wood  or  bamboo  with  inscriptions  specifying 
the  manner  of  the  death  and  the  rewards  to  be  gained.  The 
statement  is  perfectly  credible,  as  religious  suicide,  or  suicide 
with  the  hope  of  rewards  in  the  next  birth,  was  very  com- 
mon in  ancient  India  and  even  occurred  not  rarely  within 
[12]  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years.2  The  Dharmasutras  and  the 
metrical  Siurtis  mention  the  voluntary  death  by  starvation  or  by 
other  more  violent  means  and  even  recommend  it  to  the  her- 
mits and  to  the  other  ascetics,3  and  there  are  passages  in  the 
Mahabhfirata,  where  ascetics,  kings  and  others  are  recommended 
to  put  an  end  to  their  existence  by  starvation,  jumping  down 
from  precipices,  voluntary  cremation  and  so  forth.  The  Jainas 
were  and  are  universally  in  favour  of  the  cdeath  of  the  sages', 
though  it  has  gone  out  of  fashion  in  our  days.  And  Hiwen 
Tsiang,  Siyuki  I,  p.  232  (Beal)  testifies  to  the  prevalence  of 
the  belief  that  a  jump  from  the  Aksaya  Vata,  the  sacred  fig- 
tree  at  Allahabad,  secured  re-birth  among  the  gods,  as  well  as 
to  the  fact  that  it  was  acted  on  in  the  seventh  century.  Like 
the  majority  of  the  Brahnainical  teachers  who,  though  giving  the 
old  rules,  strongly  disapprove  of  suicide,  the  Buddhists  naturally 
opposed  such  practices.  Their  statement  that  written  exhortations 
to  suicide  used  to  be  given,  furnishes  another  valuable  piece  of 
evidence  for  the  very  general  use  of  writing  in  ancient  India. 

Finally  there  are  still  two  remarkable  passages  in  the 
Mahavagga  I,  43  and  49,  which  are  also  of  considerable  im- 


1  See  also  Prof.  Oldenberg's  remarks  in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XIII, 
p.  XXXII  f. 

2  In  January  1869  there  was  still  a  guard  on  the  Girnar,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent pilgrims   from  jumping   from   the   rock,   called   the   Bhairav  jhdmp 
'Bhairava's  leap'. 

8  See  Manu  VI,  31  and  the  passages  quoted  in  the  Synopsis  to  my  Trans- 
lation, Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XXV,  pp.  204,  567. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  13 

portance  for  our  question.1  The  first  tells  us  that  a  likhitako 
coro,  a  thief  whose  name  had  been  placarded  or  proclaimed 
in  writing  in  the  king's  palace  had  been  received  into  the 
order  of  the  Buddhist  monks.  The  people  murmured  against 
this  and  Buddha,  of  course,  forbade  for  the  future  the  ad- 
mission of  proclaimed  thieves.  The  story  confirms  the  hints, 
to  be  gathered  from  the  Jatakas,  regarding  written  royal  procla- 
mations. The  second  passage,  which  is  literally  reproduced  in 
Bhikkhu  Pacittiya  65.  1,  and  hence  must  be  very  ancient,  de- 
scribes in  detail  the  deliberations  of  the  parents  of  a  boy  of 
Rajagrha,  called  Upali,  about  their  son's  education.  They  agree 
that  it  would  be  beneficial  for  his  future,  if  he  learnt  lekha 
'writing',  ganana  'arithmetic5  and  rupa,  literally  'forms'.  But 
[13]  they  find  that  the  first  art  might  injure  his  hands,  the  second 
his  chest  and  the  third  his  eyes.  Hence  they  finally  resolve  to 
permit  him  to  enter  the  order  of  the  Buddhist  monks,  who  are  of 
good  moral  conduct,  dine  well  and  sleep  in  well  sheltered  beds. 
Even  at  first  sight  it  seems  probable  that  rupa,  ga- 
nana and  lekha  were  the  three  "Rs",  or  subjects  taught  in 
the  elementary  schools  of  ancient  India,  when  the  Mahavagga 
was  composed.  This  conjecture  is  confirmed  by  a  remark, 
which  king  Kharavela  makes  about  his  own  education  in  the  Ha- 
thigumpha  inscription,  dated  in  the  year  165  of  the  Maurya  era. 
He  says  concerning  himself:  — 

[i] 


wrftra  [11] 

"Endowed  with  the  body  of  a  glorious  prince,  he  played 
during  fifteen  years  children's  games.  Then,  being  expert  in 
writing,  rupa,  arithmetic  and  legal  rules  and  excelling  in  all 
sciences,  he  ruled  during  nine  years  as  Caesar." 

Dr.  Bhagvanlal  renders  the  untranslated  word  rupa  by 
"painting",  while  Professors  Oldenberg  and  Rhys  Davids,  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XIII,  p.  201,  take  it  to  mean  in  the  Maha- 
vagga "money-  changing",  because  Buddhaghosa  says  in  the  com- 


-1  See  also  the  remarks  on  these  two  stories  by  Prof.  Oldenberg  in  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XIII,  p.  XXXII f.  and  by  D'Alwis,  Introduction 
to  Kachchhayana's  Grammar,  pp.  XXVII,  CXVf.,  73—101. 

2  Actes  du  VI.  Congres  Int.  Or.  Ill,  2,  p.  154. 


14  Indian  Studies.    No  III. 

mentary  that  "he  who  learns  the  rupa-sutta  must  turn  over  and 
over  many  kar  sap  anas  and  look  at  them".  The  rendering 
"money-changing",  though  not  far  from  the  truth,  is  a  little 
too  specific.  For  it  is  not  probable  that  a  royal  prince  would 
qualify  himself  to  become  a  banker.  But,  the  curriculum  of 
the  so-called  indigenous  schools  of  the  present  day  includes 
a  branch  of  elementary  learning,  which  may  be  called  rupa 
"forms"  and  to  which  Buddhaghosa's  explanation  may  also 
refer.1  After  the  children  have  mastered  the  art  of  writing 
and  the  most  elementary  arithmetical  operations,  addition,  sub- 
traction and  particularly  the  amk  or  complicated  multiplication 
tables,  they  are  instructed  in  the  practical  application  of  arithmetic 
[14]  to  simple  commercial  and  agricultural  affairs.  They  learn, 
how  many  Dams,  Korls,  Paisas,  Paulas  and  so  forth  go  to  the 
Rupee,  the  rules  for  calculating  interest  and  wages  as  well  as 
the  simplest  rules  of  mensuration.2  This  commercial  and  agri- 
cultural arithmetic  is  no  doubt  what  is  meant  by  rupa  and  it 
may  be  that  in  ancient  times,  when  coins  were  rare,  specimens 
were  placed  before  the  pupils,  which  they  had  to  handle  and 
look  at,  in  order  to  learn  their  form,  weight  and  marks.  As 
far  as  I  am  aware,  this  is  not  done  in  our  days.3 

With  respect  to  the  instruction  in  writing,  there  is,  as 
stated  above,  something  more  in  the  beginning  of  the  Katahaka 
Jataka.  "When  the  son  of  the  Sheth,  the  story  says,  learnt 
writing,  the  slave  (Katahaka)  too  went  with  him  carrying  his 


1  My  statements   regarding  the   indigenous   schools   are   based   on   what  I 
have  seen  in  Western,  Northern  and  Central  India.     The  Rev.  J.  Long's 
edition  of  Adam's  Reports  on  Vernacular  Education,    pp.  19ff.  and  98  ff. 
furnishes   confirmatory   statements.     See    also   Captain   Harkness'   article 
on  the   schools   in   Southern   India,   Jour.  Roy.  As.  Soc.,   vol.  I,   p.  15  f., 
Mr.  Gover's   on   the   Dyal   schools  of  Madras,   Indian  Antiquary,   vol.  II, 
p.  52  ff.,  and  Mr.  Raghunathjl's  on  the  Marathl  schools,  Indian  Antiquary, 
vol.  VIII,  p.  246  ff. 

2  What  is  taught   in   this  way   in   the   indigenous   schools   of  Gujarat   has 
been  collected  by   Rao   Saheb   Bhogilal  Pranvallabh   and   published  by 
the  Bombay  Educational  Department  under  the  title  Detl  Hisab,  "Native 
Arithmetic",  Pts.  I  and  II. 

3  According  to   Major    Temple   the   Burmese    market -girls    were    actually 
taught   in    this    way    within    the    last    thirty    years,    Indian    Antiquary, 
vol.  XXIV,  p.  247,  Notes. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  15 

board  and  (thus)  learnt  writing."  The  sentence  indicates,  that 
the  Sheth's  son  did  not  receive  instruction  at  home,  but  went 
to  a  master,  who  presumably  kept  a  school.  The  mention  of 
the  "board"  (phalaka)  is  very  interesting.  It  agrees  with  the 
narrative  of  the  Northern  Buddhist  Lalitavistara,  according  to 
which  young  Siddhartha,  the  future  Buddha,  on -going  to  the 
school  of  the  Brahman  Visvamitra,  brought  with  him  "a  golden 
pencil  and  a  tablet  of  red  sandal  wood".1  And  the  actualities 
in  the  indigenous  schools  of  Western,  Northern,  Central  and 
Eastern  India2  furnish  the  necessary  commentary  on  the  two 
passages.  Nearly  everywhere  the  board  or  wooden  tablet  is 
still  in  use  for  the  first  instruction  in  writing,  and  it  is  either 
covered  with  sand  in  which  the  letters  are  drawn  with  a  small 
stick,  or  it  is  varnished  and  the  letters  are  drawn  with  a  stick, 
smeared  with  a  solution  of  white  chalk  instead  of  ink.3  It  is 
[15]  evident  that  the  Lalitavistara  and  the  Jataka  refer  to  the  me- 
thod of  instruction,  which  is  still  followed,  and  the  information, 
conveyed  by  the  latter  and  Mahavagga  I.  49,  makes  it  pro- 
bable that  elementary  schools  existed  at  the  period,  when  the 
Buddhist  canon  was  composed,  and  that  their  curriculum  was 
about  the  same  as  that  of  the  indigenous  Pathsalas,  Lehsa^s, 
Nisals  (i.  e.  *Lihsalas)  and  Tolls  of  modern  India. 

In  the  portions  of  the  Nik.ayas,  which  I  have  read,  I  have 
met  with  fewer  references  to  writing.    But  they  are  not  entirely 


Professor  Terrien  de  la  Couperie,  Babylonian  and  Or.  Record,  vol.  I, 
p.  59,  states  that  these  words  are  found  in  the  older  Chinese  translation, 
Pu  yao  king,  dated  308  A.  D.  The  legend  possibly  goes  back  to  the 
beginning  of  our  era. 

Regarding  Bengal  and  Behar,  see  the  passages  from  Adam's  Report  quoted 
above. 

In  Gujarat  the  latter  method  is  the  more  common  one,  and  a  vessel, 
filled  with  a  solution  of  chalk  usually  belongs  to  the  paraphernalia  of 
the  schoolboys.  But  I  have  likewise  seen  the  sanded  board,  on  which 
the  grains  are  made  to  adhere  slightly  by  gum  arabic.  Very  poor  boys 
simply  scattered  dust  on  their  boards  and  wrote  in  that,  or  if  they  had 
no  boards,  they  brought  brass  kettles  or  pans  and  wrote  on  these  with 
chalk.  This  happened  even  in  the  Government  schools,  where  more 
usually  slates  and  chalk-solution  were  used  by  the  beginners  or  Amk- 
valas,  as  the  school-phrase  is.  Beruni,  India,  vol.  I,  p.  182  (Sachau), 
writing  iu  A.  D.  1030,  mentions  the  use  of  black  tablets  in  the  schools, 
on  which  the  children  wrote  with  a  white  material. 


16  Indian  Studies.    No  III. 

wanting.  Thus  the  Brahmajala  Sutta  14  and  the  Samanna- 
phala  49,  mention  a  game,  called  akkharika,1  which  according 
to  Buddhaghosa  means  "reading  letters  in  the  air  or  in  the 
vault  of  the  sky",  see  also  Childers,  Pali  Diet.  s.  v.  pitthl. 

As  regards  the  question  to  which  exact  period  the  testi- 
mony of  the  "Pali  Canon  may  refer,  the  answer,  I  think,  must 
be,  "to  the  fifth  and  possibly  to  the  sixth  century  B.  C."  In 
the  introduction  to  the  Vinayapitaka  Professor  Oldenberg  has 
shown  that  there  are  good  reasons  for  assuming  the  composi- 
tion of  the  Mahavagga,  Pacittiya  and  Parajika  sections  to  pre- 
cede the  Council  of  Vesall  (ca.  380  B.  C.)  and  to  fall  even 
somewhat  earlier  than  the  year  400  B.  C.2  While  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  refer  to  his  discussion  on  the  Vinaya  and  to  Pro- 
fessor M.  Miiller's  review  of  the  question  in  the  introduction  to 
the  Dhammapada,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  X,  p.  XXIX  if., 
the  case  of  the  Jatakas  requires  a  fuller  consideration. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  sculptures  on  the  Sanchi 
and  Bharahut  or  Bharaut  Stupas  contain  representations  of  va- 
rious Jatakas.  On  the  Sanchi  Stupa  the  Sanaa  Jataka  has  been 
identified3  and  others,  like  the  Mahakapi  Jataka,  may  be  re- 
cognised even  on  the  Plates  in  Dr.  Fergusson's  Tree  and  Ser- 
pent [16]  Worship.  On  the  Bharahut  Stupa  twenty-one  sculptured 
scenes,  to  which  the  titles  are  mostly  added,  have  been  found 
to  correspond  with  Birth  Stories  in  Professor  Fausboll's  printed 
edition,  and  'Dr.  E.  Hultzsch  has  shown  that  even  a  Pada  of 
a  verse,  used  as  a  title,  agrees  with  the  printed  text.4  Among 


1  Mentioned  also  in  the  Cullavagga  I,  13.  2  and  elsewhere. 

2  Vinayapitaka,  vol.  I,  p.  XXXIV— XXXVIII. 

3  Jour.  Roy.  As.  Soc.  1894,  p.  21  Iff. 

4  Indian  Antiquary,   vol.  XXI,   p.  225  f.,   where  Dr.  Hultzsch  has  reprinted 
his   excellent   edition  of  the  inscriptions  together  with  a  synopsis  of  the 
stories  hitherto  identified  and   other  very   valuable  remarks.     The  fact 
that  the  titles  of  the  stories  frequently  differ,   the  Pali  text  naming  the 
story  after  one  chief  actor  or  incident  and  the  inscription  after  another, 
has  been  discussed  by  Professor  Rhys  Davids  in  the  Introduction  to  his 
Buddhist  Birthstories   p.  LX  ff.     And   he   has   shown   that  it  in   no   way 
goes  against  the  assumption  that  the  canonical  collection  existed  at  the 
time  when  the  sculptures  were  made,   because  vacillations  with   respect 
to   the   titles   occur  likewise  in   the  Pali  collection.     I  would   add   that 
variations  in  titles  are  also  found  in  Brahminical  literature.    Thus  Bana 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  17 

them  there  are  also  two,  the  Rurumiga  and  the  Asadisa,  which 
have  been  quoted  above  as  witnesses  for  the  use  of  writing.  Both 
the  Stupas  date  from  the  third  century  B.  C.,  some  additions 
only  belonging  to  the  second  century.  The  age  of  the  Sanchi 
Stupa  is  proved  by  a  fragment  of  an  Asoka  Edict,  which  agrees 
in  part  with  the  so-called  Kosambl  Edict  on  the  Allahabad  Pil- 
lar, and  by  the  fact  that  the  characters  of  more  than  nine  tenth 
of  its  nearly  four  hundred  inscriptions  fully  agree  with  those 
of  the  Asoka  Edicts,  while  about  two  score  show  slightly  more 
advanced  forms.1  Similarly,  nearly  all  the  hundred  and  fifty 
three  published  inscriptions  of  the  Bharahut  Stupa  are  written 
in  the  alphabet  of  the  Edicts,  and  it  is  chiefly  Dhanabhuti's 
inscription  on  the  gateway-pillar  dated  "in  the  reign  of  the 
Sungas",  which  is  incised  in  more  modern  letters.  The  pieces 
with  the  later  characters  are,  of  course,  additions  or  repairs,  made 
[17]  after  the  completion  of  the  original  structure.2  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  very  probable  that  in  the  third  century 
B.  C.  our  collection  of  the  Jatakas  formed  part  of  the  Buddhist 
Canon,  which,  as  the  Bairat  Edict,  addressed  to  the  Magadha 
Saiigha,  and  various  inscriptions  on  the  Stupas  indicate,  was 
then  fully  settled.  Both  on  the  Sanchi  and  Bharahut  Stupas 
we  read  of  monks  who  had  the  title  pacanekdyika  (pdncanai- 


calls  the  Bhagavadglta,  Anantaglta.  Kumarila  uses  the  title  Ascarya  Par- 
van  for  the  Putradarsana  Parvan  of  the  MSS.  of  the  MahSbharata,  and 
there  are  Vedic  hymns  with  two  or  three  names.  Such  a  vacillation 
comes  quite  natural  to  a  Hindit,  who  is  accustomed  to  substitute  endless 
synonyms  for  technical  terms  and  names  of  plants  animals  etc.,  and 
even  changes  portions  of  personal  names,  saying  Vikramaditya,  Vikra- 
marka  or  Vikramanka,  though  he  means  the  same  individual.  The 
discrepancies  between  the  Pali  stories  and  the  representations  in  Bharahut, 
which  Prof.  Minayeff  believed  to  have  discovered  (Recherches  I,  140ff.), 
are,  I  think,  merely  such  as  may  be  expected  to  be  found  between  all 
narratives  and  their  illustrations  by  sculptures. 

1  See  my  articles  on  the  Sanchi  Stupa  inscriptions  in  the  Epigraphia  In- 
dica,  vol.  II,   p.  87  ff.  and  p.  366  ff.,   which  latter  is  accompanied  by  two 
plates,   giving  specimens   of  inscriptions   in   the   old   and   the   more    ad- 
vanced characters. 

2  See   the  Plate   in  vol.  XL  of  the   Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlan- 
dischen  Gesellschaft,  and  Indian  Antiquary,  vol.  XIV,   p.  139.     The  in- 
scription of  Dhanabhuti  on  the  gateway-pillar  belongs  in  my  opinion  to 
the  middle  of  the  second  century  B.  C. 

Buhler,  Indian  Studies.  III.  2 


18  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

kayika)1  i.  e.  'teacher  of  the  five  Nikayas5,  and  in  Bharahut 
appears  also  a  petaki  i.  e.  ca  person  who  knew  or  taught  the 
Pi^aka  or  Pitakas',  about  whose  designation  more  will  be  said 
below. 

The  evidence  of  the  relievos  on  the  Stupas  furnishes  a 
lower  date  for  the  Jatakas,  later  than  which  their  use  for 
the  edification  of  the  Buddhist  laymen  cannot  be  put.  But 
there  are  other  circumstances  connected  with  them,  which 
make  it  very  probable,  that  the  picture  of  the  national  life  of 
[18]  India,  furnished  by  them,  refers  to  a  much  earlier  period  than 
the  third  century  B.  C.  Though,  as  Professor  Rhys  Davids 
has  shown  op.  cit.,  p.  LV.  ff.,  nothing  definite  is  known  re- 
garding the  date  when  the  present  collection  was  formed  and 
incorporated  in  the  Buddhist  canon,  it  is  already  now  evident 
that  the  stories  which  they  contain  are  not,  as  was  believed 
formerly,  inventions  of  the  Buddhist  monks,  but  almost  through- 
out loans  from  the  ancient  Brahminical  literature  or  the  old  pre- 
Buddhistic  national  tradition  of  India.  A  very  good  statement 
of  this  view  by  Dr.  S.  von  Oldenburg  has  been  translated  in 


By  an  oversight  I  have  given  in  the  Epigraphia  Indica,  vol.  II,  p.  93, 
pancanaikayika  as  the  Sanskrit  equivalent  of  pacanekayika.  Though  such 
a  form  might  be  defended  by  analogous  compounds  like  tridraunika,  it 
is  equally  possible  and  no  doubt  better  to  assume  that  the  prototype  of 
the  Prakrit  word  was  formed  in  accordance  with  the  rule,  exemplified 
by  cMurvaidyalca  'one  who  knows  or  teaches  the  four  Vedas'.  For,  in 
the  ancient  epigraphic  Prakrits  panca  and  panca  would  both  be  repre- 
sented by  pamca  or  paca  i.  e.  pacca.  These  remarks  may  possibly  meet 
the  doubts,  which  M.  A.  Barth  has  expressed  regarding  the  word  in  the 
Bulletin  des  Religions  de  Tlnde,  1894,  Bouddhisme,  p.  1,  note  1.  M.  A. 
Barth's  further  doubts,  whether  the  five  Nikayas,  known  in  the  third 
century  B.  C.,  may  be  identified  with  those  of  the  Pali  Canon,  do  not 
appear  justified  to  me.  Assuming  the  correctness  of  his  statement  that  the 
'five  Nikayas'  are  unknown  to  the  Northern  Buddhists,  this  fact  would, 
in  my  opinion,  not  prove  anything  against  the  antiquity  of  these  collec- 
tions, because  the  Northern  Buddhists  have  preserved  only  the  disjecta 
membra  of  an  old  tradition.  No  doubt,  when  the  Northerners  and  the 
Southerners  agree  with  respect  to  a  particular  text  or  collection,  its  great 
age  is  clearly  established.  But  it  seems  to  me  dangerous  to  invert  the 
proposition  and  to  allege  that  books  or  collections  of  the  Southern  Ca- 
non, not  known  to  the  Northerners,  must  be  considered  later  additions 
for  this  reason  alone. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  19 

the  Jour.  Roy.  As.  Soc.  of  1893,  p.  301  ff.,  and  I  can  only 
say  that  a  closer  study  of  the  Jatakas  had  led  me  to  the  same 
conclusion  before  the  publication  of  Dr.  von  Oldenburg's  pa- 
per. Moreover,  the  detailed  researches  of  Professor  Leumann 
and  of  Dr.  R.  G.  Bhandarkar  have  yielded  exactly  the  same 
results,  see  the  Wiener  Zeitschrift  fur  d.  Kunde  d.  Morg.  Vol. 
V,  p.  11  Iff.,  the  Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morg.  Gesellschaft 
Vol.  XLVIII,  p.  65  ff.  and  the  Transactions  of  the  IXth  Int. 
Or.  Congress,  1892,  Vol.  I,  p.  422  ff. 

This  discovery  makes  the  question  regarding  the  exact 
date,  at  which  the  loan  may  have  been  effected,  a  matter  of 
minor  importance.  The  chief  point  for  consideration  is,  if  in 
effecting  the  loan  the  Buddhist  monks  altered  much  and  espe- 
cially, if  the  description  of  Indian  life  which  the  Jatakas  con- 
tain, has  been  made  to  agree  with  that  of  the  times  when 
Buddhism  had  become  a  power  in  India.  The  answer  can  only 
be,  that  there  are  remarkably  few  traces  of  Buddhism  in  these 
stories  and  that  they  do  not  describe  the  condition  of  India  in 
the  third  or  fourth  century  B.  C.,  but  an  older  one.  Peculiarly 
Buddhistic  are  only  the  introduction  of  the  future  Buddha  into 
most  tales,  who  invariably  is  identified  with  the  wisest  and  best 
of  the  actors,  occasional  spiteful  remarks  against  the  Vedic 
animal  sacrifices  and  against  the  deified  national  heroes,  whom 
the  orthodox  sects  worshipped,  and  intentional  perversions  of 
the  legends  told  of  them.  The  doctrine  of  the  power  of  the 
Karrnan,  the  moral  maxims  and  the  few  religious  observances 
such  as  the  sanctification  of  the  Uposatha  or  Parvan  days, 
which  the  stories  inculcate,  are  common  to  the  Buddhists  and 
to  all  other  Indian  religions,  whether  orthodox  or  heterodox. 
[19]  With  respect  to  these  there  was  not  much  to  change,  except 
perhaps  some  of  the  technical  expressions. 

On  the  other  hand  the  descriptions  of  the  political,  reli- 
gious and  social  condition  of  the  people  clearly  refer  to  the 
ancient  time  before  the  rise  of  the  great  Eastern  dynasties  of 
the  Nandas  and  the  Mauryas,  when  Pataliputra  had  become 
the  capital  of  India.  The  Jatakas  mention  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other,  and  they  know  nothing  of  great  empires  which  com- 
prised the  whole  or  large  parts  of  India.  The  number  of  the 
kingdoms,  whose  rulers  play  a  part  in  the  stories,  is  very  con- 

2* 


20  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

siderable.  The  majority  of  the  names,  such  as  Madra,  the  two  Paii- 
calas,  Kosala,  Videha,  Kasi,  and  Vidarbha  agrees  with  those 
mentioned  in  the  Vedic  literature,  while  a  few  others,  like  Ka- 
liftga  and  Assaka  i.  e.  Asmaka  or  Asvaka,  occur  in  Brahmi- 
nical  literature  first  in  the  Epics  and  in  Panini's  Sutras.  The 
characteristic  names  of  the  Andhras,  the  Panqlyas  and  Keralas 
are  not  mentioned. 

Though    a    political    centre    was    wanting,    frequent    state- 
ments   regarding    the    instruction    of  the  young  Brahmans    and 
nobles  show  that  there  was  an  intellectual  centre  and  that  it  lay 
in    Takkasila,   the    capital    of  distant    Gandhara.     Takkasila   is 
according   to    the  Jatakas    the    town,    where    the    youth    of  the 
tAvo  highest  classes  received  instruction  in  the  three  Vedas  and 
the  twelve  or  eighteen  branches  of  learning  (sippa  or  vijjathana). 
This  agrees  with  some  statements  in  other  parts  of  the  Canon, 
where,  as  in  the  Vinayapitaka,  the  famous  physician  Jlvaka  Koma- 
rabhacca  is  represented  as  having  studied  medicine  in  Takka- 
sila.   And  it  is  very  credible  that  Gandhara,  the  native  country 
of  Panini,   was   a   stronghold   of  Brahminical  learning  certainly 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  B.  C.,  and  perhaps  even  earlier. 
The  statements  regarding  the  religious  condition  of  India 
point  to  an  equally  early  period.    Just  as  the  three  Vedas  are  the 
basis  of  the  higher  instruction,  so  the  prevalent  religion  is  that 
of  the  Path  of  Works  with  its  ceremonies  and  sacrifices,  among 
which  several  like  the  Vacapeyya  (vajapeya)  and  the  Rajasuya 
are    specially    and    repeatedly    mentioned.     Side    by    side   with 
these   appear  popular  festivals,    celebrated,  when   the  Naksatra 
had  been  proclaimed,  with  general  merry-makings  and  copious 
libations  of  Sura,   as  well  as  the  worship  of  demons  and  trees, 
[20]  all  of  which  go  back  to  the  earliest  times.    Nor  are  the  her- 
mits in  the  woods  and  the  wandering  ascetics  unknown.    Most 
of  the   heroes   take  the  isipabbajja,    i.  e.}    renounce  the  world 
according   to  the  rule  of  the  Rsis,    and    live  with   their   sacred 
fires   in   the   hill-forests,   whence   they   descend    occasionally  in 
order  to   procure   salt   and  pungent  condiments  (lonambilaseva- 
nattha).     The  wandering  ascetics  (tapasa)  appear  to  belong  to 
different  orders,   as   various   distinctive   marks   are    mentioned. 
But  only  those  of  one  division,  the  Ajivikas,  are  actually  named, 
among  whom  the  future  Buddha  himself  was  once  born  in  a  for- 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  21 

raer  Kalpa.  These  are,  as  Professor  Kern  has  first  pointed  out, 
the  ancient  Vaisnava  devotees  of  Narayana  and  particularly  the 
Paramahamsas,  who  according  to  the  lately  recovered  Vaikha- 
nasa  Dharmasutra  actually  went  naked  and  swallowed  cowdung, 
as  the  Buddhists  allege  of  these  dangerous  rivals. 

The  state  of  civilisation,  described  in  the  Jatakas.  is  in 
various  respects  primitive,  and  particularly  noteworthy  is  the 
prevalence  of  wood  architecture,  which  on  the  evidence  of  the 
oldest  sculptures  had  almost  disappeared  in  the  third  century 
B.  C.  The  Jatakas  even  describe  the  palaces  of  kings  as  us- 
ually constructed  of  wood.  Many  other  details  might  be  added. 
But  the  facts  given  are  sufficient  for  our  purpose.  They  make 
it  at  least  probable  that  the  mention  of  writing  as  common  in 
daily  life  is  not  an  addition,  made  by  the  Buddhists  in  later  times, 
but  occurred  in  the  old  stories  which  they  appropriated.  And  it 
ought  to  be  remembered,  that  in  the  Punnanadi  and  Asadisa 
Jatakas  writing  is  not  merely  an  ornamental  accessory,  but  a  most 
essential  point,  without  which  the  stories  would  have  no  meaning, 
and  that  the  Asadisa  Jataka  is  found  on  the  Stupa  of  Bharahut. 

An  additional  argument  for  the  antiquity  of  the  writing, 
mentioned  in  the  books  of  the  Pali  Canon,  is  furnished  by  the 
technical  terms  which  they  employ.  They  exclusively  use  for  writ- 
ing, writers  and  letters  words  which  mean  "to  cut",  chind,  "to 
scratch"  likh,  "the  scratcher"  lekhaka,  "scratching"  or  "scratches", 
lekha,  and  "the  indelible"  akkhara.  On  the  other  hand  the  word 
lipi,  which  Panini,  circiter  350  B.  C.,1  has  in  the  compounds 
[21]  Upikara  and  libikara,  "writer",  is  not  found  in  the  Buddhist  ca- 
nonical works  known  to  me,  nor  is  there  in  Childers'  Dictionary 
any  quotation  for  it  from  the  Canon.  For  lipi  two  explanations 
have  been  proposed.  According  to  the  older  opinion  it  is  de- 


1  I  can  only  adhere  to  the  traditional  date  of  the  great  grammarian,  which, 
as  we  know  now,  was  contained  in  the  ancient  Brhatkatha,  since  both  Kse- 
mendra's  and  Somadeva's  Sanskrit  translations  contain  the  story  of  Pa- 
nini, the  pupil  of  Upavarsa,  who  flourished  during  the  reign  of  Yoga- 
nanda,  the  predecessor  of  Candragupta,  Indian  Antiquary,  vol.  I,  p.  305. 
—  Panini' s  Dhatupatha  gives  for  the  verb  likh  the  meaning  aksaravimjdsa 
'arranging  letters'  or  'syllables'  and  thus  furnishes,  as  Geheimrath  von 
Bfihtlingk  points  out  to  me,  another  proof  for  the  prevalence  of  writing 
in  the  fourth  cent.  B.  C. 


22  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

rived  from  lip  'to  smear',  like  krsi  'agriculture'  from  kj's  to 
plough',  and  like  a  number  of  other  substantives  formed  by  the 
feminine  affix  i.  According  to  others,1  it  is  a  corruption  of  the 
Old  Persian  dipi  'writing',  which  corruption  was  favoured  by 
a  fancied  connexion  with  the  verb  lip.  Though  lipi  might  be 
a  perfectly  regular  derivative  from  lip,  and  might  appropriately 
have  been  used  to  denote  'letters'  and  'the  alphabet'  on  the 
introduction  of  writing  with  ink,  the  derivation  becomes  doubt- 
ful through  the  fact  that  the  verb  limpati  is  not  used  in  the 
sense  of  'he  writes'.  And  the  impressions  of  the  Shahbaz- 
garhi  version  of  Asoka's  Edicts  have  furnished  a  strong  argu- 
ment for  the  adherents  of  the  second  view.  For  they  show 
that  in  the  Gandhara  dialect  lipi  is  represented  by  dipi  and 
that  the  verbs  dipati  'he  writes'  and  dipapati  'he  causes  to 
write'  did  also  exist.2  On  linguistic  grounds  it  is  not  probable 
that  lipi  and  limpati  should  have  been  turned  into  dipi  and 
dipati}  the  latter  also  changing  its  meaning.  On  the  other 
hand,  dipi  corresponds  exactly  with  the  Persian  word,  and  its 
introduction  into  India  is  easily  explained  by  the  Persian  oc- 
cupation of  Northwestern  India  during  the  Akhaemenian  period 
from  about  500  B.  C.  probably  until  the  fall  of  the  Persian 
empire.3  These  points  appear  to  me  so  strong  that  I  too  must 
declare  myself  in  favour  of  the  loan  theory,  and  assume  that  in 
Sanskrit  lipi  was  substituted  for  dipi  at  a  period,  when  writing 
with  ink  had  come  into  use,  in  order  to  connect  the  term  with  the 
[22]  root  lip.  The  statement  of  Nearchos,  according  to  which  the 
Hindus  wrote  letters  ev  c'.vBis'.  X(av  x£/.po-r/;j.svatc,  as  well  as  that 
of  Q.  Curtius  VIII,  9,  according  to  which  they  used  libri  ar- 
borum  teneri  i.  e.  birch-bark,  for  the  same  purpose,  makes  the 
use  of  ink  certain  for  the  latter  half  of  the  fourth  century.4 

1  See,  Burnell,  Elements  of  South  Ind.  Palaeography,  p.  5f.,  Note  2. 

2  The  aorist  dipista  is  found  in  ShahbSzgarhi  Ed.  IV,  1.  10;  VI,  1.  16  and 
the  participle  dipapita  ibidem,  Ed.  XIV,  1.  13. 

3  See   also  App.  I,  p.  95.   It   may  be  noted,   that  even  in  later  times  the 
Hindus  have  borrowed  a  Persian  word,  connected  with  writing.    This  is 
the  term  divlra  —  divira,  "a  writer,  clerk",  found  in  the  Valabhl  land  grants 
of  the  seventh  century  A.  D.  and  in  later  Kasmirian  works.  It  represents  the 
Persian  deblr,  see  the  smaller  Petersburg  Dictionary  sub  voce  divira. 

4  The  oldest    preserved    specimen   of  writing   in  ink   occurs  on  the  relic 
vase  from  Andher,  Cunningham,  Bhilsa  Topes,  PI.  30,  No.  6. 


II    Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  23 

The  loan  theory  agrees  also  well  with  the  occurrence  of  the 
word  in  the  Sutras  of  Panini,  who  was  a  native  of  Salatura,  the 
modern  village  of  Lahul,  close  to  Ohind  and  west  of  the  Indus,  and 
with  its  absence  from  the  ancient  Buddhist  canonical  works, 
which  were  composed  in  Eastern  India  and  before  400  B.  C. 
Some  further  valuable  information  regarding  writing  and 
especially  regarding  the  ancient  alphabets,  is  furnished  by  the 
works  of  the  Northern  Buddhists,  by  the  Jaina  scriptures  and 
by  some  metrical  Smrtis.  In  the  account  of  prince  Siddhartha's 
first  visit  to  the  writing-school,  extracted  by  Professor  Terrien 
de  la  Couperie  from  the  Chinese  translation  of  the  Lalitavistara 
of  308  A.  D.  (see  above  p.  15,  note  2),  there  occurs  besides 
the  mention  of  the  sixty  four  alphabets,  known  also  from  the 
printed  Sanskrit  text,  the  utterance  of  the  master  Visvamitra, 
"that  there  are  two  kinds  of  writing,  that  of  Fan  or  Brahman 
and  that  of  Kuliu,  both  equally  good  and  not  differing".  With 
the  help  of  a  Chinese  Buddhist  Encyclopedia,  dated  668  A.  D., 
Professor  Terrien  de  la  Couperie  has  shown  that  the  alphabet 
of  Brahman  was  written  from  the  left  to  the  right  and  that, 
invented  by  Kuliu,  Kiuliii,  Kialu  or  Kialusheta  (all  of  which 
names  are  explained  by  "ass'  lips",  in  Sanskrit  kharostha)  from 
the  right  to  the  left.  He  thereby  has  rendered  us  the  great 
service  of  showing  what  the  terms  Brahm!  and  Kharosthi  really 
mean.  The  former  is  evidently  the  alphabet,  which  used  to 
be  called  Pali,  Lath,  Southern  Indian,  Asoka  or  Maurya,  and 
the  latter  the  so-called  Northwestern,  Ariano-Pali,  Bactro-Pali, 
or  Gandharian.  With  this  explanation,  the  remark  of  the  future 
Buddha's  writing-master  indicates,  that  at  the  time,  when  the 
Lalitavistara,  translated  into  Chinese  in  308  A.  D.,  was  com- 
posed, i.  <?.,  at  the  latest  in  the  third  century  A.  D.,  both  the 
ordinary  Indian  and  the  Gandhara  alphabets  were  equally  com- 
mon in  the  author's  native  country.  If,  as  is  not  improbable 
on  account  of  the  position  of  the  Lalitavistara  in  the  Canon 
of  the  Northern  Buddhists,  this  was  the  Panjab  or  one  of  the 
adjoining  districts  of  Northwestern  India,  the  statement  agrees 
with  the  facts  known  through  the  inscriptions  and  coins,  which 
[23]  from  the  earliest  times  of  the  historical  period  of  India  until 
the  end  of  the  second  century  A.  D.,  show  both  the  Brahma 
and  Kharosthi  characters. 


24  Indian  Studies.   No  III. 

The  enumeration  of  the  sixty-four  alphabets1  has  gained 
a  greater  interest  by  the  discovery  of  a  similar,  apparently  in- 
dependent list  in  the  Jaina  Agamas.  Professor  Weber's  ana- 
lysis of  the  latter  shows,2  that  they  too  allege  the  early  exist- 
ence of  a  larger  number  of  scripts  and  that  some  of  the  names 
agree  literally,  or  at  least  in  meaning,  with  those  given  by 
the  Buddhists.  Both  the  Jainas  and  the  Buddhists  agree  in 
allotting  the  first  place,  to  "Brahman's  writing",  the  Brahml 
llpi  or  Bambhl  livl,  indicating  thereby  the  pre-eminence  of  the 
characters,  running  from  the  left  to  the  right,  which  are  used 
in  the  majority  of  Asoka's  Edicts.  Both  name  also  the  alpha- 
bet written  from  the  right  to  the  left,  which  in  the  Jaina  Pra- 
krit is  called  Kharotthi  instead  of  Kharosthl.  Its  position  in 
the  two  lists  somewhat  differs,  as  the  Buddhists  give  it  the 
second  place  and  the  Jainas  only  the  fourth.  Further,  both 
lists  include  the  Puskarasarl  (No.  3)  or  Pukkharasariya  (No.  5) 
and  the  Dravida  (No.  12)  or  Damila  (No.  17)  characters.  The 
mention  of  the  last  alphabet  has  become  important  since  the 
discovery  of  an  ancient  partly  independent  variant  of  the  Brah- 
ml  lipi  at  Bhattiprolu  in  the  Kistna  districts  of  the  Madras 
Presidency.  And  it  is  not  improbable  that  this  alphabet  is 
meant  by  "the  writing  of  the  Dravidian  country3".  The  men- 
tion of  the  Puskarasarl  or  Pukkharasariya  lipi,  too,  possesses 
some  interest,  as  its  name  is  evidently  derived  from  the  patro- 
nymic Pauskarasddi  or  Puskarasadi,  which  appears  in  Brah- 
minical  works  on  grammar  and  law  as  the  designation  of  one, 
or  perhaps  of  several  famous  teachers.  It  is  certainly  a  Brah- 
minical  name  and  indicates  that  a  scion  of  the  race  of  Puskara- 
sad  invented  some  particular  alphabet  or  introduced  modifica- 
tions [24]  in  an  existing  one.  The  name,  therefore,  furnishes  the 


1  See  Lalitavistara,  p.  143  f.    Calc.  ed. 

2  Indische  Studien,  vol.  XVI,  pp.  280,  399  ff.  The  list  occurs  twice,  in  the 
Samavayanga  and  the  PannavanS  Sutras.   There  is  a  third  list  of  alpha- 
bets with    about    30    mostly  very   corrupt  names  in   the   Mabavastu,   I, 
p.  135  (Senart),  which  has  been  omitted  intentionally,  as  its  exact  contents 
cannot  be  made  out  with  certainty. 

8  I  may  state  here  that  in  my  opinion  Dr.  Burnell's  contention  for  the 
antiquity  ot  the  Vatteluttu  or  Pandya-Cera  alphabet  is  erroneous;  see 
the  Grundriss  der  Indo-Ar.  Phil,  und  Alt.,  I,  11,  §  32. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  25 

proof  that  in  early  times  Brahmans  directed  their  attention  to 
the  art  of  writing,  for  which  view  other  arguments  will  be  ad- 
duced further  on.  The  other  names,  which  like  the  Gandharva 
or  Gandhavva  agree  fully,  or  like  the  nagalipi  "the  writing  of 
the  snake-deities33  and  the  Bhogavalya,  "the  writing  of  Bhoga- 
vatl,  the  residence  of  the  Nagas",  in  their  general  meaning, 
are  perhaps  in  part  fanciful  and,  at  least  for  the  present,  not 
particularly  instructive. 

The  independence  of  the  Jaina  list  from  that  of  the  La- 
litavistara  is  proved  by  various  discrepancies.  First,  it  is  much 
shorter  and  includes  only  eighteen  varieties,  and  among  them 
occurs  the  Javanaliyd  or  according  to  the  printed  edition  of 
the  Pannavana  Sutra,  the  Javananiya,  which  corresponds  to 
Panini's  term  Yavananl,1  or,  as  Katyayana's  Varttika  states, 
"the  writing  of  the  Yavanas33.  Secondly,  the  Jainas  use  the 
term  Bambhi  livl  in  a  double  sense,  not  only  for  a  particular 
variety  of  writing,  but  also  for  every  kind  of  writing.  The 
texts  are  explicit  on  this  point  and  say,2  Bambhle  nam  lime 
attharasavihalikkhavihane  pannatte  \  tarn  bambhi  etc.  "An  eigh- 
teenfold  order  of  scripts  is  taught  for  the  Brahma  writing,  viz. 
the  Brahma"  etc.  This  apparently  senseless  assertion  finds  its 
explanation  through  passages  of  the  metrical  Smrtis  of  Narada 
and  Brhaspati,  as  well  as  through  Brahminical  sculptures  and 
pictures  of  Brahman.  The  two  lawbooks  state  that  "the  Cre- 
ator (Brahman)  created  writing  in  order  to  keep  the  affairs  of 
the  world  in  their  proper  course"  or  "in  order  to  remove  doubts 
regarding  legal  transactions33.3  On  the  sculptures  in  the  Ba- 


The  identification,  which  is  given  by  Malayagiri,  is  unobjectionable, 
even  if  Javanaliyd  is  the  correct  form.  For  instances  of  the  substitution 
of  la  for  Sanskrit  na  occur  e.  g.  in  Pali  anela  for  an&nas,  mulala  for  mr- 
ndla,  vef.u  for  venu  and  in  Maharastrl  velu  for  venu  and  limba  for  nimba. 
It  may  be  noted  that  the  later  Tibetan  version  of  the  Lalitavistara  in- 
cludes the  Yavananl  in  its  list  of  seventy  alphabets,  see  Foucaux,  Rgya 
Cher  Rol  Pa,  p.  112  f.,  and  that  the  Yondrl  of  the  Mahavastu,  loc.  cit., 
is  probably  a  representative  of  Yavananl  or  YavandU. 
See  A.  Weber,  op.  cit,  p.  399. 

Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XXXIII,  pp.  58  f.,  p.  304.  NSrada's  law- 
book  is  later  than  the  Manusamhita  and  older  than  Bana  (circiter  620 
A.  D.),  who  alludes  to  it  in  the  KadambarT,  p.  91  (Peterson).  The  Brhas- 
pati Smrti  is  again  later  than  Nfirada's. 


26  Indian  Studies.  No  HI. 

[25]  dami  caves,1  which  date  from  the  end  of  the  sixth  century 
A.  D.,  the  same  idea  is  expressed  by  representing  Brahman 
with  strips  of  palmleaves  in  his  right  hand,  for  which  modern 
pictures  of  the  deity  substitute  an  inscribed  piece  of  paper.2  It 
thus  appears  that  there  were  two  legends  which  the  Jainas  have 
combined,  one  which  ascribed  to  Brahman  the  invention  of  all 
writing  and  another  which  restricted  his  activity  to  one  parti- 
cular alphabet,  that  which  was  the  commonest  and  most  gen- 
erally used.  Both  myths  no  doubt  were  current  side  by  side, 
and  express  with  a  slight  variation  the  belief-  that  writing  is  a 
national  Indian  invention. 

These  points,  to  which  the  differences  in  half  a  dozen 
names  of  alphabets  must  be  added,  show  very  clearly  that  the 
Jaina  list  has  not  been  copied  from  that  of  the  Buddhists,  but 
gives  expression  to  an  independent  tradition,  which  in  all  pro- 
bability is  considerably  older  than  that  of  the  Buddhists.  The 
greater  antiquity  of  the  Jaina  list  is  apparent  from  its  more 
reasonable  number  of  alphabets,  which,  however,  is  also  a  purely 
conventional  one3  and  need  not  be  taken  to  mean  more  than 
"a  large  number".  It  is  also  probable,  because  the  Anga  and 
the  Upanga,  in  which  it  occurs,  certainly  are  much  older  than 
the  third  century  A.  D.,  the  time  for  which  the  existence  of 
the  Buddhist  list  is  absolutely  certain.  In  my  opinion  we  have, 
since  the  discoveries  in  the  Kankall  Tlla  at  Mathura,  very  good 
reasons  for  believing  the  6vetambara  tradition  which  places  the 
first  collection  of  the  Angas  in  the  reign  of  the  Maurya  Can- 
dragupta  or  about  300  B.  C.4  And,  though  the  Angas  evidently 
have  undergone  changes  between  that  time  and  their  final  re- 
daction by  Devarddhi  in  the  fifth  century  A.  D.,  it  seems  to 
me  probable  that  the  list  of  the  alphabets  belongs  to  the  orig- 
inal contents  of  the  Samavayanga,  because  it  has  been  embod- 
ied also  in  the  Pannavana  Sutra,  the  traditional  date  of  which 
is  358  after  Vlra  or  168  B.  C.  Nor  is  the  existence  of  such 


1  Indian  Antiquary,  vol.  VI,  plate  facing  p.  361. 

2  Moore,  Hindu  Pantheon,  plate  I,  and  the  representation  of  Brahman  in 
Sir  W.  Jones'  article,  Asiatic  Researches,  I,  p.  222  S. 

3  Compare  the  eighteen  Puranas,  and  Upapuranas,  the  eighteen  Smrtis  and 
Upasmrtis. 

4  See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XXII,  p.  XL  ff. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  27 

[26]  a  traditional  list  at  the  beginning  of  the  Maurya  period  a  priori 
incredible.  Panini's  rule  regarding  the  formation  of  Yavananl 
"the  writing  of  the  Yavanas"  very  probably  indicates,  as  has 
already  been  remarked  by  others,  that  in  his  time,  i.  e.,  about 
350  B.  C.,  more  alphabets  than  one  were  known,1  and  for  the 
third  century  B.  C.  the  contemporaneous  use  of  three  alphabets, 
the  ordinary  Brahml  lipi,  the  Kharogthl  and  the  Bhattiprolu 
variety  of  the  Brahma  alphabet  is  certain.  The  bearing  of  the 
early  existence  of  such  a  list  of  alphabets  and  of  the  myth, 
ascribing  their  invention  to  Brahman,  on  the  question  of  the 
antiquity  of  writing  in  India,  is  obvious.  The  introduction  of 
writing  cannot  have  taken  place  about  400  B.  C.,  but  must  be 
earlier  at  least  by  some  centuries. 

Another  passage  of  the  Jaina  Samavayanga  Sutra  makes 
it  possible  to  show  how  the  popular  Brahma  alphabet  looked 
about  300  B.  C.  The  Samavayanga  includes  a  detailed  ab- 
stract of  the  lost  Drstivada,  the  twelfth  of  the  Jaina  Angas,  and 
asserts  that  according  to  this  work,  the  Bambhl  livl  or  Brahma 


1  As  stated  above,  I  adhere  to  the  tradition,  which  asserts  that  Panini  was 
the  pupil  of  Upavarsa  and  lived  during  the  reign  of  the  last  Nanda,  the 
predecessor  of  the  Maurya  Candragupta.  This  tradition  gives  a  reason- 
able date  and  probably  goes  back  itself  to  the  beginning  of  our  era,  since, 
according  to  the  concurrent  testimony  of  Ksemendra  and  Somadeva,  it  oc- 
curred in  Guriadhya's  Brhatkatha.  I  agree  with  Dr.  Burnell  (El.  S.  Ind. 
Pal.2,  p.  6)  and  Professor  A.  Ludwig,  (see  his  paper  on  "Yavananl"  quoted 
above)  that  yavanani  means  "the  writing  of  the  Greeks".  But  I  believe 
with  Prof.  Ludwig  that  Pnnini's  acquaintance  with  the  existence  of  the 
Greek  alphabet  is  by  no  means  irreconcilable  with  his  traditional  date. 
Irrespective  of  the  general  reasons,  adduced  by  Professor  Ludwig,  it  seems 
to  me  not  wonderful  that  an  author,  whose  native  country  had  been  ex- 
plored in  509  B.  C.  by  Skylax  and  whose  countrymen,  the  Gandharas, 
had  furnished  a  contingent  for  Xerxes'  invasion  of  Greece  should  mention 
the  old  Oriental  name  of  the  Greeks  and  should  be  acquainted  with  their 
writing  (see  also  Professor  Weber,  Monatsberichte  Berl.  Akad.  1871,  p.  616). 
And  there  is,  as  Mr.  Rapson  points  out  to  me,  even  positive  proof  for 
such  an  acquaintance,  as  Athenian  drakhmes  with  the  inscription  AOE 
struck  before  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Alexander,  possibly  even  before 
350  B.  C.,  have  been  found  in  India  as  well  as  Indian  imitations  of  such 
coins,  see  B.  V.  Head,  Cat.  Greek.  Coins:  Attica,  p.  XXXIf.,  pp.  25—27.  To 
me  it  seems  absolutely  impossible  to  make  the  mere  occurrence  of  the 
word  Yavana  in  Sanskrit  works  a  mark,  which  proves  that  they  must 
have  been  written  after  the  invasion  of  Alexander. 


28  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

[27]  alphabet  consisted  of  46  mauyakkhara  (matrkaksara)  or  ra 
clical  signs.1  The  commentator  Abhayadeva  says  that  this  number 
comes  out  by  deducting  from  the  (in  his  time,  saec.  XI)  ordi- 
nary alphabet  the  vowels  r,  f,  I,  |  and  the  lingual  la,  but 
including  km.  The  reckoning  is  correct,  as  may  be  seen  from 
a  comparison  of  the  oldest  written  alphabet,  that  on  the  Ho- 
riuzi  palmleaf,  which  gives  51  signs,  viz; : — 

a,  a,  i,  l,  u,  u,  r,  f,  I,  I  (10),  e,  ai,  o,  au,  am,  ah,  ka,  kha, 
ga,  gha  (20),  ha,  ca,  cha,  ja,  jha,  na,  ta,  tha,  da,  dha  (30),  na, 
ta,  tha,  da,  dha,  na,  pa,  pha,  la,  bha  (40),  ma,  ya,  ra,  la,  va, 
£a,  sa,  sa,  ha,  lam  (50),  km.2 

If  the  four  vowels  and  la  are  deducted,  only  46  radical 
signs  remain.  Nevertheless  Abhayadeva's  explanation  undoubt- 
edly contains  a  mistake.  It  is  not  the  consonant  la  but  the 
group  ksa,  which  ought  to  be  deducted.  For  la  is  one  of  the 
ancient  radical  signs  and  occurs  on  the  Sanchi  Stupa  as  well 
as  in  the  Bhattiprolu  alphabet.  Ksa,  on  the  other  hand,  can 
have  been  reckoned  as  a  radical  sign  only  from  the  time,  when 
ka  was  written  with  a  loop  or  triangle  on  the  left  <Ji.  It  was 
only  then  that  the  origin  of  ksa  «^,  in  wich  ka  retained  its 
ancient  dagger-shape,  was  obscured  and  that  the  still  prevalent 
erroneous  conception. of  the  indigenous  schoolmasters  could  arise, 
who  persistently  declare  ksa  to  be  a  mdtrka.  The  period,  when 
the  ka  with  a  loop  came  into  general  use  probably  falls  not 
earlier  than  between  400  and  500  A.  D.  In  the  inscriptions 
of  the  nail-headed  and  flat-topped  (Nagari)  types,  it  is  only 
traceable  since  the  second  half  of  the  sixth  century.  But  in 
the  ordinary  literary  characters  it  appeared  earlier,  as  the  Ho- 
riuzi  palrnleaf  shows. 

With  respect  to  the  omission  of  the  vowels  r,  r,  I,  I, 
Abhayadeva  is  undoubtedly  right,  as  they  are  missing  in  all 
the  ancient  and  modern  alphabets,  used  in  the  elementary  Ind- 


1  See  Weber,   Indische   Studien,   vol.  XVI,   p.  281  f.   and  Verzeichniss   der 
Sanskrit  und  Prakrit  Handschriften,  vol.  II,   pt.  II,  p.  408,  where  better 
readings  of  the  text  are  given. 

2  See  Anecdota  Oxoniensia,  Aryan  Series,  vol.  I,  pt.  3,  plates  1  and  2.    The 
alphabet  of  the  Cambridge  MS.  Add.  No.  1049  has  one  letter  less,  as  it 
omits  la  which  is  unknown  in  Nepal  and  other  parts  of  Northern  India 
as  in  Kashmir. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing. 


29 


[28]  ian  schools  and  by  the  classes  without  a  scientific  Brahminical 
education.  According  to  the  printed  Lalitavistara,  p.  145  f., 
prince  Siddhartha  explained  on  entering  the  writing-school  to 
his  master  the  hidden  meaning  of  the  radical  signs  of  the  al- 
phabet which  he  was  to  learn.1  The  vowels,  which  he  is  said 
to  have  enumerated,  are  only  twelve,  viz: — a,  a,  i,  l,  u:  u,  e, 
ai,  o,  an,  am,  ah.  These  twelve  vowels  alone  occur  in  the 
alphabet,  taught  in  the  indigenous  Indian  schools,  where  they 
are  combined  with  the  consonants  and  form  the  so-called  Ba- 
rakhadl or  Barasakhadi,2  which  the  children  on  beginning  their 
school-course  are  made  to  copy  incessantly,  until  by  its  means 
they  have  learned  both  elementary  reading  and  writing.  The 
Barakhadl,  in  Sanskrit  dvddasaksarl,  "a  collection  or  aggreg- 
ate of  twelve  syllables  (for  each  consonant)",  is  arranged  as 
follows 3:- 

A  A     II    U  U    E  AI    0  AU    Am  Ah 


1 

ka 

kha    ' 

ga 

gha 

ha 

2 

ka 

kha 

ga 

gha 

ha 

3 

ki 

khi 

0* 

ghi 

hi 

4 

kl 

khi 

9~l 

ghl 

m 

5 
6 

7 
8 

ku 
ku 
ke 
kai 

khu 
khu 
khe 
khai 

gu 
ga 

9e 
gai 

ghu 
ghu 
ghe 
ghai 

hu 
nu 
he 
hai 

and  so  on 
through  all  the 
consonants. 

9 

ko 

kho 

9° 

gho 

ho 

10 

kau 

khau 

gau 

ghau 

hau 

11 

kam 

kham 

gam, 

gham 

ham 

12 

kah 

khah 

gah 

ghah 

hah 

1  This  alphabet,  too,  included  46  mStrkas.    But  the  Calcutta  edition  omits, 
no  doubt  erroneously,  among  the  consonants  the  dental  la.   The  last  letter 
is  k?a. 

2  The  word  is   usually  pronounced  B5ra-khadl  instead  of  Barakhadl,   be- 
cause its  etymology  is  no  longer  remembered. 

3  The  Barakhadl  has  been  printed  in  Bombay  and  can  be  obtained  through 
Pandit  Jeshtaram   Mukundji.     It  is   described    by   Molesworth,    MarathT 
Dictionary  sub  voce  •^"fjr^T^i'^',  and  by  Narmadashankar  in  his  GujaratI 
Dictionary  sub  voce  ^TTT^^^"-    This  latter  work  states  that  the  syllables 
ka,  ka  and  so  forth  down  to  kah  are  the  Barakhadl  of  ka. 


30  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

[29]  This  Barakhadi,  which  is  used  in  all  the  parts  of  India 
known  to  me,1  has  of  course  always  the  same  number  of  vow- 
els, but  the  number  of  the  consonants  varies.  In  the  Maratha 
country  and  in  Gujarat,  there  are  36  instead  of  34,  the  groups 
ksa  and  jna  being  reckoned  as  simple  radical  signs  and  placed 
after  la.  As  usually  a  Mangala  or  invocation  om  namah  siddham 
is  prefixed  to  it,  it  is  sometimes  called  by  the  Pandits  the  Sid- 
dhamatrka  or  Siddhaksarasamamnayali  or  "the  alphabet,  pre- 
ceded by  the  word  Siddha  (success)",  or  jocularly  Matrkapu- 
rana  the  Purana  of  the  Mothers  (radical  signs)". 

Its  great  antiquity  is  attested  by  the  Chinese  writers. 
Hiwen  Tsiang  states  in  the  Siyuki2  that  the  instruction  of  the 
young  Hindus  began  with  the  practice  in  the  twelve  chang  or 
tables.  What  these  twelve  tables  were,  appears  from  an  account 
of  the  Indian  alphabet  and  elementary  instruction,  given  by 
Hui-lin3  who  wrote  between  A.  D.  788 — 810.  According  to 
him  the  thirty  four  consonants,  the  last  of  which  was  ksa, 
were  each  first  combined  with  the  twelve  vowels  a — ah,  and 
thus  a  table  or  syllabary  was  formed  identical  with  the  mo- 
dern Barakha<Jl,  which  bore  (according  to  another  authority)  the 
name  Siddhavastu  "the  matter  (preceded  by  the  word)  siddha". 
Next  came  ligatures  of  each  consonant  with  ya,  ra,  la,  va,  sa, 
ha  and  the  five  nasals,  and  each  of  these  ligatures  was  again 
combined  with  the  twelve  vowels.  The  result  was  a  set  of 
eleven  further  tables,  which  were,  as  the  author  says,  in  com- 
mon use.  Though  Hui-lin  calls  these  tables  fan  or  "cycles", 


1  It  is  also  used  for  the  pagination  of  MSS.  in  Burma,  Siam  and  Ceylon. 
In  the  former  two  countries  the  vowels  are  12,  in  Ceylon  16,  see  the 
Grundriss,  I,  11,  p.  82  f. 

a  See,  St.  Julien,  Memoires  etc.,  I,  72  and  note,  where,  however,  the  trans- 
lation has  "un  livre  en  douze  sections"  and  the  note  alleges  that  the  book 
was  a  syllabary,  composed  by  Brahman  and  called  Siddhavastu.  In  a 
letter  to  me,  quoted  in  the  first  edition  of  this  essay,  Prof.  J.  Legge  has 
pointed  out  that  the  Chinese  text  has  nothing  about  "a  book",  but 
merely  "12  chang"  or  tables. 

3  See  Dr.  A.  von  Rosthorn's  letter  to  me  in  the  WZKM  (Vienna  Oriental 
Journal)  X,  280,  the  contents  of  which  are  summarised  in  the  above  ac- 
count. My  former  conjecture  that  the  expression  "12  chang"  is  a  trans- 
lation of  dvadataktari  (Barakhadi)  and  stands  for  "12  (syllable)  table" 
is  of  course  not  tenable. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writting.  31 

it  is  not  doubtful,  as  Dr.  A.  von  Rosthorn  remarks,  that  they  are 
identical  with  Hiwen  Tsiang's  twelve  chang.  It  thus  appears  that  the 
system  of  instruction  in  writing,  described  by  Hui-lin  and  Hiwen 
Tsiang,  is  based  on  the  Barakhaoll  still  used,  but  is  further  devel- 
oped in  accordance  with  the_requirements  of  Sanskrit  teaching.  But 
the  four  vowels,  r,  r,  I,  I  are  not  included,  and  Hui-lin,  who 
mentions  them  expressly,  states  that  ordinary  people  and  beginners 
did  not  know  them,  as  well  as  that  they  were  employed  as 
Expletives'  by  grammarians.  Hiwen  Tsiang,  too,  excludes 
them  from  the  ordinary  alphabet  which,  as  he  says  in  the 
Siyuki,  I,  77  (Beal),  contained  47  letters  i.  e.  the  12  vowels 
and  35  consonants,  ka — ha,  la  and  ksa. 

[30]  The  omission  of  the  four  liquid  vowels  may  also  be  in- 
ferred from  the  fragments  of  an  alphabet  of  the  Maurya  period, 
originally  discovered  by  Sir  A.  Cunningham  at  Mahabodhi 
Gaya1  and  lately  re-examined  by  Dr.  G.  A.  Grierson.2  In  the 
cloistered  walk,  which  according  to  the  tradition  Asoka  erected 
over  the  supposed  Cahkama  of  Buddha,  there  is  a  double  row 
of  pillar  bases,3  eleven  on  each  side,  on  which  according  to 
Dr.  Grierson  the  following  letters  are  still  visible: 

South 


11     10      987654321 

cha         na  ka 

22    21     20     19     18     17     16     15     14     13     12 
North 

The  A  on  No.  1  is  according  to  Dr.  Grierson  laid  on  its  side, 
and  the  fia  on  No.  16  is  in  the  same  position.  If  the  sign  |Hl,  which 
is  here  given  according  to  a  photographic  quarter  size  repro- 
duction of  Dr.  Grierson's  photo-etching  (Rep.,  Figure  3),  is  set 
up  straight  £,  we  obtain  a  form  closely  agreeing  with  those 


1  Mahabodhi  Gaya,  p.  8f.    Plates  III  and  X,  1. 

2  Report  to  the  Seer.  Gov*  of  Bengal,  General  Dept,  Nov.  25,  1895. 

3  The  pillar  base   No.  1   with   the    letter  A  has    been  transferred  to  the 
Asoka   Gallery   of  the   Indian   Museum  at   Calcutta,   together  with  two 
others  which  at  present  bear  no  letters,  Grierson,  Report,  p.  2. 


32  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

in  the  Mathura  inscriptions  of  the  Kushana  period.1  There  is 
besides  one  pillar  shaft,  at  present  erroneously  fixed  in  the 
base  with  ka,  which,  as  Dr.  Grierson's  facsimile  (loc.  cit.) 
shows,  bears  a  mutilated  A,  laid  on  its  side.  Sir  A.  Cun- 
ningham does  not  mention  the  ha  on  No.  16,  but  instead  gives 
a  round-topped  ga  on  No.  13,  as  well  as  ja  on  No.  19  and  ta 
on  No.  22  as  visible  at  the  time  of  his  visit  (1881).  Dr.  Grier- 
son  however  states  that  these  signs  are  not  to  be  traced  at 
present.  He  also  declares  it  to  be  improbable  that  the  ja  was 
actually  seen  by  Sir  A.  Cunningham  "as  the  fractures  [on  the 
spot  where  the  letter  ought  to  stand]  are  evidently  very  old", 
and  he  conjectures  (Rep.,  p.  5)  that  Sir  A.  Cunningham's  round- 
topped  ga  is  "merely  a  faulty  impression"  of  the  sign  on 
No.  16.2' 

However  that  may  be,  and  even  if  the  additional  ja  and 
ta  mentioned  by  Sir  A.  Cunningham  are  left  out  of  count,  it 
is  evident  that  the  masons  had  numbered  the  pillar  bases, 
and  probably  also  the  corresponding  shafts,  with  the  letters  of 
the  Brahma  alphabet  arranged  according  to  the  phonetic  prin- 
ciples of  the  grammarians  and  of  the  Barakhatfi.  As  the  first 
base  of  the  southern  row  is  marked  with  the  letter  A  and 
No.  12,  the  first  of  the  northern  row,  with  ka,  it  is  further 
evident  that  the  masons'  alphabet  included  eleven  vowel-signs, 
one  less  than  the  Barakhadl.  And  it  becomes  also  probable  that 
among  them  were,  as  Sir  A.  Cunningham  conjectured,  the  signs 
for  A,  I,  I,  U,  U,  E,  AI,  0,  AU  and  that  the  last  was  either 
Am  or  Ah,3  one  of  them  being  inadvertently  omitted.  The  li- 
quid vowels  cannot  have  had  a  place  here,  since  they  would 
make  the  total  of  the  vowel  signs  sixteen  and  it  would  be  ne- 
cessary to  assume  that  the  masons  skipped  five  of  them. 


1  See  the  Grundriss,  I,  11,  Tafel  III,  10,  IV  and  especially  40,  III.  In  the 
second  Mathura  letter  we  have  likewise  the  little  knob  on  the  left,  cau- 
sed by  the  scribe's  making  the  bottom-stroke  separately. 

2  On  comparing  Sir  A.  Cunningham's  facsimiles,  op.  cit.,  Plate  X,  1  with  Dr. 
Grierson's,  it  seems   to   me  evident  that  the  former  reproduce  drawings 
or  at  least  corrected  impressions  of  rubbings. 

3  As    Dr.   Grierson    has    pointed   "out,    there    is    no    sufficient    reason    for 
declaring    with    Sir   A.   Cunningham    that    the    last    letter    must    have 
been  Ah. 


II.  Literary  Evidence  for  the  Use  of  Writing.  33 

As  the  Indian  masons  are  neither  great  scholars  nor 
quite  illiterate,1  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  alphabet,  which 
they  used,  is  the  popular  one  of  the  elementary  schools  of 
the  day. 

[31]  The  discovery  of  the  Gaya  alphabet  possesses,  as  Sir 

A.  Cunningham    has    pointed    out,    considerable   importance  for 
the   history  of  Indian  writing.    As   its   fragments  are  arranged 
on   phonetic   principles   and    as   they  include   the   guttural   ha, 
which  never  occurs  in  the  old  Prakrit  inscriptions,  it  must  have 
been  framed  for  the   requirements   of  Sanskrit.    And   it   is    at 
least  highly  probable  that  its  formation  is  due  to  the  Brahmans, 
whose  influence  and  peculiar  theories  are  also  recognisable,  as 
will  appear  further  on,   in  the  manner  of  the  derivation  of  the 
secondary  signs   from   the  original  ones.    In   the   third  century 

B.  C.,  it  appears,  the  state  of  things  in  the  elementary  schools 
was  the  same  as  in  our  days.    The  children  learnt  an  alphabet 
which  was  not  intended   for  their  vernacular  dialects,   and  this 
was   no    doubt   due   to   the  circumstance  that  already  then  (as 
later  when  the  legend  regarding  Buddha's  Brahminical  writing- 
master  Visvamitra  arose,   and   also    in   modern   times)   the  ele- 
mentary instruction  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  Brahmans, 
who   did   not  think   it  worth  the  while  to  alter  for  the  sake  of 
their  Prakrit  speaking  pupils  the  alphabet,  invented  and  suited 
for  the  peculiar  bhdsa  of  their  schools  and  class. 

Finally  there  are  explicit  statements  in  Chinese  Buddhist 
works,  discovered  and  kindly  communicated  to  me  by  M.  Sylvain 
Levi,  according  to  which  the  signs  for  the  four  liquid  vowels 
were  invented  either  by  Nagarjuna  or  by  Sarvavarman,  the 
minister  of  Satavahana.  This  tradition  points  at  all  events  to 
the  conclusion  that  even  in  later  times1  the  Hindus  were  aware 
of  the  fact  that  the  ancient  Brahma  alphabet  contained  only 
twelve  vowel  signs. 


1  The  Indian  masons,  the  sutradkaras  or  vardhakins  of  the  older  literature 
and  the  siletas  of  our  days,  occupy  an  intermediate  position  between  the 
Aryan  and  the  Sudra  classes.  They  wore  and  still  wear  the  sacred  thread, 
and  they  possessed  and  still  possess  a  small  amount  of  Sanskrit  learning. 
The  rules  of  their  craft,  which  they  commit  to  memory,  are  written  in 
Sanskrit,  and  are  at  present  largely  mixed  with  Prakrit  and  barbarous 
bastard  forms. 

Buhler,  Indian  Studies.  III.  3 


34  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

If  we  return  to  the  passage  of  the  Samavayanga  Sutra, 
the  various  facts  adduced  make  it  plain  that  Abhayadeva's  ex- 
planation of  the  extract  from  the  Drstivada  is  substantially 
correct.  The  forty-six  radical  signs  of  the  ancient  Brahmi  lipi 
included  twelve  vowels  a,  a,  i}  I,  u,  u,  e,  ai,  o,  au}  am,  ah  and 
thirty  four  consonants  viz,  the  twenty  five  of  the  five  Vargas, 
the  four  liquids,  the  three  sibilants,  the  spirant  ha  and  in  all 
probability  not  ksa,  but  la.  It  appears  further,  that  there  is 
no  reason  to  distrust  the  Jaina  tradition,  according  to  which 
the  statement  of  the  Drstivada  goes  back  at  least  to  the  reign 
[32]  of  the  Maurya  Candragupta,  as  his  grandson's  masons  had 
learnt  an  alphabet,  apparently  agreeing  with  that  described  in 
the  Jaina  Anga  in  the  most  important  particular. 

The  result  of  this  enquiry,  which  shows  that  the  popular 
Indian  alphabet  of  the  third  century  B.  C.  had  no  signs  for  the 
vowels  r,  r,  I  and  7,  will  not  surprise  those  who  have  paid  atten- 
tion to  Indian  palaeography.  The  long  l}  the  existence  of  which 
(as  a  sound)  is  denied  by  the  grammarians  of  Panini's  school,  is 
an  invention  probably  due  to  the  Brahminical  Kabbala,  the  so- 
called  Mantrasastra,  which  seems  to  have  been  studied  and  used 
for  charms  by  Brahmans,  Buddhists  and  Jainas  at  least  since 
the  beginning  of  our  era.  The  sign  for  the  intial  L  occurs  first 
on  the  Horiuzi  palmleaf  and  in  the  ancient  Cambridge  MS. 
from  Nepal,  Add.  No.  1049,  where  it  consists  of  two  cursive 
la  interlaced  (see  Tafel  VI  of  the  Grundriss).  Medial  I  is,  as 
far  as  I  know,  not  traceable  in  any  old  document.  Among  the 
remaining  three  sounds,  only  the  short  r  occurs  as  an  initial 
in  words  of  the  ordinary  language,  while  initial  R  and  L  are 
used  only  in  the  technical  terms  of  the  Vyakarana  and  other 
Sastras.  The  ancient  signs  for  the  initial  Z-,  which  again  are 
found  on  the  Horiuzi  palmleaf  and  in  the  Cambridge  MS.  Add. 
No.  1049,  are  cursive  forms  of  la.  Medial  I  is  expressed  in 
the  inscriptions  mostly  by  li.  But  in  the  Haidarabad  grant  of 
Pulikesi  II  (Ind.  Ant.  vol.  VI,  72,  pi.  II a,  1.  7),  we  find  a  cursive 
la  in  klpta,  see  also  the  Grundriss,  I,  11,  Tafel  VII,  42.  XIV  and 
p.  65.  A  similar  sign  occurs  also  in  the  same  word  in  Rudra- 
deva's  Annamkonda  inscription,  1.  118,  see  Ind.  Ant.  vol.  XI, 
facs.  at  p.  14 — 15.  The  principles,  on  which  the  more  common 
signs  for  initial  and  medial  r,  r  have  been  framed,  are  (1) 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahmi.  35 

initial  r  and  r  are  expressed  by  a  ra  with  the  signs  for  medial 
r  and  r,  (2)  medial  r  is  a  modification  of  ra,  produced  either 
by  a  twist  of  the  ra-stroke  to  the  left  with  or  without  a  curve 
to  the  right  at  the  end,  or  by  the  addition  of  a  curl  at  the  end 
of  the  ra-stroke,  (3)  medial  f  is  invariably  expressed  by  the 
double  medial  r  of  the  period.  Thus  we  find  for  vr  in  the 
Northern  inscriptions  of  the  first  and  second  centuries  A.  D. 
^  or  ^  and  in  the  fourth  century  and  later  J,  while  the 
inscriptions  and  even  the  modern  alphabets  of  the  Southern 
type  offer  ^.  The  northern  initial  R,  which  appears  first  in 
the  Bower  MSS.,1  is  ^  i.  e.  ra  with  the  curve  of  the  medial 
r  attached,  and  [33]  the  southern  forms  of  the  letter,  the  oldest 
example  of  which  occurs  in  a  Kadamba  grant  of  the  fourth  or 
fifth  century,2  appear  to  be  modifications  of  the  northern  sign. 
These  facts  indicate  that  the  signs  for  medial  r  and  f  were 
developed  first  and  that  those  for  the  initials  came  into  use 
somewhat  later.  As  will  be  shown  below,  the  process  is  exactly 
the  reverse  of  that  followed  in  the  cases  of  the  other  vowels, 
where  the  medial  signs  are  identical  with,  or  modifications  of, 
the  initial  ones.  It  is  evident  that  the  formation  first  of  initial 
and  next  of  medial  vowels  is  the  natural  method,  when  an 
alphabet  without  vowel-signs  is  turned  into  one  with  vowels. 
Hence  the  palaeographic  facts,  too,  show  that  the  signs  for  r 
and  f  were  not  framed  at  the  same  time  with  those  for  i,  I, 
u,  u,  e,  ai,  o,  au,  and  that  in  all  probability  they  are  later 
inventions. 

HI. 

If  we  now  turn  to  the  consideration  of  the  oldest  Indian 
inscriptions,  it  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  the  palaeographic 
facts  fully  confirm  the  results,  which  the  preceding  examination 
of  the  ancient  literature  has  yielded.  They  likewise  show  that 
writing,  and  especially  the  Brahmi  lipi,  had  had  a  long  history 
in  India,  before  king  Piyadasi-Asoka  caused  his  Edicts  to  be 
incised  in  the  various  provinces  of  his  large  empire.  In  ad- 


1  Compare  also  for  the  several  forms  of  r  and  R  the  Grundriss,  I,  11,  Tafel  III, 
7,  IX;  34,  III;  37,  VI;  Tafel  IV,  7,  III;  39,  III;  Tafel  VI,  18,  IV;  43,  III  and 
Tafel  VI,  7,  I-II. 

2  Ind.  Ant.,  vol.  VI,  p.  23,  pi.  Ill,  1.  12. 

3* 


36  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

dition  they  permit  us  to  recognise  that  the  Brahmi  lipi  is  the 
real  old  Indian  alphabet,  which  was  popularly  used  in  the  third 
century  B.  C.  all  over  India,  and  that  it  was  fully  developed 
[34]  before  the  introduction  of  the  Kharosthi,  whence  we  may 
infer  that  it  is  the  writing  which  the  Buddhist  canonical  works 
mention  so  frequently. 

That  the  Brahmi  lipi  was  in  the  third  century  an  ancient 
alphabet  with  a  long  history  is  proved  by  the  very  consider- 
able variations  in  the  forms  of  its  signs  found  in  the  several 
versions  of  the  Edicts,  as  well  as  by  the  recent  discovery,  on 
Sir  A.  Cunningham's  Eran  coin,  of  a  variety  which  runs  from 
the  right  to  the  left,  and  of  another  one,  on  the  Bhattiprolu 
relic  caskets,  which  includes  a  number  of  more  archaic  forms 
and  independent  developments. 

As  regards  Asoka's  Edicts,  even  a  cursory  inspection  of 
good  impressions  or  of  trustworthy  facsimiles,  such  as  those 
of  Drs.  Burgess,  Fleet  and  Hultzsch,  reveals  the  existence  of 
numerous  differences  in  the  formation  of  the  several  characters. 
A  more  careful  study  shows  not  only  that  almost  every  letter1 
has  two,  three,  half  a  dozen  or  more  sometimes  widely  diver- 
gent forms,  but  also  that  certain  peculiarities  are  confined  to 
particular  districts,  as  well  as  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
apparently  or  really  more  advanced  forms,  which  appear  more 
or  less  constantly  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  next  three  or  four 
centuries,  are  found  already  in  the  Edicts.  And  it  is  significant 
that  the  local  differences  observable  permit  us  to  speak  of  a 
Northern  and  a  Southern  variety  of  the  ordinary  Brahma  al- 
phabet, between  which,  as  in  later  times,  roughly  reckoning, 
the  river  Narmada  marks,  the  boundary  line. 

In  order  to  show,  how  considerable  the  divergences  are, 
I  give  here  the  eight  chief  varieties  of  the  initial  A?  among  which 
the  first  and  the  last  show  hardly  any  resemblance,  though 
if  all  eight  are  placed  side  by  side  their  connexion  is  easily 
recognised. 

»  X  X  X  a  H  *  H 


1  According  to  Tafel  II  of  my  Grundriss  der  indischen  Palaeographie  the 
only  exceptions  are  the  letters  U,  jha,  na,  ta,  }ha,  na,  tha  and  na. 

2  The  same  varieties  are  of  course  found  also  in  the  initial  a. 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahml.  37 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see,  that  the  first  seven  varieties 
have  been  caused  by  two  conflicting  tendencies,  a  liking  for 
[35]  angles  and  a  liking  for  curves,  which  are  observable  also  in 
the  divergent  forms  of  other  Brahma  letters.  Nos  1  —  3  are 
purely  angular.  The  first  and  the  second  differ  only  thereby, 
that  in  the  one  the  obtuse  angle  touches  the  vertical  line,  and 
that  in  the  other  it  has  been  first  made  separate  and  then  con- 
nected by  a  short  crossbar.1  In  the  third  form  the  right  hand 
stroke  is  slightly  bent  in  the  middle  and  the  whole  letter  re- 
sembles a  Greek  XL  Nos  6  and  7  show  on  the  left,  instead 
of  the  straight  sides  of  the  angle,  two  well  developed  curves, 
and  in  No  6  they  are  united  in  the  middle,  while  in  No  7 
they  do  not  touch.  Nos  4 — 5  appear  to  be  mixed  forms,  as 
the  former  has  on  the  left  a  curve  below  with  a  straight  stroke 
slanting  towards  the  left,  while  in  the  latter  the  curve  stands 
above  and  the  straight  stroke  below.  This  apparent  mixture 
may  be  due  to  an  incomplete  change  of  the  older,  angular 
form.  But  the  two  varieties  may  .also  be  explained  as  cursive 
developments  from  No  6,  the  writer  not  caring  to  make  the 
more  elaborate  curve  twice.  No  8,  finally,  is  a  purely  cursive 
development  from  No  6,  a  straight  stroke  being  substituted  for 
the  notched  line  on  the  left. 

Now  the  local  distribution  of  these  forms,  which  with  the 
exception  of  Nos  2  and  3  are  of  very  frequent  occurrence,  is 
as  follows.  The  angular  forms  Nos  1—3,  as  well  as  the  var- 
iety mentioned  in  note  1,  are  confined  to  the  Southern  ver- 
sions of  the  Edicts.  They  appear  only  in  Girnar  and  Sidda- 
pur,  Dhauli  and  Jaugada,  and  it  may  be  noted  that  in  Girnar 
and  Siddapur  they  are  in  the  majority,  Nos  4 — 7  appearing 
only  occasionally,  while  in  the  two  Southeastern  versions  (with 
the  exception  of  the  Jaugada  Separate  Edicts)  the  contrary  is 
the  case.  On  the  other  hand  I  know  of  no  case  where  a  purely 
angular  form  is  found  in  the  KalsT,  Delhi,  Bairat,  Sanchi,  Al- 
lahabad, Mathia,  Radhia,  Rampurva  Barabar,  Sahasram  and  Ru- 
pnath  Edicts.  In  the  majority  of  these  documents  Nos  4 — 7 
alone  are  used.  No  8  occurs  very  frequently  in  Kalsi  (some- 


1  There  are  also  instances  in  which  this  crossbar  is  omitted  and  the  angle 
stands  by  itself,  see  e.  g.  amina,  Siddapur  I,  1.  3. 


38  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

times  with  small  variations)  and  once  or  twice  in  Rampurva. 
Hence  it  would  appear  that  the  angular  forms  are  southern 
[36]  peculiarities  and  that,  as  they  are  undoubtedly  the  more  an- 
cient ones,  they  furnish  an  instance  of  the  conservatism,  fre- 
quently observable  in  the  southern  alphabets  of  later  times. 
This  inference  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  other  ancient 
inscriptions  of  the  same  or  nearly  the  same  period,  like  those 
on  the  Kolhapur  and  Bhatfiprolu  relic  caskets  and  from  the 
Nanaghat  cave,  likewise  show  the  angular  forms,  (mostly  side 
by  side  with  the  curved  ones),  while  the  documents,  found 
north  of  the  Narmada,  such  as  those  on  the  Bharahut  and 
Sanchi  Stupas  and  in  the  NagarjunI  caves,  as  well  as  the  coins 
of  Agathocles  offer  almost  exclusively  the  A  with  two  curves, 
rarely  the  mixed  form  No  4.  A  solitary  exception  in  Maha- 
bodhi  Gaya  (Cunningham,  op.  cit.,  plate  V,  No  2)  may  be  ex- 
plained by  the  consideration  that,  as  the  dialect  of  several 
Gaya  inscriptions  shows,  Southerners  came  to  visit  that  famous 
place  of  pilgrimage,  and  that  the  person  who  wrote  the  copy 
may  have  been  a  Southron. 

In  addition  to  the  local  differences  in  the  form  of  the 
initial  A  and  A,  there  are  also  others  observable  in  kha,  ja, 
ma,  ra  and  sa,  which  may  be  briefly  noticed  here,  though  the 
full  details  must  be  reserved  for  the  discussion  of  the  palaeo- 
graphy of  the  Edicts  in  my  Grundriss.1  The  kha  with  a  circle2 
or  loop  at  the  foot,  a  very  ancient  form,  alone  is  used  in 
Kalsi  and  besides  occurs  only  in  Jaugada  together  with  the 
simplified  forms  showing  a  dot  instead  of  the  circle  or  no  ap- 
pendage at  all.  The  ja  with  a  loop  in  the  middle3  is  used 
only  in  Kalsl.  It  seems  to  be  a  form  peculiar  to  the  extreme 
North  and  the  Northwest,  as  it  is  found  also  on  the  coins  of 
Agathocles  and  of  the  Taxila  merchants  (see  below  p.  48  f.).  The 
other  northern  versions  have  mostly  a  secondary  development 
from  it,  the  ja  with  a  dot  in  the  middle  (plate  I,  No  7,  Col.  V,  c) 
more  rarely  the  independent  form  (given  under  No  7,  Col.  V,  d), 
which  is  used  exclusively  in  Girnar  together  with  its  derivative, 


1  See  now  the  Grundriss  der  Indo-Ar.  Phil,  und  Alt.  I,  11,  p.  34  ff. 

2  See  plate  I  of  this  paper,  No.  19,  Col.  V,  a. 

3  See  plate  I,  No.  7,  Col.  V,  b. 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahmi.  39 

the  later  angular  ja  with  three  horizontal  bars  (see  below  p.  41). 
The  ma  with  the  angle  at  the  top,  an  ancient  form,  (plate  I,  No  13, 
Col.  V)  occurs  in  the  southern  versions  (with  the  exception  of 
Siddapur),  where  an  open  square  appears  instead  of  the  angle) 
[37]  and  is  used  exclusively  in  Girnar.  All  the  northern  versions 
of  the  Edicts  have  a  semicircle  instead  of  the  angle.  The  ang- 
ular and  wavy  forms  of  ra  and  their  insertion  in  the  verticals 
of  consonants  are  also  peculiar  to  the  southern  versions  (Gir- 
nar and  Siddapur);  the  solitary  ra  in  the  Rupnath  Edict 
consists  of  an  almost  straight  stroke.  Finally,  the  ancient  sa 
with  a  straight  limb  on  the  left  (plate  I,  No  15,  Col.  VI,  b)  is 
likewise  confined  to  the  South  (Girnar  and  Siddapur). 

These  facts,  to  which  some  more  might  be  added,  are  suf- 
ficient to  show,  that  the  very  common  idea1  of  the  homogene- 
ousness  of  the  characters  of  the  Edicts  and  of  the  absence  of 
local  varieties,  is  erroneous.  The  differences  between  the  writing 
of  the  northern  and  the  southern  versions  are  quite  as  consider- 
able as  those,  found  four  hundred  forty  years  later,  between  the 
letters  of  the  northern  and  southern  inscriptions  of  the  first  and 
second  centuries  A.  D.2  And  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  the 
circumstances,  under  which  the  Edicts  were  engraved,  were  not 
favourable  to  a  full  expression  of  the  local  varieties  of  the  letters. 
Copies  were  sent  out  from  Pataliputra  into  the  provinces,  which 
were  recopied  and,  as  the  dialectic  differences  in  the  language 
and  occasional  peculiarities  in  the  wording  prove,  also  recast 
by  the  clerks  of  the  district-governors,  before  they  were  made 
over  for  engraving  to  the  masons.  It  seems  only  natural  to 


See  e.  g.  Burnell,  El.  South  Indian  Palaeography,  p.  7,  note  4,  with  whose 
remarks  Dr.  Taylor,  M.  Halevy  and  others  agree. 

I  state  this  in  accordance  with  the  facts,  shown  by  Tafel  III  of  my  Grund- 
riss,  which  includes  inter  alia  the  signs  from  the  inscriptions  of  the  Sakas 
and  Kusanas  of  Mathura,  Kaman  and  Sanchi,  the  Western  Ksatrapas, 
the  Andhras  and  Abhlras.  Dr.  BurneU's  statement  (loc.  cit.)  that  "in 
the  course  of  a  few  hundred  years  [after  Asoka]  the  alphabets  used  in 
Gujarat  and  Bengal  had  already  become  so  different  as  to  be  very  little 
alike  in  appearance",  I  fear,  cannot  be  substantiated.  Between  200  B.  C. 
and  200  A.  D.  there  are  no  inscriptions  from  Bengal  proper.  The  in- 
scriptions from  Mahabodhi  Gaya  in  Behar  (given  by  Sir  A.  Cunningham) 
which  may  be  assigned  to  this  period,  look  very  much  like  those  of  the 
Sakas  and  the  Western  Ksatrapas. 


40  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

assume  that  the  characters  of  the  copies  prepared  at  Patali- 
putra  influenced  the  writing  of  the  provincial  clerks,  and  caused 
the  introduction  of  forms,  otherwise  not  usual  in  the  several 
[38]  provinces.1  Such  a  suspicion  is  the  more  natural,  as  the  pro- 
vincial clerks  have  in  no  case  completely  changed  the  lang- 
uage, but  have  always  allowed  some  Magadhisms  to  stand. 
But,  however  that  may  be,  local  differences  are  traceable  in 
the  writing  of  the  several  versions  and  they  prove  that  the 
Brahma  alphabet  had  had  a  long  history  before  the  third  cent- 
ury B.  C.  If  the  slowness  of  the  change  of  the  forms,  and 
the  comparative  insignificance  of  the  local  variations  which  the 
inscriptions  of  the  next  four  or  five  centuries  show,  are  taken 
as  the  standard,  it  will  be  necessary  to  assume  that  the  letters 
of  the  Edicts  had  been  used  at  least  during  four  or  five  hund- 
red years. 

As  regards  the  second  important  point,  to  which  attention 
has  been  called  above,  viz.,  the  occurrence  of  numerous  ap- 
parently or  really  advanced  forms,  identical  or  closely  agreeing 


As  I  have  stated  already  in  Dr.  Burgess1  Arch.  Surv.  Rep.  W.  I.,  Vol.  IV,  p.  79  f. 
and  in  the  Ind.  Ant.,  Vol.  XII,  190,  the  clerks  who  prepared  the  fair  copies 
of  the  inscriptions,  not  the  masons  or  coppersmiths  who  engraved  them,  are 
the  men  who  influenced  the  formation  of  the  letters.  How  the  masons  worked, 
may  be  seen  from  two  passages  of  the  Kalsi  version.  In  the  twelfth  Edict, 
1.  31  six  letters  have  been  scored  out  and  the  corrections  have  been  written 
above  the  line.  The  letters  in  the  upper  row  are  as  large  as  those  in  the 
lower  and  the  distance  between  lines  30  and  31  becomes  from  the  beginning 
of  the  corrected  passage  twice  as  great  as  it  was  before.  It  is  evident 
that  the  mistake  and  its  correction  occurred  iu  the  MS.  given  to  the 
mason.  If  they  were  due  to  the  latter,  the  line  would  run  on  straighter 
and  the  letters  of  the  correction  would  be  smaller.  Again  in  the  four- 
teenth Edict  1.  20  the  syllables  tile  of  the  word  ghatile  are  corrections, 
one  standing  above  the  line  and  the  other  below  it.  But  the  distance 
between  rjha  and  the  first  letter  of  the  following  word,  ma,  is  twice  as 
great  as  those  intervening  between  the  other  letters  of  the  line.  Here 
it  is  again  certain  that  the  MS.  had  the  mistake  and  the  correction. 
If  the  mason  had  skipped  the  two  signs  and  added  them  afterwards,  the 
gha  would  not  stand  further  off  from  ma  thait  from  its  predecessor.  I 
think  that  these  two  instances  are  sufficient  to  prove  that  Asoka's  ma- 
sons copied  quite  mechanically.  It  seems,  therefore,  impossible  to  attri- 
bute to  them  any  other  influence  on  the  shape  of  the  letters  than  such 
as  may  be  caused  by  a  slip  of  the  chisel  or  by  their  accidentally  over- 
looking a  stroke  in  the  MS.  before  them. 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahml.  41 

with  those  of  the  later  times,  its  significance  will  become  best 
apparent,  if  all  such  signs,  found  in  the  Edicts,  are  placed  to- 
gether. The  subjoined  little  table,  for  the  preparation  of  which 
[39]  I  have  to  acknowledge  the  help  of  Dr.  W.  Cartellieri,  gives  in 
the  lines,  marked  A,  the  advanced  Asoka  letters  photolitho- 
graphed  according  to  cuttings  from  the  facsimiles,  and  in  those, 
marked  B,  the  corresponding  characters  from  the  later  in- 
scriptions of  Hathigumpha,  the  Nanaghat,  Mathura  and  the 
Western  caves.  The  dates  of  the  latter  vary  between  the 
middle  of  the  second  century  B.  C.  and  of  the  second  century 
A.  D.,  and  in  every  case  the  oldest  available  counterpart  has 
been  chosen. 

n          ka  kha  ga        gha        cha         ja         $a          ti 


H+3    ?    ^   ^    L    dt    £    <    X 

12345678  9         10         11 

va  vi  sa  ha 

\>     d    *    lr^ 
^     >    L   13   *    J    ,,          £          Lr  <•« 

12    13    14    15   16    17    18    19    20    21   22 

The  table  shows  that  the  later  signs  for  sixteen  letters 
occur  already  in  the  third  century  B.  C.  Four  of  these  forms, 
the  dagger-  shaped  ka  (common  in  Kalsi  and  occurring  in  most 
other  versions  except  in  Girnar),  the  angular  gha  (Kalsi)  and 
ha  (No  21,  in  various  versions)  as  well  as  the  curved  da 
(Kalsi)  are  in  reality  archaic,1  while  the  corresponding  common 
signs  of  the  Edicts  are  advanced  developments,  which  like  the 
peculiar  va  (No  18,  Girnar,  Sohgaura),  and  sa  (No  20,  Kalsi,  Jau- 
gacla),  have  left  no  trace  in  the  later  writing.  The  remaining  ones 
are  really  cursive  or  derived  from  cursive  forms.  No  1,  the 
initial  A,  has  been  discussed  above,  its  counterpart  in  line  B 


1  See   below  pp.  58 f.,  61,  73.    The   counterparts   in   line   B  are   from   the 
Hathigumpha  inscription. 


42  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

occurs  in  the  Kusana  inscriptions  from  Mathura,  No  3,  the 
kha  with  a  loop  to  the  right  (Kalsl)  is  a  cursive  form  for  the 
kha  with  the  circle  at  the  foot,1  and  itself  the  parent  of  No  4 
[40]  (Delhi-Sivalik)  which  preserves  the  twist  in  the  down  stroke 
caused  by  the  loop,  but  substitutes  a  dot  for  the  latter.2  No  5, 
the  kha  with  the  triangle  (once  in  Mathia)  is  a  fanciful  va- 
riant for  the  oldest  form,  its  counterpart  has  been  taken  from 
the  archaic  Mathura  inscriptions.  No  6,  the  ga  with  the  round 
top3  is  a  cursive  form  of  the  pointed  letter,  the  corresponding 
form  is  from  Hathigumpha,  but  found  in  all  inscriptions  of  the 
second  century  B.  C.  No  8,  the  cha  with  two  loops4  is  a 
tertiary  development,  immediately  derived  from  the  form  with 
the  bisected  circle,  which  again  is  merely  cursive.5  The  same 
remark  applies  to  No  9,  the  ja  with  three  bars.  It  is  derived 
from  the  notched  Girnar  form,  which  itself  is  a  cursive  deve- 
lopment from  the  Blmttiprolu  form."  Nos  11  and  19,  the 
stunted  ti  and  vi1,  give  examples  of  the  triangulation  of  the 
lower  portion  of  va  and  of  the  reduction  of  the  vertical 
strokes  so  characteristic  of  the  alphabets  of  the  next  cent- 
uries, which  appears  already  with  great  regularity  in  the 
Nagarjunl  cave  inscriptions  of  Asoka's  grandson.  No  12,  the 


1  See  below  plate  I,  No  19,  Col.  V,  I. 

2  The  corresponding  forms  in  line  B  have  been  taken  from  Hathigumpha. 
Better   ones   for   No  3    are   found   in   the   inscriptions   from  the  Western 
caves,  see  Tafel  III,  8,  VIII  of  the  Grundriss. 

3  Once  in  Delhi  Sivalik  Ed.  VII  and  in  the  mason's  alphabet  at  Mahabo- 
dhi  Gaya. 

4  Kills!  once  and   mason's   alphabet  from  Mahabodhi  Gaya.    The  form  in 
line  B  is  from  Hathigumpha. 

5  See  below  p.  68. 

6  See  below  plate  I,  No  7,  Col.  V,  a  and  the  discussion   on  No  7,    p.  60  f., 
The  sign,  given  above,  occurs  in  Girnar,  Ed.  IX,  1.  1.   The  great  length  of 
the   central   bar  is  caused  by  the  a-stroke  which  it    includes.     Similar 
forms  occur  in  Kalsi,  where  they  represent  the  looped  ja.    The  corres- 
ponding form  in  line  B  occurs  already  in  Dasaratha's  Nagarjunl  inscrip- 
tion. 

7  The  stunted  ta  is  very  frequent  in  Kalsl  and  occurs  occasionally  also  in 
other  versions.    The  triangular  va  with  the  very  short  vertical  is  found 
r>nce  in  a  correction  in  Kalsl,  Edict  XIII,  2,  1.  13.    The  forms  in  line  B 
have   been  taken  from   the  Kusana  inscriptions.    Some   instances  of  pa, 
pha  and  *a  with  very  short  verticals  occur  likewise  already  in  the  Edicts. 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahmi.  43 

da  with  a  shallow  curve  and  the  tail  twisted  towards  the  right 
(Jaugada,  Girnar,  etc.)  is  a  transitional  form,  corresponding  to 
those  in  the  NagarjunI  cave,  the  archaic  Mathura  and  the  Pa- 
bhosa  inscriptions  (B),  and  leading  up  to  the  da  of  the  first 
[41]  and  second  centuries  A.  D.  Nos  13,  14  and  16  give  examples 
of  the  introduction  of  angles  in  the  lower  limb  of  pa,  pha  and 
la*  which  originally  consisted  of  curves,  but  are  changed  with 
perfect  regularity  already  in  the  Hathigumpha,  the  archaic 
Mathura  and  the  Pabhosa  inscriptions.2  No  15,  the  l>ha  with 
the  round  side-limb  (Jaugada,  Kalsl,  etc.)  is  of  course  cursive 
and  found  in  all  the  later  inscriptions  except  in  Hathigumpha. 
Nos  17  and  22.  the  la  and  ha  with  the  side-limbs  turned  down- 
wards (Jaugada  Separate  Edicts)  are  again  highly  cursive.  Coun- 
terparts of  No  17  are  found  in  the  Nanaghat  inscription,  those  of 
No  22  only  in  the  Abhira  inscription  from  the  Nasik  caves.  These 
facts,  to  which  others,  such  as  later  forms  of  the  medial  vowels, 
the  position  of  the  Anusvara  at  the  top  of  the  consonants  and 
the  occasional  use  of  serifs  or  short  bars  at  the  top  of  verti- 
cals, might  be  added,  do  not  agree  with  the  assumption  that 
writing  was  a  recent  practice  in  Asoka's  times.  To  me  it  seems 
that  they  are  most  easily  explained,  on  the  supposition  that 
several,  both  archaic  and  more  advanced,  alphabets  existed  in 
the  third  century  B.  C.,  that  an  archaic  alphabet  was  chosen 
for  the  perpetuation  of  the  Edicts,  but  that  the  clerks  mixed 
the  forms.  And  in  support  of  this  view  I  would  adduce  the 
Jaina  tradition,  discussed  above  p.  23  ff.,  according  to  which 
many  alphabets  were  used  about  300  B.  C.  But,  even  if  we 
leave  aside  all  conjectural  explanations  of  the  facts,  it  remains 
undeniable  that  the  writing  of  the  Edicts  is  in  a  state  of 
transition,  and  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  warrant  the  assertion, 
that  their  alphabet  certainly  had  had  a  long  history.3 


1  Nos  13  and  14  occur  a  few  times  in  Kalsi  and  other  versions,  No  16  is 
from  Delhi-Sivalik  and  occurs  also  in  Kalsl,  etc. 

2  Among  the  inscriptions  of  the  second  century  B.  C.,  that  from  the  Nana- 
ghat cave  preserves  the  round  forms. 

8  As  so  distinguished  an  epigraphist  as  Dr.  Burnell  has  come  to  exactly 
the  contrary  conclusion  and  as  his  view  is  still  quoted  by  other  writers 
on  the  subject,  it  will  not  be  superfluous,  if  I  briefly  review  his  argu- 
ments. His  chief  argument  for  the  late  introduction  of  writing  is  that 


44  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

[42]  To  an  earlier  stage  than  the  writing  of  the  Edicts  belongs 
the   inscription  on  Sir  A.  Cunningham's  Eran  coin,  which   runs 


very  few  allusions  to  the  use  of  letters  are  contained  in  the  literary 
works  which  date  from  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  The  answer  to  this 
statement  is  contained  in  the  second  part  of  this  paper,  and  it  need 
only  be  pointed  out  that  Dr.  Burnell  could  not  know  of  the  passages 
mentioning  private  and  official  documents,  as  the  works,  in  which  they 
occur,  had  not  been  published  in  1878.  His  second  and  accessory  ar- 
gument is  drawn  from  internal  evidence  furnished  by  the  Edicts.  He 
says,  El.  South  Indian  Palaeography,  p.  2,  "The  inscriptions  of  Asoka  are 
also  in  themselves  proofs  that  writing  was  about  250  B.  C.  a  recent 
practice;  for  they  present  irregularities  of  every  kind,"  and  in  the  note 
to  the  passage,  he  quotes  as  instances,  conflicting  spellings  like  anapitam 
(correctly  anapitam)  and  anapitam,  dasana  and  dasana  (from  the  Girnar 
version),  the  irregular  insertion  of  nasals  before  consonants  (which,  as 
he  admits,  may  be  due  to  the  negligence  of  the  masons)  and  the  cons- 
tant neglect  of  the  reduplication  of  consonants  e.  g.  in  piyasa  for  piyassa, 
arabhisante  (read  arabhisare)  for  drabbhissare  and  so  forth.  These  facts 
are  indisputable,  and  other  similar  ones  like  the  irregular  employment 
of  the  signs  for  sibilants  in  Kalsl,  Bairfit  II  and  Siddapur  and  the  constant  or 
nearly  constant  use  of  short  i  and  u  for  long  z  and  u  in  Kalsl,  Bairat 
and  Kfipnfith  may  be  added.  But  they  do  not  prove  the  proposition,  in 
support  of  which  Dr.  Burnell  adduces  them.  The  numerous  double  and 
even  treble  forms  of  the  same  words,  which  occur  in  one  and  the  same 
version  are  not  graphic.  Some  are,  as  the  analogies  in  the  ancient  lite- 
rary Prakrits  show,  real  variants  which  occurred  in  one  and  the  same 
dialect,  and  some  are  due  to  slips  in  the  translation  of  the  Magadhi 
originals  of  the  Edicts  into  the  Western  and  Northwestern  dialects.  The 
irregular  use  of  the  Anusvara  before  consonants  may  also  be  ascribed 
partly  to  the  same  cause,  since  the  Pali  too  occasionally  omits  a  nasal 
and  then  doubles  the  following  consonant.  In  other  cases  it  may  be  due 
to  the  carelessness  of  Asoka's  clerks,  who  treated  their  Vernaculars  ex- 
actly as  a  modern  Karkun  treats  his.  Everybody  who  has  had  any  ex- 
perience of  Indian  office  work,  must  know  that  the  Sheras  or  official 
papers,  prepared  by  the  clerks  of  the  older  generation,  who  had  received 
their  elementary  instruction  in  the  indigenous  schools  and  had  after- 
wards been  trained  in  the  offices,  show  an  extreme  irregularity  in  the 
use  of  the  Anusvaras,  of  the  short  and  long  i  and  w,  of  the  three  signs 
for  sibilants  and  of  the  reduplication  of  consonants.  During  my  service 
as  Educational  Inspector  I  have  seen  a  great  many,  sometimes  impor- 
tant, documents  from  British  Government  offices  and  from  those  of  native 
princes,  which  in  their  spelling  were  quite  as  bad  as,  and  even  worse 
than,  Asoka's  Edicts,  and  I  do  not  recollect  that  any  papers,  except  those 
sent  by  carefully  trained  schoolmasters,  were  quite  exact.  One  cause  of 
this  state  of  things  was  the  wretched  instruction  in  the  indigenous  schools, 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahmi.  45 

[43]  from  the  right  to  the  left.1  The  letters  agree  exactly  with  Aso- 
ka's  and  the  dha  has  the  position  required  for  the  writing  from 
the  left  to  the  right.  It  dates,  therefore,  from  a  period  during 
which  the  Brahma  characters  were  written  in  both  directions. 
This  period  is  probably  not  very  far  distant  from  the  middle 
of  the  third  century  B.  C.,  as  the  Edicts  still  show  single  let- 
ters, which  belong  to  the  writing  from  the  right  to  the  left, 
viz.,  the  dha,  given  in  the  first  Comparative  Table  No  4,  Col.  V,  a, 
the  0,  ibidem,  No  6,  Col.  VI,  f,  and  the  ta,  ibidem,  No  22, 
Col.  V,  1.  The  coin  may,  therefore,  be  somewhat  younger  than 
Sir  A.  Cunningham  thinks,  who  assigns  it  to  400  B.  C.  The 
great  antiquity  of  its  find-spot,  the  town  of  Eran,  is  attested 
by  an  inscription  on  the  Sanchi  Stupa,  where  it  occurs  as 
Erakina. 

A  still  more  important  palaeographic  witness  for  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  Brahma  alphabet  is  the  variety,  found  in  the 
inscriptions  on  the  Bhattiprolu  relic  caskets,  the  value  of  which, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  I  have  somewhat  underestimated  in  the  in- 


where  writing  is  taught  according  to  the  Barakhadi,  described  above, 
which  contains  no  ligatures  and  more  sibilants  than  the  Vernaculars 
possess,  and  where  composition  received  little  or  no  attention,  being  at 
the  best  confined  to  the  copying  of  a  few  forms  for  letters.  Another 
cause  was  the  want  of  a  settled  system  for  the  minutiae  of  vernacular 
grammar,  both  in  writing  and  in  speech  (compare  my  remarks,  Ep.  Ind., 
Vol.  Ill,  p.  136)  all  efforts  in  this  direction  being  of  quite  recent  date. 
A  third  cause  is,  I  fear,  the  deeply  rooted  tendency  of  all  Hindus  to  in- 
accuracy in  small  matters.  Now  the  Asoka  Edicts  are  official  papers, 
written  by  his  lipikaras  or  clerks.  As  there  is  no  reason  for  assuming 
that  they  had  received  a  better  education  than  the  men  in  the  modern 
offices  of  British  and  native  India,  and  that  the  Vernaculars  of  the  third 
century  B.  C.  had  been  polished  and  perfected  by  grammarians,  it  seems 
difficult  to  ascribe  the  defects  in  their  spelling  to  other  causes  than 
those  which  produce  the  same  imperfections  in  the  office  work  of  the 
modern  Karkuns.  The  probability  that  the  causes  are  the  same  in- 
creases, if  it  is  remembered,  that  even  the  Sanskrit  landgrants,  issued 
from  the  secretariats  of  later  kings,  show  the  same  mistakes,  sometimes 
in  a  very  high  degree.  Thus  the  Valabhl  grant,  published  in  the  Ind- 
ian Antiquary,  Vol.  VII,  p.  68  f.,  has  no  long  »,  very  few  long  u,  invar- 
iably dha  for  ddha  and  almost  regularly  Sa  for  $a. 

Coins  of  Ancient  India,  p.  101  and  plate  XI,  18.  According  to  a  plaster 
cast,  which  I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Rapson,  the  inscription  is  Dhn- 
mapalasa.o,  the  last  consonant  being  illegible. 


46  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

troductory  remarks  to  my  edition  in  the  Epigraphia  Indica, 
Vol.  II,  p.  323  ff.  Though  the  article  has  been  published  only 
in  1894,  it  was  written  more  than  two  years  earlier,  before  I  had 
begun  to  study  the  question  of  the  derivation  of  the  Brahma 
[44]  alphabet.  Then,  I  saw  only  that  the  inscriptions  probably  be- 
long to  nearly  the  same  period  as  the  Edicts  and  that  their 
alphabet,  which  offers  the  six  independent  Matrkas  gh,  j, 
m,  I,  s  and  I  and  the  curious  notation  of  a  and  a,  as  well 
as  some  minor  differences  in  the  radical  signs  for  c,  d  and 
bh,  must  be  considered  as  coeval  with  Asoka's  Brahma  let- 
ters. Hence  I  drew  the  inference  that  in  the  third  century 
the  Brahma  characters  showed  in  certain  districts  even  greater 
local  varieties  than  appears  from  the  Edicts  alone,  and  I  pointed 
out  that  this  discovery  greatly  bettered  the  position  of  those 
who,  like  myself,  hold  the  art  of  writing  to  have  been  pract- 
ised for  many  centuries  before  the  times  of  the  great  Maurya 
reformer.  So  far  I  have  nothing  to  change  or  to  add. 

But  the  comparison  of  the  Indian  characters  with  Semitic 
signs,  which  1  have  instituted  since,  has  greatly  altered  my 
opinion  regarding  the  palaeographic  value  of  the  independent 
signs.  I  no  longer  believe  in  the  possibility  to  regard  the  gha 
of  the  Edicts  as  a  derivative  from  ga,  and  admit  now  that  the 
Bhattiprolu  gh  (below  plate  I,  No  3,  Col.  VI)  is  an  indepen- 
dent form,  the  framer  or  framers  of  the  alphabet  having  dis- 
carded one  of  the  old  Semitic  radicals,  which  the  common 
Brahma  alphabet  retains.  I  further  must  admit  that  the  BhaJ- 
tiprolu  j  (below  plate  I,  No  7,  Col.  V,  a)  and  9  (plate  I, 
No  15,  Col.  V)  are  older  forms  than  the  corresponding  ones 
of  the  Edicts,  the  former  being  a  tolerably  faithful  representa- 
tion of  the  oldest  form  of  Zain  and  the  latter  being  a  simpli- 
fication of  the  Semitic  Samech,  turned  topsy-turry.  The  I  and 
I  (below  plate  I,  No  12,  Col.  V,  2,  Col.  VI),  regarding  which  I 
did  not  say  anything  definite,  I  must  now  declare  to  be  indepen- 
dent evolutions  from  the  ancient  Semitic  Lamed,  and  even  in 
the  tailed  c  (below  plate  I,  No  18,  Col.  V,  3)  I  now  recognise  an 
archaic  form.  On  the  other  hand,  for  m  fl,  which  I  took  to 
be  a  possibly  older  form  of  the  ordinary  Brahma  sign,  I  can 
no  longer  claim  this  distinction.  It  is  merely  the  oldest  ma  of  the 
Edicts,  placed  top  downwards.  This  change  of  opinion  regard- 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahml.  47 

ing-  the  details,  the  necessity  for  which  will  become  more  fully 
apparent  in  the  next  part  of  this  paper,  naturally  forces  me  to 
modify  the  general  proposition  that  the  Bhat^iprolu  alphabet 
does  not  teach  us  much  regarding  the  history  of  the  Brahma 
[45]  writing  and  regarding  the  conversion  of  the  Semitic  letters 
into  Indian  characters.  It  certainly  furnishes  us  with  valuable 
intermediate  "forms  for  four  radical  signs,  c,  j,  I  and  s,  which 
latter  appears  to  be  the  parent  of  the  ordinary  Brahma  sa  and 
sa,  and  with  one  entirely  independent  derivative  sign  gh.  Its 
separation  from  the  ordinary  Brahma  alphabet  must  fall  not 
only  before  the  third  century  B.  C.7  but  also  before  the  time, 
when  the  Eran  coin  was  struck,  and  cannot  have  happened  at 
a  later  period  than  the  fifth  century  B.  C.,  though  it  may  fall 
much  earlier. 

This  estimate  carries  us  back  to  the  period,  for  which  the 
passages  of  the  Jatakas,  the  Pacittiya  and  the  Mahavagga, 
quoted  above,  assert  the  common  use  of  writing,  though  they 
do  not  give  the  name  of  the  characters  employed  nor  any  de- 
tails regarding  them,  by  which  they  might  be  identified.  The 
coincidence  makes  it  of  course  tempting  to  assume  that  the 
writing,  referred  to  in  the  Buddhist  Canon,  is  the  Brahml  lipi. 
And  the  correctness,  or  at  least  the  great  probability  of  this 
assumption,  I  think,  is  made  apparent  by  the  recent  discoveries 
regarding  the  relative  position  of  the  Brahml  and  the  Kharo- 
sthi  —  the  only  other  script  which  could  come  into  question 
—  as  well  as  by  the  facts  bearing  on  the  origin  of  the  Kha- 
rosthl. 

The  late  finds  of  very  ancient  inscribed  coins  in  North- 
western India  leave  no  doubt  that  according  to  the  epigraphic 
evidence  the  Brahml  lipi  was  since  the  beginning  of  the  his- 
torical period  the  paramount  Indian  alphabet,  used  from  the 
Himalayas  to  Cape  Komorin  and  from  the  Khyber  Pass  to  the 
Bay  of  Bengal,  while  the  Kharosfhi  held  always  a  secondary 
place  only  in  a  very  confined  territory.  Again,  the  clear  evid- 
ence of  the  forms  of  the  Kharosthl  letters,  the  original  stock 
of  which  is  doubtlessly  derived  from  the  Aramaic  alphabet  of 
500 — 400  B.  C.,  shows  that  this  alphabet  cannot  have  been 
developed,  much  less  have  penetrated  into  Eastern  India  at 
the  early  period  to  which  the  Buddhist  works  refer. 


48  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

The  first  point,  which  is  of  considerable  general  import- 
ance for  Indian  palaeography,  will  best  become  intelligible  by 
a  brief  review  of  the  epigraphy  of  those  districts  where  Kha- 
rosthl  inscriptions  occur.  From  the  third  century  we  have  the 
two  Kharosthl  versions  of  the  Asoka  Edicts,  incised  in  the 
[46]  northwestern  corner  of  the  Panjab,  at  Shahbazgarhi  and  Man- 
sehra.  To  the  same  or  possibly  a  somewhat  earlier  period  belong 
Sir  A.  Cunningham's  coins  from  the  site  of  the  Taxila  or  Tak- 
sasila,  which  prove  the  contemporaneous  popular  use  of  the 
Brahma  characters  in  Gandhara. 

These  coins  have  been  figured  by  Sir  A.  Cunningham  in 
his  Coins  of  Ancient  India,  plates  II  and  III.  He  has  pointed 
out,  op.  cit.  p.  61,  that  they  are  partly  punch-marked  silver 
pieces  and  partly  single  or  double  die  copper  pieces,  all  of  the 
standard  peculiar  to  India,  and  he  takes  them  for  this  reason 
and  on  account  of  the  very  archaic  forms  of  the  letters  of  the 
legends,  "to  be  anterior  to  the  Greek  conquest  of  Alexander". 
It  will  perhaps  be  safer  to  say  "anterior  to  the  Greek  conquest 
of  Demetrius".  From  their  inscriptions,  which  are  partly  in 
Brahma  characters  of  the  Kalsl  type1  and  partly  both  in 
Brahma  and  in  Karosthi  letters,  Sir  A.  Cunningham  has  al- 
ready drawn  the  obvious  inference,  that  both  alphabets  were 
used  in  Northern  India  during  the  third  century  B.  C.  Some- 
thing more,  it  seems  to  me,  may  be  elicited  from  an  analysis  of 
the  legends. 

On  the  coin,  plate  II,  17,  the  Brahma  legend  Vatasvaka 
corresponds  to  Sanskrit  Vatasvakdh  and  probably  means  "the 
Vata  -  Asvakas"  or  "the  Asvakas  of  the  Vata  or  'fig-tree'  di- 
vision". It  is  well  known  that  there  was  an  Asvaka  tribe  in 
Northwestern  India,  whom  the  Greeks  call  Assakenoi  and  state 
(Arrian,  Indica,  I.  1)  to  have  inhabited  the  country  west  of  the 
Indus  as  far  as  the  Kophen.  It  may  further  be  mentioned  that 
some  old  Indian  tribes,  like  the  Yaudheyas2  were  actually  di- 
vided into  sections  or  ganas,  as  well  as  that,  as  the  case  of 
the  Audumbaras  shows,  tribes  were  occasionally  named  after 


1  The  Kalsl  type  is  visible  in  the  looped  ja, 

*  See,  Sir  A.  Cunningham,  Arch.  Surv.  Reports,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  141  and  plate 
XXXI,  where  coins  of  their  second  and  third  ganaa  are  described. 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  BrahmT.  49 

trees.  With  this  explanation  the  coin  appears  to  have  been 
issued  by  one  of  the  subdivisions  of  a  tribe,  which  occupied  just 
those  districts,  from  which  so  many  Kharosthl  inscriptions  come, 
and  a  Brahma  inscription  on  a  tribal  coin  would  certainly  in- 
dicate that  the  alphabet  was  in  popular  use. 

[47]  The  latter  point  comes  out  still  more  strongly  through 
some  other  coins,  figured  on  plate  III,1  viz. 

Obverse  Reverse 

No    9  Dujaka  (Kharosthl)  Negama  (Brahmi) 

No  10  Dojaka  (Brahmi)  Negama  (Brahmi) 

No    8  [T]alima[ta]  (Brahmi)  [NJegafmJ  (Brahmi) 

No  11  A[taka?Jtaka  (Brahmi)  NegamfaJ  (BrahmT) 

The  word  negama  is  common  enough  in  Pali  and  in  the 
epigraphic  Prakrits,  and  means  always  'the  traders'.  It  shows 
here  that  the  coins  are  mercantile  money-tokens,  issued  by 
traders,  and  the  words  on  the  obverse  may  be  either  names 
of  towns  or  of  guilds.2  The  latter  explanation  is  perhaps  the 
more  probable  one.  But  however  that  may  be,  the  use  of  both 
alphabets  by  traders  proves  indeed  that  both  were  in  popular 
use  in  the  heart  of  Gandhara. 

The  other  coins  of  the  same  period,  struck  outside  the 
Panjab,  show  legends  in  Brahmi,  even  that  from  Mathura, 
op.  cit.  plate  VIII,  1,  in  which  town  also  a  votive  inscription 
in  Brahma  characters  of  the  third  century  (Reports  Arch.  Sur- 
vey, Vol.  XX,  plate  VI)  has  been  found.  Only  in  one  case 
Kharosthl  letters  have  turned  up  further  south,  but  under  cir- 
cumstances, which  do  not  allow  the  inference  that  the  alpha- 


1  Though   the   letters   are  perfectly  distinct,   Sir  A.  Cunningham   gives  er- 
roneously Nekama  as  the  reading  of  the  Kharosthl  legend  of  No  9.   On 
the   obverse   of  No  8   he   reads  Rdlimata,    and   he   takes  negama  as   the 
equivalent  of  the  Greek  No'[Ata[ia,   for  which   explanation  there  is  no  au- 
thority  (see  also   Ind.  Ant.,  vol.  XXI,   p.  346).   He   correctly   points   out 
that,  on  plate  II,  Nos  21  &  22  have  the  inscription  Kadasa,  i.  e.  Kalasa, 
in  Brahma  letters  of  the  type  of  the  Edicts,   and   asserts  that  No  13  on 
plate  III  bears  the  Kharosthl  legend  Pamca  Nekamma.  According  to  the 
autotype  the  third  sign   is  not  ne  but   a   and  the  fourth   looks   like  kra. 

2  I  am  unable  to  explain  Dujaka- Dojaka.    Talimata  seems  to  be  connected 
with   the   Sanskrit    Tali  "Corypha  Taliera"  or  "Flacourtia   cataphracta". 

Biihler,  Indian  Studies.  III.  4 


50  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

bet  was  generally  used  or  known.  This  case  occurs  in  the 
Siddapur  Edicts  where  the  writer  Pa<Ja  has  added  at  the  end 
his  qualification  lipikarena  'the  scribe'  in  Kharosthl  characters. 
This  looks  like  a  joke  or  a  boast,  as  if  Pada,  proud  of  his 
accomplishments,  had  been  anxious  to  make  it  apparent  that 
he  knew  more  than  the  ordinary  characters.  And,  as  he  was 
[48]  in  the  royal  service,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  may  have  ac- 
quired a  knowledge  of  the  Kharosthl  during  a  stay  in  a  north- 
ern office,  or  may  have  been  a  Northerner  by  birth.1 

From  the  second  and  first  centuries  B.  C.  we  have  chiefly 
legends  on  coins,  which  were  struck  in  the  Panjab  or  in  non- 
Indian  countries  further  west.  The  Indo-Grecian  kings  gener- 
ally use  Kharosthl  letters,  but  Agathokles  and  Pantaleon  em- 
ploy also  Brahma  characters,  showing  thereby  that  this  alphabet 
likewise  continued  to  be  used  in  the  Northwest,  side  by  side 
with  the  Kharosthl.  The  same  fact  is  proved  by  the  double 
legends  in  Kharosthl  and  Brahma  letters  on  Sir  A.  Cunning- 
ham's Audumbara  and  Kuninda  coins,  op.  cit.  pi.  IV2  and 
V,  1 — 6,  which  come  from  the  same  districts  and  probably 
belong  to  the  same  time.  Further  east  in  Kosambl,  Ayodhya 
(op.  cit.,  pi.  V,  7—18  and  IX)  and  Pancala  (pi.  VII)  as  well 
as  further  south  in  Ujjain  (pi.  X)  none  but  Brahma  letters 
occur.  And  it  is  curious  that  even  the  Yaudheyas  (pi.  VI), 
who  were  settled  on  the  lower  Satledge,  use  only  the  latter 
characters.  A  few  single  letters  on  the  gateway  of  the  Bharahut 
Stupa,  among  which  there  is  a  sa  of  the  second  century,  (Cun- 
ningham, the  Stupa  of  Bharahut,  pi.  VIII),  are  probably  marks 
of  northern  masons,  who  erected  this  additional  portion  of  the 
monument  for  Dhanabhuti. 

During  the  period  of  the  6aka  and  Kusana  kings,  from 
the  first  century  B.  C.  to  the  end  of  the  second  century  A.  D., 

1  See  the  Wiener  Zeitschrift  f.  d.  Kunde  d.  Morgenlandes,  Vol.  VII,  p.  30  f. 
Dr.  Grierson,  Ind.  Ant.,  Vol.  XXIV,  p.  247,  points  out  an  analogous 
practice  of  the  modern  Kayasths  of  Bihar  who  sign  the  documents, 
written  in  the  Kaithl  character,  with  their  names  in  Arabic  letters. 

8  The  Vrfni-coin  No  15  is  according  to  the  evidence  of  the  characters 
later  and  probably  belongs  to  the  period  when  the  Sakas  had  carried 
the  Kharosthl  as  far  as  Mathura.  A  few  votive  inscriptions  of  the  second 
and  first  centuries  B.  C.  from  the  same  town  are  in  Brahma  characters, 
Epigraphia  Indica,  Vol.  II,  p.  195. 


III.  The  Antiquity  of  the  Brahinl.  51 

the  numerous  inscriptions,  incised  in  the  Western  Panjab,  are 
in  Kharosthl  and  those  on  Dr.  Bhagvanlal's  Lion  Capital  prove 
that  the  Kharosthl  penetrated  during  the  reign  of  the  Saka 
Satrap  and  king  6u<Jasa  or  £o<Jasa  as  far  as  Mathura,  where 
however,  as  the  enormous  quantity  of  Jaina  and  Bauddha  votive 
inscriptions  shows,  the  Brahma  alphabet  was  at  that  time  and 
later  the  usual  one.  [49]  The  coins  of  the  earlier  &aka  kings  from 
the  North  like  those  of  Mauos  and  Azes  and  of  their  Satraps, 
as  well  as  those  of  Gondopherres  and  his  brothers,  have  Greek 
and  Kharosthl  legends,  while  the  later  Kusana  kings,  Kaniska, 
Huviska  and  Bazodeo  or  Vasudeva  discard  the  latter,  and  their 
successors  finally  adopt  the  Brahma  alphabet.  Further  east  and 
south  the  king  and  Satrap  Rajubula  and  his  son  &ug!asa,  who 
ruled  over  Mathura  and  perhaps  over  other  portions  of  the  eastern 
Panjab,  either  follow  the  same  practice  as  Mauos  or  use  Brahma 
letters  (Cunningham,  op.  eit,  pi.  VIII,  2 — 5),  which  occur  also 
on  the  coins  of  the  Satraps  Hagamasha  and  Hagamana  (ibidem, 
Nos  6 — 7).  Further  two  foreign  (Saka?)  Satraps  and  kings  of 
Ujjain,  Nahapana  and  Castana  employ  on  their  coins  both  the 
Indian  Alphabets  simultaneously,  while  the  inscriptions  of  Aya- 
ma,  the  minister  of  Nahapana,  of  his  daughter  Daksamitra 
and  his  son-in-law,  the  Saka  Usavadata  or  Usabhadata,  as  well 
as  of  the  immediate  descendants  of  Castana  show  exclusively 
Brahma  characters. 

The  epigraphic  evidence  shows  therefore  that  in  the  third 
century  the  popular  use  of  the  Kharosthl  was  strictly  confined 
to  the  Panjab  and  that  it  was  nothing  more  than  a  secondary 
script,  running  along  by  the  side  of  the  Brahmi,  which  pre- 
vailed all  over  India.  This  state  of  things  continued  during 
the  next  two  centuries.  During  the  period  of  the  Saka  rule 
the  Kharosthl  spread  further  south,  without  however  losing 
its  character  as  an  accessory  alphabet.  A  very  strong  ar- 
gument for  the  assumption  that  its  position  was  the  same  even 
in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  is  furnished  by  Mr.  Rapson's 
discovery  of  Persian  Sigloi  with  countermarks  in  Brahma  and 
Kharosthl  letters  (Jour.  Roy.  As.  Soc.,  1895,  p.  865  ff.).  For 
this  reason  and  because  the  general  prevalence  of  the  Brahma 
alphabet  has  now  become  more  clearly  apparent,  it  seems  very 
probable  that  the  Buddhist  Canon  can  only  refer  to  the  latter. 

4* 


52  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

The  second  point,  the  improbability  that  the  Kharosthl 
was  already  developed  or  in  general  use  even  in  its  home  as 
early  as  say  500  B.  C.  requires  here  only  a  few  remarks  as 
the  details  have  been  discussed  fully  below  in  Appendix  I. 
Its  derivation  from  the  Aramaic  alphabet  has  been  generally 
accepted,  ever  since  Mr.  E.  Thomas  pointed  it  out,  and  the 
shape  of  its  &«,  na,  ra  and  va  makes  a  doubt  impossible.  Ac- 
cording to  Dr.  I.  Taylor's  suggestion,  The  Alphabet,  Vol.  II, 
p.  261,  which  [50]  is  most  probable  on  historical  and  palaeogra- 
phical  grounds,  its  immediate  source  is  the  Aramaic  alphabet 
of  the  Akhaemenian  period,  and  the  introduction  of  the  Aramaic 
letters  into  India  dates  from  the  time,  when  the  Akhaemenian 
kings  of  Persia  had  conquered  the  Panjab,  just  those  districts 
where  the  Kharosthl  has  its  real  home.1  As  the  Persian  con- 


1  M.  Halevy,  op.  cit,.,  p.  250  ff.  and  particularly  p.  267,  tries  to  establish 
a  still  later  date  for  the  elaboration  of  the  Kharosthl.  He  seeks  the 
prototypes  of  its  characters  in  the  Aramaic  alphabet  of  the  fourth  cent- 
ury B.  C.  He  believes  that  they  were  developed  in  Ariana  not  earlier 
than  330  B.  C.  after  the  appointment  of  Macedonian  Satraps  by  Alexan- 
der, who,  as  he  thinks,  may  have  fostered  the  use  of  the  already  pre- 
valent Aramaic  writing1  and  thereby  may  have  induced  their  subjects  to 
adapt  it  to  their  special  wants.  The  obvious  weakness  of  M.  Halevy's 
arguments  prevents  my  accepting  his  theory,  which  would  be  more  fa- 
vourable for  my  point. 

It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  I  am  likewise  unable  to  agree  with 
M.  Halevy's  theory  (op.  cit.,  p.  280—286  and  Plate  II,  A)  according  to 
which  the  Brahmi  lipi  has  borrowed  from  the  Kharosthl  six  radical  signs, 
!<a,  jha,  da,  na,  u  and  ra,  the  Anunasika,  the  system  of  vowel-notation, 
and  the  numeral  signs  4—9.  The  reasons,  why  I  do  not  consider  the 
six  Matrkas  and  the  vowel-notation  of  the  Brahma  alphabet  as  loans 
from  the  Kharosthl,  will  become  apparent  in  the  next  section  of  this 
Essay.  With  respect  to  the  Anunasika,  I  must  point  out  that  the  sign, 
«,,  which  M.  Halevy  derives  from  the  Kharosthl  ma  V  of  the  Indo- 
Grecian  coins,  appears  in  no  Indian  document  written  in  India  before 
1200  A.  D.,  while  the  Kharosthl  went  out  of  use  about  200  A.  D.  As 
regards  the  assertion  that  the  Brahma  numeral  signs  for  4—9  are  the 
initial  Kharosthl  letters  for  the  words  catur,  pancan,  sat  (old  Prakrit,  sa, 
chha  or  sad),  saptan  (Prakrit  satta),  affan  (old  Prakrit  asta,  attha)  and 
navan  (old  Prakrit  nava),  which  is  also  put  forward  by  Dr.  Taylor  (The 
Alphabet,  II,  p.  266),  it  is  unfortunate  that  in  four  cases  the  facts  are 
absolutely  against  it.  The  Kharosthl  cha  %  no  doubt  looks  like  the 
Ksatrapa  sign  for  four.  But  the  Indian  words  for  four,  all  begin  with  the 
unaspirated  ca.  Again,  the  Asoka  signs  for  six  (see  below  plate  IH)  have  on 


IV.    The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  53 

[51]  quest  probably  happened  shortly  before  500  B.  C.,  it  is  impos- 
sible that  the  Kharosthi  can  have  been  developed  before  450  B. 
C.,  and  it  is  not  to  be  thought  of  that  it  could  have  penetrated  into 
Eastern  India,  where  the  Buddhist  Canon  was  composed,  during 
the  fifth  century,  much  less  could  it  have  been  there  in  so  general 
use,  as  the  alphabet  mentioned  by  the  ancient  Buddhists  cer- 
tainly was.  Under  the  circumstances  just  discussed,  the  as- 
sumption that  the  alphabet,  referred  to  in  the  Jatakas,  the 
Mahavagga  and  so  forth  is  the  Brahml — which,  I  repeat,  the 
palaeographic  facts  contained  in  Asoka's  Edicts,  the  Indian 
letters  on  the  Persian  Sigloi,  the  legend  of  the  Eran  coin,  the 
Bhattiprolu  inscriptions  strongly  suggest — undeniably  gains  a 
very  high  degree  of  probability. 

IV. 

As  the  literary  evidence  points  to  the  common  use  of 
writing  in  India  during  the  fifth  and  perhaps  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury B.  C.,  and  as  the  palaeographic  evidence  proves  the  Brahml 
lipi  to  be  the  oldest  Indian  alphabet  and  to  be  probably  identical 
with  the  script  referred  to  in  the  Buddhist  Canon,  it  is  a  matter 
of  course  that  its  source  must  be  found  in  the  more  ancient  Se- 
mitic characters.  A  short  time  ago  such  a  result  would  have 
precluded  the  possibility  of  all  atternps  to  make  Southern  Ara- 
bia the  country  from  which  the  parents  of  the  Brahma  letters 
came.  But  at  present,  pretensions  to  a  high  antiquity  are  put 


resemblance  to  the  Kbarosthi  aa  *p.  Further  the  Ksatrapa  sign  for 
seven  ^  or  Gupta  ft  cannot  be  the  Kharosthi  palatal  Sa  |~| ,  because 
the  word  for  seven  begins  in  all  Indian  dialects  with  a  dental  *a.  Again, 
the  Ksatrapa  and  -Andhra  l>j  cannot  represent  the  Kharosthi  AS,  because 
no  such  ligature  is  ever  formed  in  any  Indian  writing.  Besides,  if  it 
had  been  formed,  it  would  be  wrong.  The  second  part  ought  to  be  the 
lingual  sa  *P,  because  the  word  is  astan  not  aSfan.  Finally,  the 
nought  of  the  ninth  and  later  centuries  O  cannot  be  derived  from  a 
sign  for  10  expressed  by  a  circle,  because  no  such  figure  exists,  nor 
from  the  entirely  dissimilar  Kharosthi  da  j .  The  Hindus  call  the  nought 
explicitly  sunyabindu  "the  dot  marking  a  blank",  and  about  A.  D.  500 
they  marked  it  by  a  simple  dot,  which  latter  is  commonly  used  in  in- 
scriptions and  MSS  in  order  to  mark  a  blank  (see  the  Gruudriss,  I,  11, 
pp.  78  and  86),  and  which  was  later  converted  into  a  small  circle. 


54  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

forward  on  behalf  of  various  epigraphic  documents  from  the 
latter  country.  The  theories,  it  is  true,  are  still  conflicting. 
Some  ascribe  certain  Sabaean  inscriptions  to  the  tenth  century 
B.  C.  or  an  earlier  period,  while  others  declare  those  of  the 
Minaeans  to  belong  to  very  ancient  times  and  deny  the  anti- 
quity of  the  Sabaean  documents.  More  light  on  these  questions 
is  required,  but  even  as  matters  stand  at  present,  it  seems  to 
me  hazardous  to  make  use  of  the  old  argument,  that  the  de- 
rivation of  the  Brahma  letters  from  a  South-Arabian  source 
is  a  priori  impossible,  because  the  inscriptions,  found  there, 
are  of  too  modern  dates. 

[52]  Nevertheless  the  theory  of  a  South -Semitic  origin  of 
the  Brahma  alphabet  appears  to  me  untenable.  What  has  been 
brought  forward  in  its  favour  by  the  two  chief  advocates,  is  to 
a  great  extent  far  from  convincing.  The  ocular  evidence,  it 
seems  to  me,  speaks  against  many  of  their  identifications.1 
Further,  in  some  cases  late  or  at  least  secondary  forms  of 
Indian  letters  have  been  used  for  comparison.2  Again  in  other 
cases  the  most  extraordinary  and  absolutely  unnecessary  changes 
in  the  phonetic  value  of  the  signs  are  assumed  to  be  quite  nat- 
ural and  hardly  worthy  of  an  explanatory  remark.  When  one 
is  told  that  the  Hindus  utilised  the  Semitic  Qoph  to  express 
the  sound  chu  (Deecke)  or  cha  and  ka  (Taylor),  that  they 
employed  the  Semitic  Shin  for  ja,  sa,  sa  and  sa  (Deecke)  or 
at  least  for  ja  and  .sa  (Taylor),  that  the  Semitic  Waw  furnished 
both  the  signs  for  ya  and  va,  or  that  Lamed  became  ra  and 
Resh  was  turned  into  la,  one  can  only  say  that  such  assertions 
are  hard  to  believe.  As  the  Hindus  are  always  very  particular, 
even  pedantic,  in  matters  connected  with  phonetics,  and  as 
the  franiers  of  the  Brahmi  lipi  evidently  have  been  careful 
with  respect  to  the  formation  of  many  derivative  signs,  duly 
deriving  <]ha  from  da,  pha  from  pa,  bha  from  ba  and  so  forth, 
it  seems  incredible  that  they  should  have  had  no  regard  for 
phonetic  affinities  in  utilising  the  signs,  which  they  borrowed. 
And  the  assumed  vagaries  appear  absolutely  inexplicable  if 

1  That  is  also  Sir  A.  Cunningham's  statement,  Coins  of  Ancient  India, 
pp.  39—40. 

s  To  the  former  class  belong  Dr.  Deecke's  initial  A  and  Dr.  Taylor's  broad- 
backed  to,  to  the  latter  Dr.  Taylor's  initial  A,  kha  and  ra. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  55 

one  considers  that  the  Semitic  alphabet  has  the  Tsade,  the 
phonetic  value  of  which  comes  close  to  ca  and  cha,  and  that 
it  possesses  separate  signs  for  Waw  and  Yod,  which  might  be 
used  to  express  va  and  ya. 

As  long  as  the  theories  regarding  the  derivation  of  the 
Brahma  alphabet  contain  equations  like  those  just  mentioned, 
and  as  long  as  these  theories  do  not  take  into  account  all  the 
oldest  forms  of  the  Indian  letters,  the  problem,  it  seems  to  me, 
has  not  been  solved  and  the  task  has  to  be  redone.  Really  trust- 
worthy results  can  only  be  attained  under  the  following  conditions:  — 

[53]  (1)  The  comparison  must  be  based  on  the  oldest  forms 
of  the  Indian  alphabet  and  actually  occurring  Semitic  signs  of 
one  and  the  same  period. 

(2)  The  comparison  may  include  only  such  irregular  equa- 
tions, as  can  be  supported  by  analogies  from  other  cases,  where 
nations  have  borrowed  foreign  alphabets. 

(3)  The  comparison  must  show  that  there  are  fixed  prin- 
ciples of  derivation. 

In  resuming  the  inquiry  on  these  principles  I  soon  found 
that  the  Southern  Semitic  characters  would  not  serve  my  pur- 
pose. Though  the  Himyaritic  or  Sabaean  alphabet  on  account 
of  its  stiff,  monumental  appearance  bears  a  general  resemblance 
to  the  Brahml  lipi,  and  though  two  or  tree  of  its  letters  come 
close  to  the  corresponding  Indian  signs,  it  includes  so  many 
dissimilar  characters,  which  evidently  are  more  strongly  modi- 
fied than  the  Brahma  Matrkas,  that  the  real  resemblances  can 
only  be  considered  as  accidental  or  as  due  to  an  analogous  de- 
velopment. But  on  trying  the  oldest  characters,  which  are  al- 
most identical  throughout  all  the  countries,  occupied  by  the 
Northern  Semites,  it  became  possible  to  identify  in  the  Brahma 
alphabet  all  the  twenty  two  Semitic  letters,  and  to  explain  the 
formation  of  the  numerous  derivative  signs,  which  the  Indians 
were  compelled  to  add.  As  stated  already,  the  identifications 
agree  for  the  greater  part  with  Professor  Weber's,  whose  im- 
portant essay  in  the  Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlandischen 
Gesellschaft  of  1855  very  nearly  solved  the  problem  of  the 
origin  of  the  Brahma  alphabet.  If  Professor  Weber  had  had 
at  his  disposal  the  materials  which  are  accessible  at  present, 
his  acumen  would  no  doubt  have  removed  every  difficulty. 


56  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

The  identifications  are  shown  in  the  accompanying  Table, 
kindly  drawn  for  me  by  Mr.  S.  Pepper  and  etched  by  Messrs 
Angerer  and  Goschl  of  Vienna.  The  signs  of  the  first  two  co- 
lumns have  been  taken  from  M.  Ph.  Berger's  Histoire  de 
PEcriture  dans  PAntiquite,  pp.  185  and  202  and  those  of 
Col.  Ill  with  the  exception  of  the  Taw  from  Sinjirli  (22.  III.  b) 
from  Professor  Euting's  Tabula  Scripturae  Aramaicae  (1890). 
Among  the  forms  of  column  IV  without  asterisks,  those  opposite 
the  twelfth  and  the  seventeenth  Semitic  characters  [54]  have 
been  taken  from  a  plaster  cast  of  Sir  A.  Cunningham's  Eran 
coin  (see  also  Coins  of  Ancient  India,  plate  XI,  18)  and  that 
opposite  the  sixteenth  character  from  the  word  esa  in  the  Kalsi 
version,  Ed.  XIII,  1,  1.  37. 

Among  the  signs  in  column  V  and  VI  a  few  are  from  Sanchi, 
viz.  the  lingual  la,  the  fifth  of  Col.  VI  opposite  the  fourth 
Semitic  character,  and  the  first  of  Col.  V  opposite  the  sixteenth 
Semitic  character.  Further,  in  Col.  VI  the  fourth  sign  opposite  the 
sixth  Semitic  character,  U,  comes  from  Bharahut,  the  first 
opposite  No  15  from  the  Eran  coin  the  third  opposite  the  fifteenth 
Semitic  character  in  Col.  VI  has  been  taken  from  the  Ghasundi 
slab,  and  two  signs  of  the  two  rows  in  the  same  Col.  opposite  the 
sixteenth  character,  viz.  the  second  in  the  first  row,  AI,  and  the  last 
in  the  second  row,  I,  belong  to  the  Hathigumpha  and  Nanaghat  in- 
scriptions. All  the  remaining  letters  have  been  drawn  according 
to  Dr.  Burgess'  facsimiles  of  the  Rock  and  Pillar  Edicts,1  and  of 
the  Bhattiprolu  inscriptions. 

A.   The  Borrowed  Signs. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  details,  it  will  be  desirable  to 
state  the  principles,  on  which  the  twenty-two  signs  of  the  Se- 
mitic alphabet  seem  to  have  been  turned  into  Brahma  letters. 
Even  a  superficial  examination  of  the  Brahma  alphabet  shows 
the  following  chief  characteristics: — 

•(1)  The  letters  are  set  up  as  straight  as  possible,  and 
they  are  with  few  exceptions  made  equal  in  height. 

1  The  facsimiles  of  the  Girnar  and  Kalsi  versions,  on  which  I  have  chiefly 
drawn,  have  been  published,  Epigr.  Ind.  vol.  II,  p.  447  if.  The  Pillar 
Edicts  have  appeared  op.  cit.,  p.  '245  ff.  and  the  Bhattiprolu  inscriptions 
op.  cit.  p.  323  S. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  57 

(2)  The  majority  consists  of  vertical  lines  with  append- 
ages attached  mostly  at  the  foot,  occasionally  at  the  foot  and 
at  the  top,  or  rarely  in  the  middle;  but  there  is  no  case  where 
an  appendage  has  been  added  to  the  top  alone. 

[55]  (3)  At  the  top  of  the  characters  appear  mostly  the  ends 
of  vertical  lines,  less  frequently  straight  horizontal  lines,  still 
more  rarely  curves  or  the  points  of  angles  opening  down- 
wards, and  quite  exceptionally  in  ma  (No  13,  Col.  V)  two  lines 
rising  upwards.  In  no  case  does  the  top  show  several  angles, 
placed  side  by  side,  with  a  vertical  or  slanting  line  hanging 
down  from  it,  or  a  triangle  or  circle  with  a  pendant  line. 

The  principles  or  tendencies,  which  produced  these  cha- 
racteristics, seem  to  be  a  certain  pedantic  formalism,  a  desire 
to  have  signs  well  suited  for  the  formation  of  regular  lines, 
and  a  strong  aversion  against  all  top-heavy  characters.1  The 
natural  result  was  that  a  number  of  the  Semitic  signs  had  to 


The  appearance  of  a  pedantic  formalism  in  the  alphabet  is  no  more  than 
what  might  be  expected.  For  it  is  a  characteristic  of  most  Indian  cre- 
ations in  literature,  science  and  art.  The  aversion,  shown  by  the  Hindus 
against  letters  with  heavy  tops,  has  also  a  good  and  sufficient  reason, 
and,  I  think,  it  is  chiefly  due  to  their  making  the  letters  hang  down  from 
a  top-line  instead  of  placing  them  on  a  base-line  (see,  Beruni,  India  I,  1 72). 
The  modern  Karkun  or  clerk  of  Western,  arid,  as  Dr.  Grierson  informs 
me,  also  of  Eastern  India,  as  a  rule,  actually  draws  this  line  across  the 
whole  breadth  of  the  paper,  and  the  modern  Lekhak  or  copyist  places 
a  small  board  with  thin  threads  fastened  at  equal  distances  below  his 
sheet  of  paper,  or  squeezes  the  paper  between  the  strings  and  the  board. 
The  general  appearance  of  the  most  ancient  MSS.,  like  the  Bower  birch 
bark  volume  and  the  Horiuzi  palmleaves,  makes  it  highly  probable  that 
their  writers  used  the  same  or  a  similar  contrivance.  Even  the  look  of 
the  Asoka  inscriptions,  especially  of  the  Pillar  Edicts  and  of  the  Girnar 
and  Jaugada  Rock  Edicts,  indicates  that  their  eng'ravers,  or  the  writers 
of  the  original  copies,  were  accustomed  to  the  use  of  top  lines.  Though 
they  are  rarely  quite  exact,  it  is  clearly  visible  that  they  at  least  tried 
to  equalise  the  height  of  the  tops.  If  the  custom,  as  is  not  improbable, 
dates  from  still  earlier  times,  the  aversion  against  heavy  tops  is  easily 
explained.  For  signs  beginning  with  vertical  lines  or  with  short  hori- 
zontal strokes  are  most  suitable  for  such  writing,  and  the  later  modifi- 
cations of  the  Brahma  letters  are  to  a  great  extent  the  results  of  a 
variety  of  attempts  to  obtain  such  forms.  Another  reason  may  have 
been  the  introduction  of  the  vowel-signs,  which  mostly  are  added  to  the 
tops  of  the  consonants. 


58  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

be  turned  topsy-turvy  or  to  be  laid  on  their  sides,  while  the 
triangles  or  double  angles,  occurring  at  the  tops  of  others  had 
to  be  got  rid  of  by  some  contrivance  or  other.  A  further 
change  in  the  position  of  the  signs  had  to  be  made,  when  the 
Hindus  began  to  write  from  the  left  to  the  right.  They  had, 
of  course,  to  be  turned  from  the  right  to  the  left,  as  in  Greek. 
[56]  Instances,  where  the  old  position  has  been  preserved,  are 
however  met  with  both  in  borrowed  and  derivative  signs. 

With  respect  to  the  single  borrowed  letters  I  have  to 
add  the  following  remarks. 

No  1.  That  the  Hindus,  like  the  Greeks  used  the  Se- 
mitic Aleph  in  order  to  express  the  vowel  a  has  been  suspected 
by  Professor  Weber.  His  successors  have  asserted  the  identity 
of  the  first  letters  of  the  two  alphabets  as  a  fact,  though  the 
Indian  forms  of  the  initial  A  with  two  curves,  which  have 
been  mostly  used  for  comparison,1  do  not  agree  very  well. 
The  doubtlessly  oldest  form  with  the  angle  to  the  left  of  the 
vertical  (Col.  V)  which,  as  stated  above,  is  peculiar  to  the 
Southern  versions  of  the  Edicts,  agrees  almost  exactly  with 
the  oldest  Semitic  signs.  Only  the  vertical  has  been  placed  at 
the  point  of  the  angle  in  order  to  make  the  appearance  of  the 
letter  more  regular,  and  the  whole  sign  has,  of  course,  been 
turned  from  the  right  to  the  left.  On  a  Patna  seal  it  occurs, 
however,  once  in  its  original  position,  see  the  Grundriss, 
Taf.  II.  1.  I,  and  p.  8. 

No  2.  I  can  only  agree  to  the  identification  of  the  Brahma 
la  with  the  Semitic  Beth,  which  has  been  asserted  on  the  strength 
of  the  Sabaean  arid  Ethiopian  forms2  by  Professor  Weber  and 
his  successors,  with  the  exception  of  M.  Halevy,  who  derives 
it  from  the  dissimilar  Greek  Beta.  But  I  think  that  it  is 
a  development,  derived  by  the  Hindus  immediately  from  the 


1  M.  Halevy,  however,  correctly  compares  the  angular  form.    His  attempt 
to  derive  it  from   the  Greek  Alpha   is  not  intelligible  to  me.     The  two 
signs  possess  a  minimum  of  resemblance  to  each  other. 

2  The  Sabaean   form   is  no  doubt  very  similar  to  the  Brahma  sign  but,   I 
think,  due  to  a  different  modification  of  the  ancient  North  Semitic  letter. 
It  would  seem  that  the  triangle  at  the  head  of  the  letter  has  been  turned 
into  a  square  and  the  stroke  on  the  right  has  been  made  straight.    Hence 
arose  first  the   pj   and   by  a   simplification  [~|- 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  59 

old  Phoenician  and  Mesa  signs.  As  the  Hindus  did  not  toler- 
ate heavy  tops,  they  opened  the  triangle  and  made  the  central 
stroke  hang  down  from  the  end  of  the  angle  in  the  manner 
shown  in  the  hypothetical  form  in  Col.  III.1  The  next  result  was 
a  rhomboid  form  (Col.  V,  a),  a  few  examples  of  which  are  found 
occasionally  in  various  versions  of  the  Edicts,  where  we  have  e.  g. 
-O-  bo  in  apalibodhaye,  Kalsi  Edict  V,  1.  15.  The  liking  of  the 
[57]  Hindus  for  straight  top -lines  produced  further  the  square  and 
the  oblong  ba,  which  latter  is  the  commonest  form  in  Kalsi 
and  the  regular  one  in  the  Bhattiprolu  inscriptions.  It  may 
be  noted,  that  this  letter  is  frequently,  though  not  regularly, 
made  smaller  than '  those  with  verticals.  Regarding  the  want 
of  the  lower  line  in  the  derivative  bha  (Col.  VI)  see  below. 

No  3.  The  identity  of  the  Indian  ga  with  the  Semitic 
signs  is  so  evident  that  it  has  been  always  recognised.  I  will 
only  add  that  there  are  numerous  instances  in  the  Edicts  where 
one  of  the  sides  of  the  angle  is  shorter  than  the  other.  The 
formal  looking  very  pointed  angles  with  perfectly  straight  equal 
sides  are  characteristic  of  the  Western  and  Southern  versions. 

No  4.  The  identity  of  the  Brahma  dha  with  the  Semitic 
Daleth  has  "also  been  generally  admitted,  Dr.  Taylor,  who  de- 
rives it  from  tha  (No  9,  Col.  V)  alone  dissenting.  To  me  it 
seems  that  the  first  form,  given  in  Col.  V,  with  the  vertical  on 
the  right,  is  the  immediate  offspring  of  the  oldest  Semitic  forms, 
the  letter  having  been  made  higher  and  the  right  hand  stroke 
straightened  in  accordance  with  the  general  principles  of  forma- 
tion, stated,  above.  The  round  back  is  probably  due  to  a  cur- 
sive development.  In  the  Edicts  this  form  is  rare,  and  the 
second,  given  in  Col.  V,  which  is  younger  and  due  to  the  change 
in  the  position  required  by  the  change  in  the  direction  of  the 
writing,  is  found  in  the  great  majority  of  cases.  The  older 
one  (Col.  V,  a)  is  used  exclusively  in  the  Bhattiprolu  inscriptions 
and  usually  in  the  Western  cave  inscriptions  of  the  Nanaghat, 
Nasik,  Karle,  Junnar  and  so  forth,  which  range  from  about 
150  B.  C.  to  200  A.  D.  It  is  also  the  parent  of  all  the  later 


An  apparently  analogous  modification  of  the  old  Semitic  Beth  which  one 
might  be  inclined  to  see  iu  the  b2  £  of  the  Orkhou  inscriptions  (V.  Thomson, 
Insr.  de  TOrkhou  dechiffrees,  p.  24)  is  disposed  of  by  Prof.  Doniior's  re- 
marks on  the  sign  in  his  essay,  sur  1'origine  de  1'Alphabet  Turc,  p.  57  f. 


60  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

northern  forms  of  the  letter,  including  the  present  Devanagarl 
dha.  In  the  caves  mentioned  we  find  also  in  the  Andhra  and 
other  inscriptions  of  the  first  and  second  centuries  A.  D.  numer- 
ous triangular  forms1  like  ^  or  ^.  They  may  be  possibly  an- 
cient survivals,  especially  as  the  Edicts  too  occasionally  offer 
forms  with  half  angular  backs  like  ^. 

The  difficulty  with  respect  to  the  phonetic  value  of  the 
Brahma  sign,  which  does  not  exactly  correspond  to  that  of 
[58]  the  Dalvth,  may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  suggestion  that 
the  letter  was  used  for  a  long  time  both  for  the  unaspirated 
and  the  aspirated  dental,  and  that  the  da  was  separated  at  a 
time,  when  the  real  value  of  the  borrowed  sign  had  been  for- 
gotten. 

No  5.  Professor  Weber  denies  the  connexion  of  the 
Brahma  ha  with  the  Semitic  He,  while  Drs.  Deecke  and  Tay- 
lor derive  it  from  the  Sabaean  form  y.2  As  long  as  only 
the  round  form,  given  as  the  third  sign  in  Col.  V,  and  similar 
ones  were  known  to  exist  in  the  Edicts,  the  case  was  a  diffi- 
cult one.  Dr.  Burgess'  new  impressions  and  facsimiles  show, 
however,  that  the  angular  ha,  Col.  V,  b,  which  is  constant  in 
the  cave  inscriptions  of  the  next  centuries,  occurs  here  and 
there  in  Asoka's  inscriptions.3  The  new  Siddapur  version 
shows  throughout  the  little  horizontal  bar  (on  the  right)  attached 
very  close  to  the  foot  of  the  letter  and  offers  in  the  word  ma- 
hatpane  No.  I,  1.  4)  the  sign,  placed  first  in  Col.  V.  This  is  al- 
most exactly  a  turned  He  of  the  Assyrian  weights  (Col.  Ill,  b) 
which  according  to  M.  de  Vogue"4  appears  from  about  700  B.  C. 
Professor  Euting  kindly  points  out  to  me  that  the  very  similar 
He  of  Col.  Ill,  1  is  found  on  a  Mina  (C.  I.  S.,  P.  H,_No  &>\ 
which  according  to  the  accompanying  cuneiform  inscription  dates 
from  the  reign  of  Salnianassar,  and  therefore,  as  also  M.  de 
Vogue  has  stated  in  his  remarks  on  the  inscription,  is  older 


1  See  Burgess,   Arch.  Surv.  Reports  West-Ind.,  Vol.  IV,   Plates  XL1V,  17; 
XLVIII,  16,  17;  and  the  Grundriss,  I,  11,  Tafel  III.  24.  VII,  XI. 

2  This   sign  is   due  to  a  very  much   stronger  modification  of  the  ancient 
North-Semitic  He  than  the  Brahma  letter. 

3  See  also  above  p.  41,  and  the  Grundriss,  Tafel  II.  40.  VI. 

4  Corpus  Inscr.  Semit.,   P.  II,  Vol.  I,  p.  III.     Mr.  Berger  enters   this   sign 
(Table,  op.  cit.,  p.  300)  in  the  column  for  the  Persian  period. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahmi.  61 

than  the  year  725  B.  C.  As  this  sign  belongs  to  the  eighth 
century  B.  C.,  when  the  very  archaic  forms  of  the  Aleph,  Daleth, 
Cheth,  Theth,  Wav  and  Qoph,  represented  by  the  corresponding 
BiTihma  letters,  still  existed/  it  may  be  considered  the  proto- 
type of  the  Indian  ha.  The  aversion  of  the  Hindus  against 
heavy  tops,  of  course,  caused  the  sign  to  be  turned  round, 
and  their  liking  for  regularity  caused  the  bar  to  be  attached 
to  the  stroke  which  then  became  the  base-line,  and  the  whole 
letter  to  be  set  up  straight.  All  things  considered,  this  explan- 
ation seems  [59]  more  probable  than  attempts  to  connect  ha 
with  the  later  more  exactly  agreeing  sign  in  Col.  Ill,  b,  or 
with  the  still  older  form  with  three  parallel  bars. 

No  6.  The  Indian  va,  regarding  which  Professor  Weber 
felt  uncertain,  evidently  corresponds  with  the  Mesa  form  of  Wdw. 
Owing  to  the  aversion  against  heavy  tops  the  Semitic  letter 
has  been  turned  topsy-turvy.  At  the  same  time  the  semicircle 
has  been  closed.  Among  the  two  forms,  given  in  Col.  V,  the 
second  is  the  regular  one  in  the  Edicts,  the  first,  as  well  as 
an  angular  variety  not  given,2  occurs  only  rarely. 

No  7.  Professor  Weber  has  already  pronounced  himself 
for  the  identity  of  the  Brahma  ja  with  the  Zain.  On  phonetic 
grounds  Professor  Weber's  conjecture  is  extremely  probable. 
For,  ever  since  the  Indians  began  to  borrow  Persian  and  Arabic 
words,  they  have  rendered  the  Zain  of  the  latter  by  their  ja, 
and  the  dictionaries  of  the  Indian  vernaculars  contain  hundreds 
of  instances  of  this  kind.  Even  in  earlier  times,  about  A.  D. 
500,  they  express,  e.  g.  in  jiva  for  Zsu;  (Ziv-s)  the  Greek 
Zeta,  which  then  had  the  value  of  Zain,  by  ja.  Both  facts 
prove  that  the  two  sounds  had  a  close  affinity  for  their  ear. 
The  discovery  of  the  Bhaftiprolu  j?  Col.  V,  a,  considerably 
facilitates  the  identification  of  the  two  signs,  as  it  closely  agrees 
with  the  archaic  Phoenician  sign,  differing  only  slightly  in  the 
position  of  the  bars  at  the  top  and  the  foot.  The  signs  of  the 


1  See  M.  de  Vogue,  op.  cit.,  p.  II. 

2  Compare  also  above  p.  41,  where  a  fourth  cursive  form  has  been  figured. 

3  Dr.  Burgess'  facsimiles   in   the   Epigraphia  Indica  show   occasionally   an 
incipient   central   bar   in  ju  and  ju,  where  it  ought  not  to  occur, 
impressions  prove  clearly  that  in  all  these  oases  there  is  not  a  real  third 
line,  but  that  the  stone  has  a  flaw. 


62  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

Edicts,  given  in  Col.  V,  b — d,  are  all  cursive,  and  represent 
attempts  to  make  the  letter  with  a  single  stroke  or  at  least 
with  two.  The  third  form  with  a  dot  at  the  junction  of  the 
two  curves,  is  of  course  a  development  from  the  second  with 
the  loop.  And  the  substitution  of  a  dot  for  a  loop  indicates 
that  the  persons  who  invented  it  wrote  with  pen  and  ink.  A 
man  working  with  a  stylus  would  not  think  of  such  a  substitution, 
nay  could  hardly  effect  it.1 

No  8.  The  discovery  of  the  angular  gha  (Col.  V,  a)  which 
occurs  a  few  times  in  the  Kalsi  version2  and  is  constant  in  the 
cave  inscriptions,  makes  its  identification  with  the  three-barred 
[GO]  Chefh  of  the  archaic  Phoenician,  of  the  Sinjirli  and  other 
ancient  inscriptions,  very  probable.  The  Semitic  sign,  which 
often  slants  towards  the  left,  has  been  laid  on  its  side  (see  the 
hypothetical  form  in  Col.  IV)  and  the  long  upper  bar,  covering 
the  letter,  has  been  raised  upwards  and  converted  into  the  long 
vertical  on  the  left.3  The  usual  form  of  the  Asoka  Edicts  with 
the  curve  is  of  course  cursive.  In  the  Bhattiprolu  alphabet  this 
letter  has  been  discarded  and  a  derivative  from  ga  (No  3, 
Col.  VI)  takes  its  place.  The  Sabaean  Cheth  ^,  from  which 
Dr.  Taylor  derives  the  Indian  gha,  is  no  doubt  an  analogous 
development  from  the  old  North-Semitic  sign. 

No  9.  The  identity  of  the  Brahma  tha  with  the  Semitic 
Theth  has  always  been  recognised  and  is  evident  enough.  I 
may  mention  as  a  curiosity  that  a  small  cross  appears  inside 
the  circle  instead  of  a  dot  in  the  Pallava  landgrant,  Epigraphia 
Indica,  Vol.  I,  p.  Iff.  In  this  document  all  dots  are  replaced 


1  Regarding  the  use  of  ink  in  India,  see  above  p.  22.   The  ancient  Indian 
term  for  ink  is  masi,  often  spelt  masi,  and  now  pronounced  malchi,  which 
is   derived   from   the   obsolete   verb   mas,   hinisdyam,   compare   masa   and 
mo.yma.9a.     Etymologically  and  originally  it  means  'powder1  (of  charcoal 
and  the  like),  used  for  the  preparation  of  ink,  see  the  larger  Petersburg 
Dictionary  under  masi,  and  the  Grundriss,  I,  11,  p.  91. 

2  The  sign  given  in  the  Table  has  been  taken  from  upaghate,  Ed.  XIII,  1, 
1.  37. 

8  It  may  be  mentioned  as  a  curiosity,  that  from  the  twelfth  century 
A.  D.  the  Nagarl  gha  is  again  placed  upright  and  has  become  almost  ident- 
ical with  its  Semitic  prototype,  see  the  Grundriss,  Taf.  V.  13.  XX— XXII. 
This  is,  however,  not  due  to  a  survival,  but  merely  to  the  desire  of 
equalising  the  breadth  of  the  Nagarl  letters. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  03 

by  minute  crosses.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Theth  with  a  dot 
occurs  on  an  Assyrian  weight,  see  Col.  III. 

No  10.  The  derivation  of  the  Brahma  ya  from  the  an- 
cient Semitic  Yod  has  been  asserted  by  Professor  Weber,  who 
however  could  only  compare  the  later  round  Phoenician  form, 
which  opens  downwards.1  The  oldest  Indian  form  is  probably 
the  notched  one  (Col.  V,  a),2  which  appears  exclusively  in  the 
Delhi  Pillar  Edicts  and  occasionally  in  most  other  versions  and  is 
the  parent  of  all  the  later  developments.  It  is  probably  de- 
rived from  the  oldest  Semitic  Yod,  formed  of  a  downstroke  with 
two  bars,  attached  to  the  left,  and  one  to  the  right.  Its  forma- 
tion seems  to  have  been  effected  by  placing  the  top-heavy  sign 
on  its  side,  in  the  manner  shown  in  the  hypothetical  form  of 
[61]  Col.  Ill,  by  lengthening  the  stroke  which  now  stood  in 
the  middle  of  the  line  and  equalising  the  direction  of  that  on 
the  right. 

No  11.  The  derivation  of  the  Brahma  ka  was  a  difficult 
problem,  as  long  as  the  cross  with  four  perfectly  equal  bars 
(Col.  V,  b)  was  considered  to  be  its  most  ancient  form,  and 
consequently  the  earlier  attempts  to  account  for  its  existence 
are  not  very  satisfactory.  Professor  Weber,  following  Kopp, 
and  Dr.  Taylor  have  tried  to  derive  it  from  the  Semitic  Qoph 
very  much  against  the  ocular  evidence,  and  M.  Halevy  has 
identified  it  with  the  Aramaic  Kaph,  which  likewise,  as  far  as 
I  can  see,  does  not  resemble  the  Indian  letter.  But  now,  when 
the  more  accurate  reproductions  of  the  Edicts  have  proved  the 
frequent  early  occurrence  of  the  dagger-shaped  form  (Col.  V,  a) 
which  is  constant  in  Bhattiprolu  and  in  all  the  various  inscrip- 
tions, incised  between  200  B.  C.  and  550  A.  D.,  the  case  of 
the  sign  is  by  no  means  desperate  nor  even  difficult.  If,  as  now 
may  be  done  with  perfect  propriety,  the  dagger-shaped  ka  is 
taken  as  the  older  form  and  the  cross  with  equal  bars  as  a 
regularised  or  formalised  derivative,  it  is  easily  recognisable 
that  the  dagger-form  probably  has  been  derived  from  a  Kaph, 
like  that  of  Mesa's  inscription  (Col.  II),  in  which  the  down- 

1  Is  has  also  been  admitted  by  M.  Halevy,   who  compares  a  late  form  of 
the  Semitic  letter. 

2  That  with  the  single  curved  stroke  at  the  foot  of  the  vertical  is  appa- 
rently cursive. 


64  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

stroke  slants  sharply  to  the  left  and  the  angle  on  the  left  is 
attached  very  close  to  the  top,  compare  also  the  signs  of  the 
Siloah  inscription,  in  Prof.  Euting's  Tabula  Script.  Aram.  Col.  3. 
In  setting  the  sign  up  straight,  the  Hindus  took  the  upper  stroke 
of  the  angle  for  the  top  of  the  down-stroke,  and  a  cross-like 
figure  was  the  natural  result,  which,  on  being  made  more 
regular,  yielded  the  dagger-shape. 

No  12.  For  the  identity  of  the  Brahma  la  (Col.  V,  a) 
with  the  Semitic  Lamed  (Cols.  I  and  II),  which  has  been  re- 
cognised by  Professor  Weber  and  accepted  by  Dr.  Deecke  and 
M.  Halcvy,  the  la  of  the  Eran  coin  (Col.  IV),  the  Bhattiprolu 
la  (Col.  V,  b)  and  the  Bhattiprolu  I  (Col.  VI)  furnish  new 
illustrations.  The  most  ancient  survival  is  found  in  the  last 
mentioned  character,  which,  if  the  little  bar  denoting  the  ling- 
ualisation  is  removed,  almost  exactly  represents  the  Semitic 
sign.  Next  comes  the  letter  of  the  Eran  coin,  which  has  pre- 
[62]  served  the  original  direction  of  the  Lamed,  but  shows  on  the 
right  the  little  bar,  no  doubt  intended  to  mark  the  end  of  the 
line.  This  bar  is  wanting  in  the  Bhattiprolu  I,  which  how- 
ever has  been  turned  from  the  right  to  the  left  and  has  deve- 
loped a  curious  long  tail,  hanging  down  from  the  top  of  the 
main  line.  Originally  this  appendage  no  doubt  was  a  flourish, 
marking  the  end  of  the%  vertical. 

No  13.  The  identification  of  the  Brahma  ma  with  the 
Semitic  Mem  is  also  due  to  Professor  Weber.  He,  as  well  as 
M.  Halevy,  derive  it  from  the  Aramaic  sign  of  the  seventh 
century1  B.  C.,  V/.  Though  this  derivation  is  no  doubt  tempting 
it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  equally  possible  to  connect  the  Brahma 
ma  with  a  sign  like  that  of  the  Mesa  inscription,  which  likewise 
shows  a  curve  at  the  end  of  the  down-stroke.  A  little  stronger 
development  of  this  curve  would  necessarily  lead  to  a  sign, 
like  the  hypothetical  one,  entered  in  Col.  IV,  which  is  almost 
the  same  as  the  first  Pehlevi  Mem  of  Col.  58  in  Professor 
Euting's  Tabula  Script.  Aram.  And  in  support  of  this  view  I 
may  appeal  to  the  development  of  the  looped  ka,  Northern  ^ 
and  Southern  Jf  from  the  dagger-shaped  ka  with  a  curve  at 
he  foot  ;f,  as  well  as  of  the  round  ad  Southern  ra  "\J  from  J,  which 


1  See  M.  de  Vogue,  loc.  cit. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  65 

show  analogous  changes  on  purely  Indian  ground.  The  super- 
position of  the  angle,  which  originally  remained  at  the  side, 
over  the  round  or  elliptical  figure1  is  of  course  due  to  the 
striving  after  regularity,  which  the  Hindus  show  throughout. 
The  Brahma  ma  with  the  angle  at  the  top  (Col.  V,  a)  which  is 
(see  also  above  p.  39)  particularly  common  in  the  Girnar  ver- 
sion and  not  found  in  the  Northern  versions,  thus  appears  to 
be  the  older  form,  and  that  with  a  curve  (Col.  V,  b)  the  cursive 
one.  In  the  Bhattiprolu  alphabet  the  ancient  Brahma  ma  with  the 
angle  appears  turned  topsy-turvy  (see  p.  46).  The  Sabaean,  Beta- 
like  Mem,  $  from  which  Dr.  Deecke  and  Dr.  Taylor  derive  the 
Brahma  ma,  shows  little  resemblance  and  is  probably  the  product 
of  a  different  process. 

[63]  No  14.  Professor  Weber,2  who  is  followed  by  Dr. 
Deecke,  considers  the  Semitic  Nun  to  be  represented  by  the 
Brahma  na,  Col.  VI,  b,  and  it  is  Dr.  Taylor  alone  who  connects 
the  dental  na,  Col.  V,  directly  with  the  Sabaean  form  of  Nun. 
I  do  not  think  it  probable  that  a  Hindu  would  make  such  a 
mistake  as  to  take  the  phonetic  value  of  Nun  to  be  equivalent 
to  his  lingual  nasal,  which  sounds  very  differently,  and  I  fail 
to  see,  except  on  the  impossible  theory  of  Greek  mediation, 
how  the  double  horizontal  line  of  na  can  be  explained  by  means 
of  a  real  Semitic  form.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  Hindus,  owing 
to  their  aversion  to  heavy  tops,  first  turned  the  Nun  topsy- 
turvy and  used  for  some  time  a  figure  like  that  drawn  in 
Col.  IV.3  As  a  proof  for  this  assertion  I  would  cite  the  palatal 


1  The  third  Pehlevl  Mem  of  Col.  59  of  the  same  Table,  which  exactly  re- 
sembles the  Brahma  ma,  may  be  pointed  out  as  an  interesting  analogous 
development. 

2  I   must  add  that  Professor  Weber  admits  the  possibility  of  deriving  the 
dental   na  from  Nun,  but  thinks  that  the  na  comes  nearer.    M.  Halevy 
connects  na  immediately  with  the  Greek  vu,  which,  as  he  believes,  was 
laid  on  its  side. 

3  A  Nun  with  a  small  open  square  at  the  top,  instead  of  an  angle,  occurs 
in  the  Siloah  inscription  and  again  much  later,  see  Prof.  Euting's  Tabula 
Scr.  Aram.  Cols.  3a-b,  8b,  and  13  a.    As  the   change   from  an   angle  to 
an  open  square  is  in  keeping  with  the  stiff  formalism  of  the  Indian  al- 
phabet, it  is  not  necessary  to  assume  that  the  Semitic  prototype  showed 
the  latter.    The  Indian  form   is   probably  nothing  but  an  analogous  de- 
velopment. 

B  u  h  1  e  r ,  Indian  Studies.  Ill .  5 


66  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

fia  (Col.  VI,  a),  which  consists  of  the  hypothetical  form,  turned 
from  right  to  left,  and  of  a  small  bar  at  the  top,  indicating  that 
it  belongs  to  a  different  class  or  Varga. 

Later  only,  I  think,  the  Hindus  substituted  as  a  cursive 
development  for  the  hook  at  the  side,  the  single  bar  which 
protrudes  on  either  side  of  the  foot  of  the  vertical. 

No  15.  Professor  Weber  doubtingly  proposes  to  connect 
the  Brahma  sa  (Col.  VI,  d)  with  the  Semitic  Samech,  and  his 
idea  has  been  taken  up  by  Dr.  Taylor  who  derives  it  from 
the  very  dissimilar  Sabaean  form  y.  The  new  Bhattiprolu  s, 
Col.  V  (the  origin  of  which  has  been  wrongly  explained  in  my 
introductory  remarks  to  the  edition  of  the  inscriptions)  and  the 
sa  of  the  Eran  coin  (Col.  VI,  a)  as  well  as  the  sa  of  the 
Ghasundi  slab  (see  below),  I  think,  permit  me  to  say  that 
Professor  Weber's  conjecture  is  well  founded.  I  take  the  Bhatti- 
prolu s  to  be  derived  from  a  Samech  like  that  in  Col.  I,  b, 
the  two  [64]  upper  bars  of  which  were  replaced  by  a  curve 
(as  in  the  hypothetical  sign  in  Col.  IV)  and  which  was  then 
turned  topsy-turvy  in  accordance  with  the  Indian  principle, 
appealed  to  so  often.  This  sign  probably  served  in  the  begin- 
ning to  express  both  sa  and  sa.  Later  two  separate  signs  were 
developed  out  of  this  original  representative  for  Samech,  (1) 
the  sign  for  sa  with  the  original  cross  bar  placed  at  the  outside 
of  the  curve,  which  appears  in  its  original  position  on  the  Eran 
coin  (Col.  VI,  a)  and  turned  from  the  right  to  the  left  (Col. 
VI,  b)  in  the  Southern  versions  of  the  Edicts  (Grirnar  and  Sid- 
dapur)  and  in  Bhattiprolu;  (2)  the  sign  for  sa  (Col.  VI,  c), 
with  the  original  cross  -  bar  shortened  and  placed  inside  the 
curve,  which  hitherto  is  traceable  only  on  the  Ghasundi  slab,1 
but  must  have  been  used  extensively,  as  it  is  evidently  the 
parent  of  the  square  sa  of  the  later  Sanskrit  inscriptions.2  It 
occurs  neither  in  the  Bhattiprolu  alphabet,  which  retained  the 
old  sign,  in  order  to  denote  s,  nor  in  the  ordinary  Brahml  lipi 


1  See  Journ.  As.  Soc.  Beng.,  Vol.  LVI,  Plate  at  p.  79,  where  it  occurs  in 
the  name  Samkar$ana. 

2  The  square  form  occurs  first  in  the  Mora  Well  inscription  from  the  times 
of  Rajuvula's  son  (Sodasa),  Arch.  Surv.  Rep.,  Vol.  XX,  Plate  V,  4,  which 
possibly  belongs  to  the  first  century  A.  D. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  67 

of  the  Edicts.  The  northern  variety  of  the  latter  developed  a 
new  sa  (Col.  VI,  d)  with 'a  curve  instead  of  the  straight  limb 
at  the  side,  and  out  of  this  the  sign  with  two  curves,  one  below 
the  other  (Col.  VI,  e),  which  occurs  in  the  Kalsl  version,  in 
Dasaratha's  Nagarjum  cave  inscriptions  and  so  forth,  and  which 
probably  is  also  intended  for  sa. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  possible  to  connect  the  Bhatti- 
prolu  s  with  the  cursive  Aramaic  Samech  (Col.  Ill)  of  the  sixth 
century  B.  C.  But  then  the  cross  bar  of  the  Bhattiprolu  sign 
would  remain  unexplained.  Moreover,  there  would  be  the  in- 
superable difficulty  that  the  Aramaic  Beth,  Daleth,  Waw,  Cheth, 
Ain,  Qoph  and  Eesh  of  the  sixth  century  are  so  strongly  mo- 
dified that  they  cannot  be  considered  the  prototypes  of  the  corre- 
sponding Brahma  ba,  dha,  va,  gha,  E,  kha  and  ra.  It  seems, 
therefore,  advisable  to  assume,  as  must  be  done  also  in  the  case 
of  sa,  that  the  Hindus  independently  changed  the  form  of  the 
ancient  sign,  but  in  a  manner  analogous  to  that  adopted  by  the 
Aramaeans. 

[65]  The  derivation  of  the  signs  for  sa  and  sa  from  the  same 
original  letter  points  to  the  influence  of  the  Sanskrit  grammar- 
ians or  phoneticists,  who  are  well  aware  of  the  intimate  con- 
nection of  the  two  sounds  and  duly  teach  that  Sanskrit  sa 
becomes  sa  through  the  influence  of  a  preceding  i,  u,  r,  e,  ai, 
o,  au,  k}  T  or  I. 

No  16.  Professor  Weber's  ingenious  identification  of  the  an- 
cient Ain  (Col.  I  and  II)  with  the  Brahma  E,— which  is  supported 
by  the  analogous  proceeding  of  the  Greeks,  who  also  used  it  to 
express  the  gutturo-labial  vowel,  and  of  the  modern  Jews,1  who 
express  the  e  of  foreign  words  by  Ain,  — receives  a  strong 
confirmation  through  the  round  and  half-round  signs  for  E  in 
Col.  IV  and  Col.  V,  a— b.  The  first  occurs  once  in  the  word  esa, 
Kalsl,  Edict  XIII,  1,  1.  37.  The  same  version  offers  also  several 
times  the  very  similar  form2  of  Col.  V,  b.  The  first  sign  in  Col.  V, 


1  See  Grierson,  Irid.  Ant.,  vol.  XXIV,  p.  248,  Note  5.    The  cause  of  this 
substitution   is   probably  the   resemblance  of  the  Hebrew  p  to  a  cursive 
e,  torned  towards  the  left. 

2  It  seems  probable,   that  this  or  a  similar  half  round  form  is  the  parent 
of  the   southern  E,  which   in  the   Pallava  and  Vengi  inscriptions   looks 
like   ca,   td  and  later  becomes  I/,  closely  resembling  the  ancient  la. 

5* 


68  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

which  looks  like  a  dha  is  found  in  the  word  etina  of  the 
Hathigumpha  inscription  of  Kharavela,  1.  8,  and  in  the  Sanchi 
inscription  No  173  (Epigraphia  Indica  Vol.  II,  p.  375)  where, 
not  thinking  of  the  Hathigumpha  letter,  I  unfortunately  have 
read  Dharakina  for  Erakind.  Professor  Weber's  conjecture 
has  been  accepted  by  Dr.  Taylor  alone,  Dr.  Deecke  and  M. 
Halevy,  trying  to  connect  the  triangular  E  with  Aleph.  There 
was  however  a  very  good  reason  for  giving  up  the  round  E. 
For  it  could  not  have  been  distinguished  from  the  lingual  tha, 
which  the  Hindus  developed  out  of  the  corresponding  dental. 
In  my  opinion  the  triangular  E  is  a  development,  formed  by 
the  Hindus  independently,  and  the  angular  forms  for  Ain  in 
the  later  Semitic  alphabets,  Euting  op.  cit.,  Col.  8b,  14  ff.,  are 
merely  analogous,  showing  how  easily  a  circular  letter  may  be 
converted  into  a  triangle  or  rhombus.  It  is  just  possible  that 
phonetic  considerations  may  have  induced  the  Indians  to  select 
Ain  for  expressing  their  e.  For  according  to  a  description  of 
the  Indian  e-sound,  which  seems  to  go  back  to  Sakatayana 
and  has  been  generally  accepted  by  the  later  native  gram- 
marians,1 it  is  half  guttural  and  half  palatal  (kanthya-talavya). 
As  the  Ain  no  doubt  was  a  guttural,  it  may  have  appeared 
more  suitable  for  E  than  for  /  or  U. 

No  17.  The  fact  that  the  Brahma  pa  is  the  old  Semitic 
Phe  turned  topsy-turvy,  has  been  acknowledged  by  everybody. 
The  new  form  of  the  Eran  coin,  Col.  IV,  shows  it  in  its  orig- 
inal position. 

No  18.  Regarding  the  Brahma  equivalent  of  the  Semitic 
Tsade  I  differ  from  all  my  predecessors.  I  believe  that  it  was 
[66]  used,  as  one  would  expect  from  its  phonetic  value,  for  the 
formation  of  the  letter  ca,  the  sound  of  which  is  and  always 
has  been,  not  the  English  tsha,  but  tsa  almost  like  tya.  The  Se- 
mitic sign,  of  course,  had  to  be  turned  topsy-turvy  on  account 
of  its  heavy  top,  and  the  small  bar  running  to  the  right  was 
turned  towards  the  vertical.  This  process  gave  first  a  tailed 
\s  and  later  with  the  direction  to  the  left,  if.  The  angular 
shape  of  the  letter  has  been  well  preserved  in  the  ca  of  the 
Edicts,  Col.  V,  a,  which  is  not  uncommon,  and  the  tail  appears 


1  See  Weber,  Indische  Studien,  vol.  IV,  p.  119  f. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  69 

in  the  Bhattiprolu  form,  Col.  V,  c.1  The  round  ca  (Col.  V,  b) 
is  purely  cursive,  and  not  the  parent  of  the  later  Indian  letters, 
which  mostly  go  back  to  angular  or  pointed  forms. 

No  19.  With  respect  to  the  Semitic  Qoph  I  must  like- 
wise differ  from  all  my  predecessors,  who  have  compared  it  to 
the  Brahma  cha,  which  is  clearly  an  Indian  derivative  from  ca 
and  has  a  very  different  phonetic  value.  In  my  opinion  the 
Semitic  Qoph  has  its  counterpart  in  the  Brahma  kha,  the  oldest 
form  of  which  (Col.  V,  a)  consists  of  a  circle  with  a  super- 
imposed vertical  line  ending  in  a  curve.  This  is  the  oldest 
Semitic  sign  (Cols.  I  and  II),2  turned  topsy-turvy  on  account 
of  its  heavy  top.  The  curve  at  the  end  of  the  vertical  has 
no  doubt  been  added  in  order  to  distinguish  the  letter  from 
va.  The  kha  with  the  circle  at  the  base  occurs  sometimes  in 
Jaugada  and  is  used  frequently  in  the  Kals!  version3  of  the 
Edicts,  where  not  rarely  the  circle  is  replaced  by  a  somewhat 
irregular  loop,  sometimes  attached  to  the  right  of  the  vertical 
line  (see  the  kha  figured  above  p.  41).  It  is  the  parent  of 
most  of  the  later  Indian  signs  for  kha,  including  the  modern 
Devanagarl  form,  which  all  show  a  loop  or  a  triangle  at 
the  base  of  the  vertical.  In  several  versions  of  the  Pillar 
[67]  Edicts  and  elsewhere  a  well  developed  dot  takes  the  place  of 
the  circle.  This  change  is  analogous  to  that  pointed  out  above 
in  connexion  with  the  second  and  third  forms  of  the  Brahma 
ja,  and  likewise  indicates  the  use  of  pen  and  ink  for  the  time 
when  it  was  made.  There  is  also  a  third  form  of  the  kha 
which  consists  merely  of  a  vertical  with  a  hook  at  the  top.  It 
is  chiefly  used  in  the  Southern  versions  of  the  Edicts,  parti- 
cularly in  Girnar,  as  well  as  in  Bhattiprolu  and  later  in  the 
cave  inscriptions,  and  is  evidently  a  cursive  development. 

1  The  later  Semitic  alphabets  furnish  various  analogous  developments,  see 
Prof.  Euting's  Tabula,    Col.  9    (third  sign),   Col.   15   (first  sign),    Col.   42 
(second  sign),   differing   from   the  Brahma  letter  only  by  the  position  of 
the  angular  or  round  appendage,  which  of  course  remains  at  the  top  of 
the  character  and  to  the  right  of  the  vertical  stroke. 

2  Still   more   closely  agreeing  Phoenician   and   Mesa  forms,   in   which   the 
vertical  is  not  drawn  across  the  round  head,  are  given  in  Prof.  Euting's 
Tabula,  Col.  Id,  Col.  2  a. 

3  The  form  given  in  the  plate  has  been  taken  from  the  word  likhite,  Kalsl, 
Edict  IV,  1.  12  (end). 


70  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

In  favour  of  this  identification  speaks  also  the  fact  that 
the  modern  Indians  in  loan  words  not  rarely  express  the 
Arabic  Qoph  by  their  Ma.  Thus  the  Marathl  has  f^f,  f^WT, 
*?WT*r7  IT^TW,  *JHT  and  so  forth  for  Arabic  words  with  Qoph. 
This  substitution  shows  that  the  Indian  ear  detects  an  affinity 
between  the  deep  guttural  Qoph  and  the  harsh  sounding  kha. 

No  20.  I  can  only  agree  with  Professor  Weber's  identi- 
fication of  Resh  with  the  Brahma  ra  or  repha.  But  the  orig- 
inal ra  has  not  the  form,  consisting  of  a  straight  stroke,  which 
is  given  in  his  table  and  in  that  of  Dr.  Taylor.  The  straight 
ra,  evidently  a  late  cursive  development,  is  very  rare  in  the 
Edicts.  I  know  only  of  one  instance  in  the  Rupnath  Edict  in  which 
a  nearly  straight  stroke  occurs.  In  the  Girnar  version,  where  ra 
is  very  common,  it  has  at  the  top  invariably  one  or  two  little 
angles,  open  to  the  right,  or  instead  of  the  angle  an  irregular 
bulge  towards  the  left,  see  Col.  V,  a — b.  I  take  the  form 
with  the  single  angle  to  be  the  oldest  and  consider  it  to  be 
derived  from  a  Semitic  form  like  that  of  the  Mesa  inscription, 
the  triangle  of  which  the  Hindus  opened,  in  order  to  avoid 
the  heavy  top,  by  attaching  the  vertical  to  the  lower  side  of 
the  base  i.  e.  by  putting  ^  for  ^.  The  signs  with  two  or 
more  angles,  Col.  V,  d — e,  are  no  doubt  artificial,  ornamental 
developments.  In  the  new  Siddapur  Edicts  this  development  has 
been  carried  to  an  extreme,  and  the  whole  letter  has  been  con- 
verted into  a  wavy  line,  consisting  of  four  or  five  little 
angles. 

No  21.  Professor  Weber's  identification  of  Shin  with  the 
palatal  sibilant  sa,  which  has  been  accepted  by  Dr.  Deecke, 
seems  also  to  me  self-evident.  It  is  only  necessary  to  substi- 
tute for  the  late  Indian  form  (given  in  Professor  Weber's 
Col.  II)  the  formerly  not  accessible,  real  old  Brahma  signs, 
Col.  V,  a — c,  which  are  found  in  the  Kalsl,  Rupnath  and  Sid- 
dapur versions  of  the  Edicts,  on  the  Bhattiprolu  prism,  on  the 
Ghasundi  slab  and  in  the  Pabhosa  cave  inscriptions.1  I  con- 

1  I  enumerate  the  occurrences  so  fully,  because,  when  the  sign  first  turned 
up  in  Kalsi,  it  was  considered  to  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Kharo- 
sthi,  which  has  the  remotely  similar  lingual  .yo  *P.  I  will  add  that  in 
Bhattiprolu  where  we  have  samanude&anam  i.  e.  6ramanoddeh/anam,  in 
the  Ghasundi  inscription  where  we  have  Para&ariputa  and  Slid,  and  in 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  71 

[68]  sider  as  their  prototype  the  oldest  Semitic  form  with  two 
angles  (Cols.  I  and  II),  not  the  very  similar  Aramaic  Shin  (Col.  Ill) 
of  the  sixth  century.  For  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
of  the  Brahml  lipi,  the  Semitic  letter  had  to  be  turned  topsy- 
turvy, and  the  double  angle  at  the  top  had  to  be  got  rid  of, 
which  latter  change  could  be  most  easily  effected  by  placing 
the  one  angle  inside  the  other.  The  Hindus  may  be  well 
credited  with  the  independent  invention  of  this  modification, 
as  the  later  Phoenicians  and  the  Ethiopians  have  likewise  in- 
troduced it  independently.  Moreover,  the  same  considerations, 
which  make  it  impossible  to  accept  the  Aramaic  Samech  as 
the  immediate  source  of  the  Bhattiprolu  s  (see  above  p.  67), 
speak  in  this  case  against  the  assumption  that  the  Semitic  al- 
phabet, adopted  by  the  Hindus,  contained  the  Aramaic  Shin. 
Finally  the  Western  letter-numeral  su  for  100,  still  shows  the 
two  angles  quite  plainly,  see  App.  II,  pi.  Ill  and  the  Grundriss, 
Taf.  IX,  Cols.  IV— V,  XI. 

No  22.  The  oldest  form  of  the  Brahma  ta,  which  Professor 
Weber  has  recognised  already  as  a  modification  of  the  Semitic 
Taw,  seems  to  be  that  (Col.  V,  a)  consisting  of  a  long  slightly 
inclined  downstroke  with  a  short  straight  bar  slanting  off  to 
the  right.  Next  comes  the  sign,  given  in  Col.  V,  b,  with  the 
bar  slanting  off  to  the  left,  and  this  is  due  to  the  change  in 
the  direction  of  the  writing.  The  ta  consisting  of  a  vertical 
stroke  with  an  angle  at  the  foot,  Col.  V,  c,  which  is  frequent 
in  the  southern  and  western  versions  of  the  Edicts  and  also  on 
the  Sohgaura  Plate,  is  probably  [69]  due  to  the  formalism  of  the 


Pabhosa  which  offers  feonakayana  i.  e.  ftaunakayana,  this  sign  appears 
only  in  words  which  have  &a  in  Sanskrit,  while  in  the  Edicts  it  occurs 
mostly  and  very  irregularly  in  words,  where  the  Sanskrit  has  tta  or  fa. 
The  confusion  is  owing  to  the  negligent  pronunciation  and  writing  of 
the  clerk,  who  made  the  copy.  His  dialect  probably  contained  two 
sibilants,  the  dental  and  the  palatal,  and  his  alphabet  had  three,  the 
dental,  the  palatal  and  the  lingual.  His  negligence  in  pronunciation 
made  him  pronounce  sa  for  Sa  and  vice  versa,  and  his  negligence  in 
writing  made  him  use  sa  and  So,  indiscriminately.  As  stated  above, 
papers  written  in  our  times  by  half-educated  clerks  and  others  show  ex- 
actly the  same  confusion  and  for  the  same  reasons.  They  pronounce 
e.  g.  both  sac  and  sac  (satyam)  and  they  write  indiscriminately  ^^, 
H^  and  ^^(. 


72  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

Hindus,  their  desire  to  set  the  letter  up  straight  and  to  make 
it  perfectly  regular  in  appearance.  The  forms  with  a  round 
limb  to  the  right  or  left  of  the  vertical  (see  above  p.  41)  of 
course  are  cursive.  The  oldest  among  these  five  forms  for  ta 
closely  resembles  the  Taw  from  the  earliest  Sinjirli  inscription 
(Col.  Ill,  b),  which  belongs  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
century  B.  C.,  and  still  more  that  of  Col.  Ill,  a,  which  occurs 
on  an  Assyrian  weight  of  the  reign  of  Salmanassar1  and  has 
therefore  been  engraved  before  725  B.  C.  As  it  thus  appears 
that  Semitic  forms,  consisting  of  a  long  inclined  downstroke 
Avith  a  crossbar  very  slightly  protruding  on  the  left  or  with  a 
simple  bar  on  the  right,  have  been  developed  in  very  early 
times,  it  is  not  improbable,  that  one  of  them  occurred  in  the 
alphabet  which  the  Hindus  borrowed.  But  the  possibility  that 
the  Indian  sign  is  an  independent  development  from  the  straight 
Phoenician  cross  (Col.  I),  is  not  altogether  excluded.  For  the 
cross  could  not  remain  in  the  Brahma  alphabet,  because  it 
would  have  been  undistinguishable  from  ka. 

B.    The  Derivative  Consonants  and  Initial  Vowels. 

The  contrivances,  by  which  the  derivative  signs,  both 
primary  and  secondary,  for  consonants  and  initial  vowels  have 
been  formed,  are: — 

(1)  the  transposition  of  one  of  the  elements  of  a  phonetic- 
ally cognate  borrowed  sign, 

(2)  the    mutilation    of   a    borrowed    letter    or    of  another 
derivative  sign  of  similar  phonetic  value, 

(3)  the  addition  of  straight  lines,  curves  or  hooks  to  bor- 
rowed or  derivative  signs.    If  a  hook  is  added  the  original  sign 
suffers  a  slight  mutilation. 

Two  cases  of  transposition  have  already  been  mentioned 
above  under  No  15 ;  where  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  the 
sa  and  the  Ghasundi  sa  come  from  the  Bhattiprolu  s.  A 
second  case  occurs,  as  Professor  Weber  has  been  the  first  to 
recognise,  in  the  dental  da  (No  4,  Col.  VI,  a— b,  f— g).  The 


As  Professor  Euting   kindly  points   out   to    me,    the   inscription   is   found 
Corp.  Inscr.  Sem.,  P.  II,  No  2c. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  73 

[70]  two  first  forms,  one  of  which  occurs  in  Bhattiprolu  as 
well  as  on  a  Patna  seal l  and  the  other  in  the  majority  of  the 
Edicts,  are  derived  from  the  two  dha  in  Col.  V,  by  dividing 
the  straight  line  and  pushing  the  halves  back  to  the  ends  of 
the  semicircle  which  remained.  In  the  third  actual  form 
(Col.  VI,  f)  and  the  hypothetical  one,  Col.  VI,  g  (required  on 
account  of  the  next  following  sign)  the  semicircle  has  been 
converted  into  a  small  square,  left  open  on  one  side,  and  this 
change  is  due  to  the  liking  for  angular  forms,  mentioned 
above  p.  37. 

The  cases  in  which  a  borrowed  or  derivative  sign  has  been 
mutilated,  are'  those  of  the  lingual  tennis,  tennis  aspirata  and 
media,  all  of  which  Professor  Weber  has  already  explained  cor- 
rectly. The  lingual  da  under  No  4,  Col.  VI,  c,  which  occurs 
occasionally  in  Kalsl  and  commonly  in  the  later  inscriptions  of  the 
Nanaghat  and  the  other  Western  caves  etc.,  is  derived,  by  the 
removal  of  the  lower  end,  from  the  Bhattiprolu  da  (Col.  VI,  a), 
which  had  not  yet  been  turned  from  the  right  to  the  left.  The 
angular  da  (Col.  VI,  h)  comes  in  like  manner  from  an  ang- 
ular da  (not  yet  turned  to  the  left),  of  which  the  known  in- 
scriptions do  not  offer  any  example.  The  tha  (No  9,  Col.  VI,  a) 
is  of  course  the  dental  tha  minus  the  central  dot,  and  the  ta 
(No  9,  Col.  VI,  b)  has  probably  been  obtained  by  halving  the 
tha,  as  Professor  Weber  conjectures.  To  a  Hindu  this  process 
probably  appeared  very  natural.  For  he  formed  several  aspi- 
rates by  adding  curves.  Hence  he  may  be  supposed  to  have 
considered  a  round  sign,  denoting  an  aspirate,  as  equivalent  to 
an  unaspirated  letter  plus  a  curve  of  aspiration.  Thus  the  di- 
vision of  the  sign  would  be  quite  legitimate.  In  the  Edicts 
both  tha  and  ta  are  frequently  made  smaller  than  the  other 
letters. 

Two  other  cases  of  the  mutilation  of  borrowed  letters 
occur  in  the  signs  for  initial  /and  U.  It  has  been  recognised 
already  by  Mr.  Prinsep  that  the  three  dots  of  /  (No  16,  Col.  VI, 
a— c,  lower  row)  indicate  the  three  corners  of  the  triangular 
E\  and  this  view,  which  has  been  generally  accepted,  is  con- 
firmed by  the  fact,  that  in  the  Edicts  the  position  of  the  dots 


Cunningham,  Arch.  Survey  Rep.,  vol.  XV,  pi.  Ill  (first  figure). 


74  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

of  /  generally  agrees  with  the  position  of  the  angles  of  E.  To 
a  Hindu  phoneticist  or  grammarian  the  derivation  of  /  from  E 
would  appear  a  matter  of  course,  because  E  is  very  commonly 
[71]  the  representative  of  an  Jin  strong  forms  or  its  Guna.  Hence 
he  expressed  the  latter  by  a  lighter  form  of  the  former,  just 
marking  the  corners  of  the  triangle. 

The  case  of  U  (No  6,  Col.  VI,  a)  is  somewhat  different.  It 
has  been  customary  to  derive  the  sign  directly  from  one  of  the 
later  forms  of  the  Semitic  Waic.  Considering  the  facts,  con- 
nected with  the  linguals  and  with  initial  I,  I  would  propose  to 
derive  it  either  directly  from  the  old  Semitic  Waw,  turned  topsy- 
turvy, or  from  the  Brahma  va  by  a  bisection  of  the  circle  at  the 
foot  of  the  sign  and  the  substitution  of  a  straight  line  for  the 
irregular  pendant,  which  remained.  The  several  steps  were, 
therefore,  ^  or  J,  ),  J,  and  finally1  L.  It  is  probable  that 
phonetic  considerations,  the  observation  of  the  frequent  substi- 
tution of  n  for  va  in  weak  verbal  and  nominal  forms,  as  in 
uliyate,  upyate,  supyate,  upta,  supta,  usita,  from  vah,  vap, 
svap  and  vas,  may  have  led  to  the  adoption  of  this  pro- 
ceeding. The  framers  of  the  Brahma  alphabet  were,  as  pointed 
out  already,  Brahmans,  acquainted  with  phonetics  and  with 
grammatical  theories. 

The  last  case  of  mutilation,  I  believe,  occurs  in  the  Anu- 
svara (No  13,  Col.  VI,  b)  which  is  represented  by  a  simple  dot. 
This  is  no  doubt  a  substitute  for  the  small  circle  (Col.  VI,  a), 
which  reappears  very  commonly  in  certain  later  epigraphic  and 
literary  alphabets.  I  consider  the  circle  to  be  a  mutilated  minute 
ma,  the  upper  angle  of  which  was  omitted,2  and  I  believe  that 
this  conjecture  is  supported  by  the  following  facts.  In  the  Edicts 
and  all  other  ancient  inscriptions  the  Anusvara  is  placed  rarely 
at  the  top  of  the  letter  after  which  it  is  pronounced.  Usually 


1  The  former  actual  existence  of  the  third  form  is  proved  by  the  Jaugada 
0  (No  6,  Col.  VI,  f).    In  the  second  century  A.  D.  and  later,  the   U  fre- 
quently shows   a   curve   at   the   foot  instead   of  the  straight  line,  ^  and 
it  is   possible   that  this   may  be  an  ancient  survival,   not,   as  is  usually 
assumed,  a  modern  development. 

2  I   must  acknowledge  that  M.  Halevy's  ingenious,   but  erroneous,  conjec- 
ture, according  to  which  the  Brahma  Anusvara  is  derived  from  the  Kha- 
rosthi  ma,  induced  me  to  frame  my  theory. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  75 

and  regularly  it  stands  opposite  the  middle,  but  in  a  number 
of  cases  it  is  found  also  to  the  right  of  the  foot.  Now  vowelless 
consonants  always  stand  at  the  foot  of  the  preceding  sign  in 
the  oldest  Sanskrit  or  Mixed  inscriptions  from  the  times  of  the 
[72]  Kusana  kings  down  to  the  fifth  century  A.  D.,  when  the  Vi- 
rama  makes  first  its  appearance.  Moreover  all  such  vowelless 
consonants  are  made  exceedingly  small,  even  after  the  inven- 
tion of  the  Virama,  and  they  are  very  commonly  mutilated  at 
the  top.1  These  facts  would  fully  explain  the  use  of  a  small 
circle  for  a  vowelless  ma  of  the  Asoka  type,  which  then  be- 
came the  general  sign  of  nasalisation  in  the  Brahma  alphabet, 
just  as  the  Kharosthl  ma  was  turned  into  the  Kharo.sthl  Anus- 
vara.  My  theory,  of  course,  rests  on  the  assumption  that  the 
Brahma  alphabet  was  used  from  the  beginning,  not  for  Pra- 
krit, but  for  Sanskrit,  and  this  is  made  more  than  probable 
by  the  occurrence  of  na  in  the  Mahabodhi  Gaya  alphabet  of 
the  masons,  as  well  as  by  the  arrangement  of  its  letters  on 
phonetic  principles,  see  above  p.  33,  likewise  by  the  numerous 
indications  that  the  alphabet  was  elaborated  by  phoneticists  or 
grammarians,  i.  e.,  by  Brahman  schoolmen. 

Short  straight  strokes  marking  the  additional  matra,  are 
added  (originally  on  the  left2)  to  the  vowel-signs  for  A  and  U 
in  order  to  frame  the  signs  for  the  long  vowels  A  (No  1,  Col.  VI) 
and  U  (No  6,  Col.  VI,  d).  In  long  /  an  additional  dot  appears 
instead  of  the  stroke  which  would  not  have  agreed  with  the 
character  of  the  sign.3 

Added  to  vowel-signs  (originally  on  the  right),  short  strokes 
indicate  a  change  of  the  quality  of  the  sound.  This  is  the  way 


1  See  e.  g.  Epigr.  Ind.  II,  p.  208,  Mathura  Inscr.,  New  Ser.,  No  27,  Dr.  Fleet's 
Gupta  Inscr.,  Nos  3,  6,  11,  etc.,  Dr.  Hoernle's  Bower  MS.  passim.  In  the 
first   mentioned    inscription   the   m  of  siddkam  is  not  much  more  than  a 
triangle,    in   the    Gupta    inscriptions    and    the   Bower   MS.   m   is    regul- 
arly U. 

2  In  the   actually   existing    signs   they  appear  on   the  right,    because   the 
signs  were  turned  on  the  change  in  the  direction  of  the  writing. 

3  Dots   appear  for  short  horizontal  bars  also  in   other  cases,   e.  g.   in   the 
hyphens  at  the   end   of  verses,   which   often   look  like,   and   have   been 
misread,  as  Visargas.    Vice  versa  small  horizontal  strokes  are  substituted 
for  dots  e.  g.  in  the  letter  /,  which  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  Nasik  and 
Karle  caves  sometimes  consist  of  three  short  horizontal  bars. 


76  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

in  which  O,1  No  6,  Col.  VI,  f—  g,  has  been  formed  out  of  U, 
and  in  the  first  sign  (Col.  VI,  f),  the  stroke  stands  in  its 
[73]  original  position,  because  the  letter  (Jaugada  form)  has  not 
been  turned  round.  The  AI  (No  16,  Col.  VI,  b,  upper  row) 
appears  to  have  been  derived  from  E  in  the  same  manner,  but 
the  letter  has  been  turned  from  the  right  to  the  left.  The 
sounds  u  and  o,  as  well  as  e  and  ai,  appear  to  a  Hindu  and  to 
a  Sanskritist  closely  connected,  because  in  numberless  cases  o 
is  the  Guna  or  representative  of  u  in  strong  forms,  and  because 
e  and  ai  both  appear  in  the  strong  forms  of  roots  with  i  and  in 
derivatives  from  nouns  with  i  and  e.  These  phonetic  or  gram- 
matical affinities  no  doubt  influenced  the  formation  of  the  signs. 

Added  to  signs  for  consonants,  either  on  the  right  or 
across  the  top,  a  straight  stroke  likewise  denotes  a  change  of 
quality  viz.  that  the  sign  expresses  the  corresponding  sound  of 
a  different  class  or  Varga.  The  stroke  has  its  original  position 
in  the  Bhattiprolu  I  (No  12,  Col.  VI),  which  has  not  been 
turned  round.  It  appears  on  the  left  in  the  palatal  ?1a,2  because 
this  has  been  turned.  Its  position  is  again  the  original  one  in 
the  guttural  iia,  Avhich  in  the  Gaya  alphabet  and  the  Kusana 
(see  above  p.  31)  inscriptions  is  P*,  and  in  which  the  foot  of  the 
na  has  also  been  modified.  Finally  in  na  (No  14,  Col.  VI,  b) 
the  bar  goes  across  the  vertical.  The  peculiarities  of  the  last 
two  letters  are  probably  due  to  a  desire  to  avoid  collisions 
with  na,  ne  and  0. 

Aspiration  is  expressed  by  the  addition  of  a  curve  in  the 
Bhattiprolu  gha  (No  3,  Col.  VI),  and  the  ordinary  Brahma  signs 
for  dha  (No  4,  Col.  VI,  d),  pha  (No  17,  Col.  VI)  and  cha  (No  18, 
Col.  VI,  a — b)  are  derived  in  the  same  manner  from  da,  pa  and 
CM.  In  the  sign  for  cha  both  ends  of  the  curve  have  been  con- 
nected with  the  vertical  line  of  ca.  There  are  numerous  in- 
stances, like  that  given  in  Col.  VI,  a,  in  which  a  difference 
between  the  two  halves  of  this  letter  is  clearly  discernible,  and 
the  one  half  is  angular,  the  other  round.  These,  I  think,  are  the 
older  forms.  The  second  sign  for  cha  (Col.  VI,  b)  which  consists 


1  The  sign   -ft-,    which  is  sometimes  given  for  O  in  palaeographic  works, 
does  not  exist. 

2  See  above  the  remarks  under  No  14,  p.  65. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  77 

of  a  circle  bisected  by  a  vertical  line  is  in  my  opinion 
cursive. 

In  the  two  signs  for  bha  (No  2,  Col.  VI)  and  for  jha 
(No  1,  Col.  VI)  an  angle  or  hook  serves  the  same  purpose  as 
the  curve  of  the  other  four  aspirates,  and  in  both  cases  the 
original  sign  is  mutilated  in  order  to  make  the  new  form  less 
cumbersome.  The  ba  has  lost  its  base  line  and  the  ja  its  two 
[74]  bars.  It  seems  not  improbable,  as  has  already  been  suggested 
by  others,  that  the  angle  or  hook  of  aspiration  may  be  a  cur- 
sive development  from  the  letter  ha. 

In  the  lingual  la,  derived  from  the  round  da  (No  4, 
Col.  VI,  e)  a  small  semicircle  *  has  been  added  to  the  foot  of  the 
original  sign  in  order  to  indicate  the  change  of  the  phonetic 
value.  Here  also,  I  believe,  we  may  recognise  the  influence 
of  the  grammarians  or  phoneticists.  For  the  sounds  da  and  la 
are  frequently  interchanged  in  the  same  word.  Thus  we  find 
already  in  the  Vedas  regularly  a  la  for  a  da  between  two 
vowels,  as  in  lie  for  ide.  In  the  later  Sanskrit  and  in  the  Pra- 
krits there  are  numerous  variants  like  nadi  and  nail,  nadikera 
and  nalikera  and  so  forth,  where  it  is  often  difficult  to  decide, 
which  is  the  original  form.  As  the  principle,  on  which  the  ordi- 
nary la  has  been  formed,  differs  from  the  more  general  one, 
applied  in  the  case  of  the  Bhattiprolu  letter,  I  consider  it  to  be 
of  later  origin. 

C.  The  Medial  Vowels. 

Hitherto  two  systems  for  the  notation  of  the  medial  vo- 
wels have  become  known,  that  of  the  Edicts  and  all  the  later 
Sanskrit  and  Prakrit  inscriptions  and  that  of  Bhattiprolu.  The 
first,  which  is  by  far  the  older  one,  shows  clearly  the  influence 
of  the  grammarians  and  their  ingenuity.  As  the  vowel,  ex- 
pressed in  the  beginning  of  words  by  the  representative  of  the 
Semitic  Aleph,  occurs  in  Sanskrit  nearly  as  frequently  as  all  the 


1  Possibly  a  sign  which  occurs  in  Jaugada  and  in  the  Pillar  Edicts  |J  f.  e. 
da  with  a  dot  a  the  foot,  may  have  the  same  value,  as  it  is  used  in 
words  which  have  double  forms  with  da  and  la  or  la  e.  g.  dudl  or  duli, 
edaka  or  elaka,  Coda  and  Cola 


78  Indian  Studies.  No  III. 

other  vowels  taken  together,1  it  was  not  expressed  by  any  sign, 
but  considered  to  be  inherent  in  all  signs  for  consonants.  This 
device  fully  agrees  with  the  system  of  neai'ly  all  the  phonetic 
and  grammatical  treatises,  which,  as  Professor  Max  Mtiller  has 
shown  so  clearly,  do  not  refer  to  written  letters  but  only  to 
sounds.2  They  almost  invariably  speak  of  the  kakara,  gakara 
[75]  and  so  forth.  The  commentators  no  doubt  are  right,  when 
they  assert,  that  the  vowel  has  been  added  in  order  to  make  the 
pronunciation  of  the  consonants  possible,  and  the  vowel  a  was 
selected  for  this  purpose  on  account  of  the  frequency  of  its 
occurrence.  It  seems  impossible  to  assume  that  there  is  no 
connexion  between  the  two  facts,  and,  as  the  grammarians 
base  their  theories  on  spoken  words  not  on  written  texts,  I 
think  that  they  are  the  men  who  also  in  this  case  influenced 
the  formation  of  the  Brahma  alphabet. 

As  regards  the  other  vowels,  medial  a  is  expressed  by 
placing  to  the  right  of  the  consonant  the  same  short  horizontal 
stroke,3  used  for  the  differentiation  of  the  initial  A  from  A,  ap- 
parently because  the  other  portion,  the  short  a,  is  already 
contained  in  the  consonant.  The  remaining  ones  are  expressed 
by  the  signs  for  the  initial  vowels  or  by  modifications  thereof, 


1  See   Professor  Whitney's    calculations    in    his    Sanskrit    Grammar,    p.  73 
(second  edition). 

2  History  Anc.  Sansk.  Lit.,   p.  507  ff.    This   assertion   has   been   hotly   con- 
tested by  Professor  Goldstiicker  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Manava  Kalpa 
Sutra,   p.  13ff.    But  Professor  Kielhorn,   who  has  studied  the  Vyakarana 
during   so    many  years,   informs   me   that   he   does   not  know  of  a  single 
passage    even    in    the    Bhasya,   which    indicates   with   certainty,    that    a 
written   text  of  Paniiii's  grammar   is  referred  to,   or  where  the  technical 
terms    of   the    grammarians    and    their  theoretical  speculations  refer    to 
written    signs;    see    also    his    remarks    in    Gurupujakaumudi    p.  29 ff.    It 
seems,   therefore,   to   be   a   fact  that  the  grammatical  and  phonetic  rese- 
arches were  begun  either  before  the  introduction  of  writing  or  indepen- 
dently of  writing,  and  that  even  those  ancient  authors,  who  like  Panini, 
mention  alphabets  and  clerks,  continued  to  work  on  in  the  old  manner. 
I  must,  however,  add  that  Geheimrath  von  Bohtlingk  dissents  and  believes 
that  the  phrase  yathanyasam  in  the  Mahabhasya  (e.  g.  I,  22,  1.  3)  points 
to  a  written  text. 

3  Originally  the   stroke,   of  course,   stood   on  the  left,   and  it   is  found  in 
this   position  on  the  Eran  coin,   where  the  letters  run  from  the  right  to 
the  left,  see  the  Grundriss,  Tafel  II.  28.  I. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  79 

placed  above  or  below  the  consonants.  A  very  clear  case  is  that 
of  the  medial  o  in  the  syllable  ko,1  given  in  two  forms  under 
No  6,  Col.  VI,  h— i.  If  the  k,  i.  e.  the  portion  of  the  sign 
below  the  second  bar,  is  removed,  there  remains  in  the  eighth 
sign  a  minute  initial  o  of  the  type  in  Col.  VI,  f,  and  in  the 
ninth  one  of  the  type  in  Col.  VI,  g.  Now  in  the  Jaugada 
version  of  the  Rock  Edicts,  where  the  initial  0  has  the  top  bar 
to  the  right,  the  same  is  invariably  the  case  with  the  medial  o. 
It,  therefore,  would  seem  that  the  writer  was  perfectly  aware 
of  the  connection  of  the  two  signs.  But,  in  Asoka's  time  this 
[76]  feeling  was  dying  out.  For  in  Girnfir,  where  the  initial  0 
with  the  top-bar  to  the  left  alone  is  used,  the  medial  o  is  made 
in  both  ways,  and  in  the  second  part  of  the  Delhi  Pillar  Edict 
VII,  2,  1.  2  we  have  once  the  cursive  medial  o  in  nigohani,  where 
both  strokes  are  placed  on  the  same  level  above  the  consonant. 

Equally  clear  is  the  case  of  the  medial  u,  which  is  the  initial 
U,  put  below  the  consonant.  This  is  distinctly  recognisable  in  the 
sign  dhu  (No  6,  Col.  VI,  b)  which  occurs  repeatedly  in  the  Kals!  ver- 
sion.2 Cursively  it  assumes  the  form,  given  in  Col.  VI,  c  or  of  p,  with 
the  omission  either  of  the  vertical  stroke  or  of  the  horizontal  bar  at 
the  end.  On  the  same  cursive  principle  u,  which  in  ku  etc.  retains 
the  shape  of  £7(Grundriss,  1, 11,  p.  37),  is  expressed  by  two  strokes, 
placed  either  horizontally  at  the  side  of  the  consonant  (No  6,  Col.  VI, 
e)  or  below  the  consonant,  where  they  frequently  form  an  acute 
angle  but  are  also  placed  parallel  side  by  side.  These  facts  seem  to 
indicate  that  Asoka's  clerks  had  lost  the  remembrance  of  the  origin 
of  the  signs  for  medial  u  and  w,  and  that  they  considered  the 
old  forms,  which  they  occasionally  used,  merely  as  permissible 
variants  without  any  special  significance.  In  later  inscriptions,3 
however,  reminiscences  of  the  origin  of  the  subscript  u  and  ii  are 
found.  Thus  in  the  ancient  £arada  characters  of  the  Baijnath 
Prasasti  and  elsewhere  pu  is  expressed  by  ^. 

As  regards  the  medial  i,  the  small  angle  to  the  left  of 
the  top  of  the  consonant  by  which  it  is  marked,  seems  to  be 


1  Compare  also  the  (jo  ~fc  in  mago.  Qiruar,  Ed.  I.  1.  11,  where  a  distinct  0 
stands  above  ga. 

2  E.  g.  in  Kaisi,  Edict  III,  1.  8  (twice). 

8  Compare  also  the  Grundriss,  gu  in  Taf.  VII.  10.  20;  bhu  in  Taf.  VII.  30. 
XII;  tu  in  Taf.  VII.  3(5.  XXI;   and  bhu  in  Taf.  VII.  30.  XX-XXI. 


80  Indian  Studies.   No  III. 

the  result  of  a  connexion  of  the  three  dots  of  the  initial  vowel 
by  means  of  two  lines,  see  the  ki  No  16,  Col.  VI,  d— e,  lower 
row.  As  long  as  the  Brahma  alphabet  was  written  from  the 
right  to  the  left,  the  ^-strokes,  as  well  as  all  other  vowel  signs 
of  course  stood  to  the  left  of  the  consonant.  In  the  Kals!  ver- 
sion, Ed.  XIII,  2,  1.  10,  there  are  two  signs,  at  the  end  of  the 
words  anuvidhiyamti  and  anuvidhiyisamti,  where  the  vowel 
has  this  position.  They  look  like  A,  because  the  vowel  strokes 
have  been  added  to  the  middle  of  the  consonant.  A  better 
formed  ti  with  the  vowel  on  the  left  occurs  in  Allahabad, 
Ed.  I  (end),  and  a  similar  hi  on  the  Sohgaura  copperplate,  1.  4. 
The  medial  l  does  not  seem  to  be  connected  with  the  initial  I, 
but  to  have  been  formed  by  the  addition  of  the  [77]  straight 
stroke,  denoting  also  in  other  cases  the  lengthening  of  vowels, 
which  for  convenience's  sake  in  this  case  was  made  vertical. 
Cursively  the  angle  of  medial  i  is  converted  in  Girnar  into  a 
shallow  curve  and  medial  I  is  expressed  by  a  curve  bisected 
by  a  vertical  stroke. 

The  sign  for  medial  e,  a  straight  or  slanting  line  to  the 
left  of  the  consonant,  I  take  to  be  the  remnant  of  a  triangular 
initial  E,  the  outlines  of  which  have  been  indicated  by  dots 
in  the  ke,  figured  under  No  16,  Col.  VI,  a,  upper  row.  I  may 
add  that  in  the  Edicts  forms  like  \  are  occasionally  used 
for  ge,  where  the  vowel  sign  seems  to  consist  not  of  a  line, 
but  of  a  hook  put  on  the  top  of  the  letter.  Such  forms  are 
perhaps  ancient  survivals,  dating  from  a  time  when  the  vowel 
was  represented  by  an  angle,  to  which  the  triangle  probably 
was  reduced  in  the  first  instance.  The  position  of  the 
e-stroke  is  abnormal,  as  it  stands  to  the  left  of,  or  before,  the 
letter,  after  which  it  is  pronounced.  The  cause  is  no  doubt, 
that,  if  it  had  been  placed  to  the  right,  it  would  have  been 
undistinguishable  from  medial  long  a. 

In  accordance  with  the  form  of  the  initial  AI  consisting 
of  e  and  a  horizontal  bar  to  the  left  of  the  top,  the  medial  ai 
is  expressed  by  two  bars  to  the  left  of  the  consonant,  see  the 
syllable  thai  from  the  Girnar  version,  given  under  No  16, 
Col.  VI,  c,  upper  row. 

The  absence  of  a  medial  vowel  between  two  consonants 
is  expressed  by  the  formation  of  a  ligature,  in  which  ordinarily 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  81 

the  second  consonant  or  its  most  essential  portion  is  attached 
to  the  foot  of  the  first.  In  the  Girnar  and  Siddapur  versions 
however,  the  ligatures  sta,  tpa,  vya1  as  well  as  those  contain- 
ing a  ra,  like  tra,  pro,  and  vra  show  the  inverse  order  and 
are  spelt  tsa,  pta,  yva,  rta  and  so  forth,  while  all  the  others 
like  sta,  mha  etc.  are  formed  regularly.  Moreover,  in  the  words 
bramhana  (Girnar  IV,  1.  2)  and  drahyitavyarp.  (Siddapur,  1, 1. 9)  the 
first  vertical  of  ba  and  the  two  vertical  strokes  of  da  have 
been  converted  into  wavy  ra-lines.  These  irregularities  are  no 
[78]  doubt  due  to  an  artistic  feeling  and  the  desire  of  the  clerks  to 
produce  regular,  shapely  signs.  The  combinations  of  the  conson- 
ants with  medial  vowels  furnish  analogies.  Properly  all  the 
vowels  ought  to  stand  to  the  right  of  the  foot  of  the  consonants. 
If  the  majority  is  nevertheless  placed  at  the  top,  that  has  been 
done  merely  for  the  sake  of  convenience.  Later  inscriptions 
also  furnish  a  few  isolated  cases  of  an  inversion  of  the  order 
of  the  elements  of  ligatures.  Thus  the  name  of  Castana's  fa- 
ther is  spelt  on  the  coins  Ysamotika  instead  of  Syamotika  and 
Harsa's  Banskhera  Plate  of  A.  D.  628/9  offers  vannra  for 
varnna. 

The  cause  of  the  formation  of  ligatures  in  order  to  ex- 
press the  absence  of  vowels  must  again  be  sought  for  in  the 
influence  of  the  Sanskrit  phoneticists  on  the  development  of 
the  Brahma  alphabet.  The  Pratisakhyas  and  the  later  works 
on  phonetics  and  grammar  all  use  the  expression  samyukta- 
ksara  "a  conjunct  syllable"  for  groups  like  kta,  kra  and  so 
forth.  The  combination  of  the  signs  in  writing  looks  very 
much  like  a  practical  illustration  of  the  meaning  of  the  term. 

The  manner  in  which  the  absence  of  a  vowel  after  a  final 
consonant  was  probably  expressed,  has  been  stated  in  the  re- 
marks on  the  Anusvara,  above  p.  74  f. 

The  Bhattiprolu  system  of  vowel-notation  differs  from  the 
ordinary  one  merely  by  marking  the  short  a  by  the  bar,  which 
denotes  a  in  the  Edicts,  and  the  long  a  by  the  same  bar  plus 
a  vertical  or  slanting  stroke,  hanging  down  from  it,  e.  g.  Jt 

1  At  least  in  mjamjanato,  Ed.  Ill,  1.  6.  The  cases  of  the  passive  future 
participles  in  tayva  are  doubtful,  as  they  may  have  been  pronounced  as 
they  are  written,  compare  Pali  mayham  and  so  forth.  The  Siddapur 
version  has  tavya  in  drahyitavyam. 

Buhler,  Indian  Studies.  III. 


Indian  Studies.    No  III. 


na  and  _fc  na.  This  system,  according  to  which  the  conso- 
nants have  no  inherent  a,  seems  to  have  been  invented  in 
order  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  forming  the  ligatures,  which 
make  the  ordinary  Brahma  alphabet  cumbersome  and  difficult 
to  read  in  its  later  developments,  and  in  order  to  express  final 
consonants  more  conveniently.  I  believe  it,  therefore,  to  be  of 
later  origin,  especially  as  the  other  Bhattiprolu  vowel-signs  do 
not  differ  from  the  ordinary  ones.  The  invention  must,  of  course, 
have  been  made  for  writing  Sanskrit,  as  the  Prakrits  have 
few  groups  of  dissimilar  medial  consonants  and  no  final  ones. 
To  sum  up — the  forty  four  letters1  of  the  ordinary  Brah- 
ma alphabet,  traceable  in  the  oldest  inscriptions  as  well  as  the 
variants  of  the  Bhattiprolu  in  scrip-  [79]  tions,  contain  represen- 
tatives of,  and  derivatives  from,  all  the  twenty  two  Semitic 
characters,  viz: — 


Semitic 
letters 
AUph 
Beth 
Gimel 

Daleth 

He 

Waw 

Zain 

Cheth 

Theth 

Yod 

Kaph 


Brahma  letters 

a  (initial) 

ba 

ga 

dha 
ha 


ja 

gha 

tha 

ya 

ka 


Derivatives 

a  (initial  and  medial) 

bha 

gh  (Bhattiprolu) 


da,  da 


I  dha 
\la 


u  {       (initial  and  medial) 
jha 

tha,  ta 


With  respect  to  the  missing  A  U  and  (A)fy  it  may  be  noted,  that  the 
forms  of  AUin  the  Gupta  and  Pallava  inscriptions,  as  well  as  those  in 
the  Bower  MS  ,  show  that  it  was  derived  from  0  by  the  addition  of  a 
bar  to  the  right  of  the  vertical.  But  the  medial  au  in  the  Bharahut  Torana 
inscription  (Grundriss,  I,  11,  Taf.  II.  28.  XVIII)  makes  it  probable  that  there 
was  a  second  form  with  the  additional  bar  to  the  left.  Regarding  the 
origin  of  the  Visarga,  which  first  occurs  in  the  Kusana  inscriptions,  of  the 
Jihvamullya  and  Upadhmanlya,  first  traceable  in  the  Gupta  inscriptions, 
I  am  not  able  to  suggest  anything. 


Semitic 
letters 
Lamed 
Mem 

Nun 
Samech 

Ain 

Phe 

Tsade 

Qoph 

Resh 

Shin 

Taw 


IV.   The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml. 
Brahma  letters  Derivatives 


83 


la 
ma 


I  (Bhattiprolu) 
m  (Anusvara) 


s  (Bhattiprolu) 
e  (initial) 


pa 

ca 

kha 

ra 

sa 

ta 


na 


e  (medial)  ai  (init.  &  med.) 
i,  I  (initial  &  medial) 
pha 
cha 


With  the  exception  of  the  signs  for  the  sibilants  sa  and 
sa-sa,  which  in  consequence  of  modifications,  introduced,  it 
[80]  would  seem,  independently  by  the  Hindus,1  resemble  later 
Aramaic  characters,  the  Brahma  letters  closely  agree  with  or 
are  most  easily  derivable  from  the  old  types  of  the  North-Semitic 
alphabet.  And  the  Brahma  initial  vowels  A  and  E  as  well  as 
the  consonants  kha,  ga,  gha,  tha,  dha,  ba  and  va  point  to  par- 
ticularly archaic  prototypes,  while  ha  and  ta  appear  to  be  con- 
nected with  somewhat  modified  forms.  It  would,  therefore,  seem 
that  the  Semitic  alphabet  became  known  to  the  Hindus  at  a 
period  when  the  angle  of  its  Aleph  opened  wide  and  the  ver- 
tical crossbar  protruded  about  equally  on  the  two  sides,  when 
the  top  of  Beth  was  still  closed,  when  ga  consisted  of  an  angle 
open  below,  when  Daleth  had  not  yet  developed  a  tail,  when 
Waw  consisted  of  a  semicircular  head  with  a  vertical  depending 
from  the  middle,  when  Cheth  had  three  bars,  when  Theth  and 
Ain  were  quite  or  nearly  circular  and  Qoph  had  a  round  head 
with  a  vertical  hanging  dowii  from  it,  but  when  the  simplified 
He  consisting  only  of  three  strokes  had  been  developed  and 
the  left  half  of  the  original  crossbar  of  Taw  had  nearly  or 
quite  disappeared. 


1  See  the  remarks  made  above  p.  67  under  No  15  and  p.  71  under  No  21. 

6* 


84  Indian  Studies.   No  III. 

According  to  the  dates  of  the  Semitic  inscriptions,  which 
can  come  into  question,  those  of  Mesa's  stone  and  the  Assyrian 
weights,  this  period  must  fall  somewhere  between  circiter  890 
and  750  B.  C.,  probably  more  towards  the  lower  than  the  re- 
moter of  the  two  limits.  Hence  the  terminus  a  quo  for  the 
introduction  of  the  prototypes  of  the  Brahma  letters  lies  between 
the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century  and  the  middle  of  the 
eighth,  or  about  800  B.  C.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  some  fur- 
ther considerations  make  it  probable  that  their  actual  impor- 
tation took  place  at  this  early  time. 

As  the  Brahma  ha  goes  back  to  a  form  of  He,  which  is 
not  found  in  any  Phoenician  alphabet,  but  occurs  on  the  As- 
syrian weights,  where  also  a  Taw  very  similar  to  the  Brahma 
ta  is  found,  the  conjecture  seems  not  altogether  improbable 
that  the  Semitic  alphabet  may  have  come  to  India  through 
Mesopotamia.  And  it  would  agree  with  such  an  assumption 
that  passages  in  ancient  Indian  works  prove  the  early  exist- 
ence of  a  navigation  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  somewhat 
[81]  later  occurrence  of  trading  voyages,  undertaken  by  Hindu 
merchants  to  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf  and  its  rivers. 

The  now  well  known  Baveru  Jataka,1  to  which  Professor 
Minayeff  first  drew  attention,  narrates  that  Hindu  merchants 
exported  peacocks  to  Baveru.  The  identification  of  Baveru 
with  Babiru  or  Babylon  is  not  doubtful,  and  according  to  what 
has  been  said,  above  p.  16ff.,  regarding  the  age  of  the  mate- 
rials of  the  Jatakas,  the  story  indicates  that  the  Vanias  of 
Western  India  undertook  trading  voyages  to  the  shores  of  the 
Persian  Gulf  and  of  its  rivers  in  the  fifth,  perhaps  even  in  the 
sixth  century  B.  C.,  just  as  in  our  days.  This  trade  very  pro- 
bably existed  already  in  much  earlier  times.  For  the  Jatakas 
contain  several  other  stories,  describing  voyages  to  distant 
lands  and  perilous  adventures  by  sea,  in  which  the  names 
of  the  very  ancient  Western  ports  of  £urparaka-Supara  and 
Bharukacha-Broach  are  occasionally  mentioned.  References  to 
sea-voyages  are  also  found  in  two  of  the  most  ancient  Dhar- 


1  No  339,  see  Fausboll,  Jatakas,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  126  ff.  It  has  been  trans- 
lated by  Professor  Rhys  Davids  in  the  Babylonian  and  Oriental  Record, 
Vol.  Ill,  p.  7ff. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  85 

masutras.  Baudhayana,1  Dh.  S.  II,  2,  2,  forbids  them  to  the 
orthodox  Brahmans  and  prescribes  a  severe  penance  for  a 
transgression  of  the  prohibition.  But  he  admits,  Dh.  S.  I,  2,  4, 
that  such  transgressions  were  common  among  the  "Northern- 
ers", or  strictly  speaking,  the  Aryans  living  north  of  the 
author's  home,  the  Dravidian  districts.  The  other  forbidden 
practices,  mentioned  in  the  same  Sutra  as  customary  among 
the  Northerners,  such  as  the  traffic  in  wool  and  in  animals  Avith 
two  rows  of  teeth,  (horses,  mules,  etc.),  leave  no  doubt  that  the 
inhabitants  of  Western  and  Northwestern  India  are  meant. 
It  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  their  trade  was  carried 
on  with  Western  Asia.  The  same  author,  Dh.  6.  I.  18.  14  and 
Gautama,  X.  33  fix  also  the  duties,  payable  by  shipowners  to 
the  king.  Even  from  still  earlier  times  there  is  the  story  of 
a  shipwreck,  the  scene  of  which  must  have  been  the  Indian 
[82]  Ocean.  Numerous  hymns  of  the  Rgveda  mention  the  mighty 
deed  of  the  twin  brethren,  the  Asvins,  who  saved  Bhujyu,  the 
son  of  Tugra,  from  the  sea,  "where,  as  one  account  says,2 
there  is  no  support,  no  rest  for  the  foot  or  the  hand,  after 
he  had  ascended  the  hundred-oared  galley,"  of  the  two  deities. 
-The  later  Vedic  literature  contains  also  a  few  evidently 
Semitic  legends,  among  which  that  of  the  Deluge  and  Manu's 
preservation  in  a  ship,  built  by  the  advice  of  a  miraculous 
fish,  is  the  most  noteworthy,3  and  it  is  possible,  that  they  may 
have  been  brought  over  from  Mesopotamia  by  the  early  Ind- 
ian navigators  and  traders.  But  this  is  of  course  a  mere  pos- 


1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  XIV,  pp.  146,  200,  217.    Later  Smrtis  e.  g. 
Manu  VIII,  157,  give  rules  regarding  marine  insurance  and  other  matters 
referring  to  sea-borne  trade.  Moreover,  Manu  III,  156  declares  a  Brahman, 
who  has  gone  to  sea,  to  be  unworthy  of  entertainment  at  a  Sraddha. 

2  R.  V.  I,  116.  5,   see   also   the   larger  St.  Petersburg  Dictionary  sub  voce 
Bhujyu,   and  Prof.  Oldenberg,  Vedische  Religion,   p.  214.    I  quite  agree 
with  Professor  Oldenberg  regarding  the   interpretation  of  the  myth,  but 
I  would  not  venture  to  infer  from  the  deeds  of  the  Asvins  and  of  their 
Greek  representatives,  the  Dioskouroi,  that  the  Indo-European  race  ori- 
ginally dwelt  near  the  sea. 

3  I   am  glad   to   see   that  Professor  Oldenberg,  Vedische  Religion,   p.  276, 
also  declares  this  myth  to  be  borrowed  from  a  Semitic  source,  in  spite 
of  Prof.  M.  Muller's  and  Prof.  Lindner's  attempts   to   make  it  an  Indo- 
Aryan  invention. 


86  Indian  Studies.    No  III. 

sibility,  and  other  explanations  of  their  occurrence  in  the  Brah- 
manical  literature  may  be  and  have  been,  suggested.  The  pas- 
sages, adduced  above,  are  however  sufficient  to  prove  that  the 
Indo-Aryans  began  to  navigate  the  Indian  Ocean  in  very  re- 
mote times,  and  it  is,  therefore,  quite  imaginable  that  they 
themselves  imported  the  Semitic  letters  from  Mesopotamia. l 

Between  this  importation  and  the  complete  elaboration  of 
the  Brahma  alphabet  there  lay,  however,  in  all  probability  a 
prolonged  period.  This,  I  think,  appears  from  the  following 
considerations.  One  of  the  undeniable  results  of  the  pre- 
ceeding  enquiry  is  that  the  Brahma  alphabet  must  be  con- 
sidered the  work  of  Brahmans,  acquainted  with  phonetic  and 
grammatical  theories.  The  Pandit's  hand  is  clearly  visible  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  letters,  used  by  Asoka's  masons  at 
Mahabodhi  Gaya,  according  to  their  organic  value  as  vowels, 
diphthongs,  nasalised  vowel,  vowel  with  the  spirant,  gutturals, 
palatals  and  linguals.  And  it  is  also  visible  at  a  much  earlier 
stage,  in  the  very  formation  of  the  alphabet.  Nobody  but  a 
[83]  grammarian  or  phoneticist  would  have  thought  of  deriving  five 
nasals,  one  for  each  class  of  the  Indian  consonants,  from  the  two 
Semitic  prototypes  and  of  inventing  in  addition  a  sign  to  denote 
the  nasalisation  of  vowels,  the  Anusvara,  or  of  forming  two 
spirants,  ha  and  the  Visarga.  Nobody  but  a  Sanskrit  grammar- 
ian would  express  the  initial  U  by  half  the  sign  for  va,z  and 
the  phonetically  very  different,  but  etymologically  allied  sa 
and  sa  by  modifications  of  one  sign,  or  derive  the  initial  0  from 
U,  /from  Es  and  la  from  c/a.4  And  only  a  grammarian  would 
invent  the  peculiar  system  of  notation  for  medial  vowels, 
which  throughout  marks  the  distinction  between  short  and  long- 
ones5  omits  the  short  a,  and  expresses  the  long  a  by  adding  to  the 
consonants  the  mark,  used  for  differentiating  A  from  -4,  and  the 
remaining  medial  vowels  by  combinations  of  the  initial  vowel- 


1  Compare  the   case   of  the  Tibetan  alphabet,   the  elements  of  which  the 
Tibetan  Thon  -  mi  or  Sambhota  is  said  to  have  imported  from  Magadha 
between  A.  D.  630—660,  Jour.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,  vol.  LVII,  p.  41  f. 

2  See  above  p.  74. 
8  See  above  p.  66  f. 

4  See  above  p.  77. 

5  See  Wackernagel,  Altindische  Grammatik,  vol.  I,  p.  LVII,  Note  3. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  87 

signs,  or  of  modifications  thereof,  with  the  consonants.  This 
is  so  complicated  and  so  highly  artificial  that  only  a  Brahman's 
or  Pandit's  ingenuity  can  have  worked  it  out. 

There  are  also  very  good  reasons  for  alleging  that  an  Ind- 
ian alphabet,  elaborated  by  traders  or  other  men  of  business, 
clerks  and  accountants,  would  never  have  possessed  a  single 
medial  vowel.  For  until  a  very  recent  period,  within  the  last  fifty 
years,  the  Indian  traders  never  used  any  medial  vowels  in  their 
books  or  in  their  correspondence.  Almost  every  child  in  Gujarat 
knows  the  story  of  the  letter,1  sent  by  a  Vanio  to  his  relatives, 
which  caused  great  grief  and  lamentation  owing  to  the  want  of 
the  vowel  signs.  The  letter,  it  is  said,  contained  the  following  pas- 
sage: oficfi  ^n?T  *re  ^^R  ^efi  ere;  W  H  On  seeing  it,  the  reci- 
pients at  once  began  to  lament  loudly.  They  interpreted  it  to 
mean:— cfrptfr  ^TT5T  jpft  *T%T  ^%  ^!TWt  f%  %  "Uncle  died  to- 
day and  aunt  beats  her  breast."  A  sympathising  neighbour 
inquired  for  the  cause  of  the  wailing.  On  being  shown  the 
letter,  he  remarked  that  the  outside  did  not  bear  the  usual 
superscription  of  announcements  of  deaths,  viz.  "Strip  and 
[84]  read",2  and  he  suggested  that  the  missive  might  be  read:  — 
SRTSfit  ^r5T*fK  *nft  ^  ^iTWt  ^te  %  "Uncle  has  gone  to  Aj- 
mlr  and  aunt  is  at  Kot."  On  further  enquiry  this  proved  to 
be  correct. 

The  progress  of  vernacular  education  and  the  action  of 
the  English  lawcourts  and  of  the  native  princes  has  of  late 
changed  these  habits  of  the  mercantile  classes.  As  the  law- 
courts  refuse  to  take  ledgers  written  without  vowel-signs  as' 
legal  evidence,  as  the  native  princes  follow  suit,3  and  as  the 
schools  now  teach  composition,  the  Vanias  and  accountants  write 


1  The  story  is  a  regular  Indian  "Joe  Miller",   and  is   commonly  told   by 
the   masters  to   the   schoolboys.    Dr.  G.  A.  Grierson   informs   me   that  a 
similar  story  is  current  in  the  Bengal  Presidency. 

2  A  Hindu  becomes  impure  on  hearing  of  the  death  of  a  relative  and  is 
obliged  to   throw  away  the  clothes,  which   he  wears  when   the   news  of 
such  an  event  comes.   In  order  to  obviate  unnecessary  loss,  the  announ- 
cements of  deaths  bear  on  the  outside  the  words,  given  above. 

3  In  1875  Maharaja  Ranbirsingh   of  Kasmlr  told   me  that   he  had  weaned 
his   clerks   from   the  bad  habit   of  writing  their  Takkarl   or  Dogra  cha- 
racters   without  vowels    by   refusing    to    pass    accounts   written    in    this 
manner. 


88  Indian  Studies.    No  III. 

at  present  more  frequently  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Brah- 
mans  do  and  have  done  always  and  almost  without  exception.1 
With  such  propensities  prevailing  among  the  business 
people  of  modern  times,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  those  be- 
longing to  a  very  remote  antiquity  would  have  acted  differently 
and  would  have  framed  for  their  writing  a  vowel-system  which 
their  descendants  discarded.  Nevertheless — though  the  Brah- 
man schoolmen  undoubtedly  have  framed  the  Brahma  alpha- 
bet,— the  introduction  of  its  elements,  the  Semitic  signs,  into 
India  is  presumably  due  to  the  merchant  class.2  For  the  Va- 
nias  naturally  came  most  into  contact  with  foreign  nations. 
Moreover,  they  were  the  men  who  most  urgently  wanted  a 
means  for  perpetuating  the  record  of  their  daily  transactions, 
while  the  Brahmans  possessed  since  very  early  times  the  sys- 
tem of  oral  instruction  for  preserving  their  literary  composi- 
[85]  tions  and  for  teaching  them  to  their  pupils,  to  which  they 
have  always  adhered.  Traces  of  the  existence  of  this  system  are 
found,  as  Professor  Max  Miiller  has  already  pointed  out,  even 
in  the  Rgveda,  in  the  famous  Frog  -  hymn,  R.V.,  VII,  103, 
5,  where  it  is  said  of  the  bull-frogs,  that  the  one  imitates  the 
cry  of  the  other,  "just  as  a  pupil  repeats  the  words  of  his 
teacher".  Its  full  development,  which  is  found  in  the  later 
Vedic  works,  both  the  Brahmanas  and  the  Vedangas  and  has 
been  described  repeatedly,3  must  certainly  be  as  early  as 
the  period  when  the  Semitic  letters  can  have  been  imported, 
or  even  more  ancient.  With  this  system  the  Brahmans  can- 
not have  felt  the  necessity  for  writing  so  strongly  as  the  men 
of  business,  and  it  is  also  for  this  reason  improbable  that  they 
should  have  been  the  first  Hindus  who  practised  writing.  Nay, 


1  I  have  seen  one  Gujaratl  inscription  without  vowels,  which  may  be  due 
to   a  Brahman.    It  is  incised  on   the   right  hand  gate  post  of  the  temple 
of  Dharanldhar  at   Dehema  in  Northwestern  Gujarat   and   omitting  the 
date,  runs  thus:   rf^  T  TffST  ^cf   T  *R  T  T^   f T  II   Its   meaning 
was   interpreted   to   me,   as   follows:    rf^^T'H'  '''fit^T  ^Tpf^  %  ^T^'fl' 
TT^h"   TTrWl    "The   Musalman    army^came    and   the   Rao    of  Vav  was 
defeated." 

2  See  also  Westergaard,  Zwei  Abhandlungen,  p.  37  f. 

8  M.  Miiller,   History   of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,   p.  503 ff.,    compare 
also  A.  Weber,  Indische  Studien,  X,  p.  128ff. 


IV.   The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  89 

it  may  be  even  doubted  whether  they  cared  to  undertake  the 
adaptation  of  the  foreign  invention  very  soon  after  it  had  be- 
come known  to  the  mercantile  class. 

Further,  when  they  undertook  it,  the  evolution  of  the  46 
signs  of  the  Brahml  lipi  from  the  22  Semitic  characters  cannot 
have  been  accomplished  very  quickly.  The  evidence  of  the 
Bhattiprolu  alphabet  shows  that  in  the  case  of  several  letters 
more  attempts  than  one  were  made,  and  the  alphabet  of  the 
Edicts,  the  ordinary  Brahml  lipi,  likewise  bears  witness  that 
the  signs  were  invented  gradually.  As  has  been  pointed  out 
above,  the  dental  dha  yielded,  by  a  slight  transposition  of  one 
of  its  lines,  the  dental  da,  from  this  the  lingual  da  was  derived 
by  the  omission  of  the  lower  vertical  stroke,  and  from  the 
lingual  da  came,  by  the  addition  of  a  curve,  the  lingual  dha, 
as  well  as,  by  the  addition  of  the  semicircle,  the  lingual  la. 
The  series  of  the  derivatives  from  va,  from  the  dental  tha, 
the  dental  na,  the  Bhattiprolu  s  and  from  the  initial  E  are 
similarly  complicated.  It  is  incredible  that  in  these  cases  the 
whole  series  of  derivatives  should  have  been  invented  at  one 
time  or  even  in  quick  succession,  though  no  doubt  the  Brah- 
mans had  their  system  of  phonetics,  based  on  spoken  works, 
to  guide  them  and  to  help  them  on. 

[86]  It  would  thus  seem  that  a  not  inconsiderable  interval 
must  lie  between  the  first  importation  of  the  Semitic  letters  and 
the  complete  elaboration  of  the  Brahma  alphabet.  First  the  im- 
ported characters  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  traders  and 
the  men  of  business,  during  which  period,  as  perhaps  may  be 
inferred  from  the  treatment  of  the  Arabic  letters  during  the 
Mahommedan  period,  none  or  very  slight  modifications  were 
introduced.  Next  came  the  transference  of  the  foreign  invention 
to  the  Brahmans  and  finally  its  adaptation  to  the  wants  of  the 
Sanskrit  language. 

These  considerations  certainly  show  that  the  introduction 
of  the  Semitic  letters  must  fall  centuries  before  the  period  when 
the  Brahma  alphabet  was  in  general  use,  i.  e.  500  B.  C.  or 
thereabouts.  -And  they  thus  confirm  the  approximate  date, 
deduced  above  from  the  age  of  the  Semitic  signs,  which  ap- 
pear to  have  been  the  prototypes  of  the  Indian  modifications. 
This  date,  I  repeat,  is  merely  approximate  and  I  may  add, 


90  Indian  Studies.    No  III. 

provisional.  New  finds  of  ancient  Semitic  or  Indian  inscriptions 
may,  and  very  likely  will,  alter  it.  And  I  should  not  be  sur- 
prised, if  such  discoveries  forced  us  to  put  the  terminus  a  quo 
for  the  introduction  of  the  Semitic  characters  into  India  earlier 
than  is  advisable  on  the  evidence,  available  at  present. 

Finally,  the  fact  that  the  Brahma  alphabet  is  the  work  of 
the  Brahmans  has  also,  it  seems  to  me,  a  certain  bearing  on  the 
vexed  question  whether  in  ancient  times  writing  was  used  for  liter- 
ary purposes.  I  believe  that  it  enables  us  to  answer  this  question 
in  the  affirmative,  of  course  with  certain  reservations.  For  the 
Brahmans,  though  often  considered  mere  dreamers,  are  in  re- 
ality very  practical  people,  who,  as  far  as  my  observation  goes, 
do  not  take  and  never  have  taken  trouble  with  anything  that 
does  not  serve  their  purposes.  As  they  adapted  the  Semitic 
letters  to  the  wants  of  their  sacred  language  in  a  very  thorough 
manner,  I  consider  it  certain  that  they  also  utilised  their  in- 
vention at  once  for  their  special  aims,  the  cultivation  of  learn- 
ing, and  that  they  committed  at  least  their  scientific  composi- 
tions to  writing.  It  is  not  necessary,  nor  even  probable,  that 
in  early  times  the  MSS.  were  used  otherwise  than  esoterically, 
as  auxiliaries  for  composition  and  for  the  preservation  of  the 
texts,  much  in  the  manner  suggested  by  Geheimrath  von  Bb'ht- 
lingk,  Professor  Whitney  and  Dr.  Burnell.1 

Their  Mantras  and  other  sacred  compositions  may  have 
remained  unwritten  somewhat  longer.  That  is  no  more  than 
might  be  expected,  as  the  Brahmans  had  a  great  interest  in 
[87]  keeping  their  "great  medicine"  secret.  And  there  are  also 
several  indications  to  this  effect,  such  as  the  imprecations 
against  copyists  of  the  Veda  and  the  general  feeling,  even 
among  the  heterodox  sectarians,  that  sacred  books  ought  to  be 
preserved  only  orally. 

The  Southern  Bauddhas  and  the  Jainas  give  expression 
to  this  feeling  by  asserting  that  their  sacred  books  were  written 
only  many  centuries  after  their  composition.  But  it  may  be  doubted, 
whether  their  dates  are  always  quite  correct.  The  occurrence 
of  a  petaki  (literally  "a  Pitaka-possessor")  a  monk  who  knows 
one  or  more  Pitakas  (see  above  p.  18),  certainly  proves  that  the 

1  See  Elements  of  South-Indian  Palaeography,  p.  10  and  compare  also  the 
Grundriss,  I,   11,  p.  3  f. 


IV.  The  Derivation  of  the  Brahml.  91 

Buddhist  scriptures  were  written,  when  the  Bharahut  Stupa  was 
built.  Pitaka  is  only  ca  basket'  or  'a  box'  and  corresponds  to 
the  modern  dabado  of  cardboard  or  wood  in  which  the  Jainas 
usually  keep  the  MSS.  of  their  parish  libraries.  As  soon  as  the 
Buddhists  divided  their  scriptures  into  Pitakas,1  they  must  of 
course  have  been  written.  If,  as  I  believe,  the  inscription  of  the 
petaki,  which  shows  the  same  characters  as  the  Edicts,  be- 
longs approximately  to  the  same  time  as  the  latter,  the  traditional 
date  of  the  Ceylonese  Buddhists,  who  say  that  their  Canon  was 
first  committed  to  writing  about  88  B.  C.,  must  be  considerably 
wrong.  The  oldest  MSS.,  actually  found,  are  probably  the 
birch  bark  leaves,  inscribed  with  Kharosthi  letters,  from  the 
topes  of  the  Panjab.3  Next  comes  the  Bower  MSS.  with  the 
characters  of  the  oldest  Gupta  inscriptions,  then  follow  the 
Horiuzi  palmleaf,  the  Bakhshali  MS.,  the  Cambridge  Collection 
from  Nepal  and  the  Bombay  Collections  of  Jaina  MSS.  Older 
documents  than  are  accessible  at  present,  both  on  birchbark 
or  palmleaves  and  on  stone  or  metal,  will  no  doubt  be  found, 
as  soon  as  the  old  historical  sites  of  India  are  excavated  in  a 
thorough  and  rational  manner. 


1  The  term  pitaka  occurs  in  one  of  the  latest  portions  of  the  Vinaya,  the 
Parivara,  I,  1  (Oldenberg  Vinaya  pitaka,  vol.  V,  p.  3),  where  also  a  tipe- 
takl  is  mentioned. 

2  Though  often  appealed  to  in  proof  of  the  late  use  of  writing  for  literary 
purposes  (see  e.  g.  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  XIII,  p.  XXX Vff.),  this 
assertion  of  the  Dipavamsa  and  Mahavamsa  is,  I  fear,  not  worth  much 
more  than  the  contradictory  story  of  the  Chinese  Buddhists.   The  Chinese 
boldly  assert  that  the  Canon  was  written   on   palm   leaves   immediately 
after  Buddha's   death   (Grundriss,  I,   11,  p.  89)    and  that  in  A.  D.  489 
a  MS.  of  the  Vinaya  was  extant,  which  bore  975  dots,  marking  the  number 
of  the  readings  at  the  annual  Pavarana  since  the  time  of  Upali,  who  is 
said  to  have  entered  the  first  dot  (Jour.  R.  As.  Soc.,  1896,  p.  436  f.).   Like 
similar,  certainly  incorrect,  stories  of  the  Brahmans  and  others  regarding 
their   scriptures,   the   tradition   of  the  two  Pali  chronicles  may  be  taken 
merely  as   the   product  of  the  well  founded  belief  that  the   Buddhists, 
imitating  the  Brahmans,  preserved  their  scriptures  orally  for  a  prolonged 
period.    But  even  if  it   is   considered  to  be  historical,   it   refers  only  tc 
Ceylon  not  to  India. 

8  One   small   fragment  with   the   letters   mi,  dha  and  ya  (?)   is  figured  in 
H.  H.  Wilson's  Ariana  Antiqua,  Plate  III,  No  11. 


Appendix  I. 
The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthl  Alphabet. 


[44] *•  Though  the  origin  of  the  Kharosthl  alphabet  is  much 
easier  to  explain  than  the  derivation  of  the  Brahml  and  though 
the  general  lines  for  the  enquiry  have  already  been  settled  by 
others,  yet  a  somewhat  fuller  review  of  the  whole  question, 
than  the  narrow  compass  of  my  Grundriss  der  indischen  Pa- 
laeographie  permits,  will  perhaps  not  be  superfluous.  The  very 
considerable  progress,  which  has  been  achieved,  is  chiefly  due 
to  the  discussions  of  the  Kharosthl  by  Mr.  E.  Thomas  in  his 
edition  of  Prinsep's  Essays,  vol.  II,  p.  147  ff.,  by  Dr.  Isaac 
Taylor  in  The  Alphabet,  vol.  II,  p.  256 ff.,  and  by  Sir  A.  Cun- 
ningham, who  has  also  settled  the  value  of  many  of  its  signs, 
in  his  book  on  The  Coins  of  Ancient  India,  p.  3 Iff. 

Sir  A.  Cunningham's  remarks  refer  to  the  first  point  which 
requires  consideration  in  all  questions  of  this  kind,  viz.  the 
true  character  of  the  script,  the  origin  of  which  is  to  be  deter- 
mined. He  has  emphatically  recalled  to  the  memory  of  the 
palaeographists  that  the  Kharosthl  is  an  Indian  alphabet,  and 
by  an  ingenious  utilisation  of  his  finds  of  ancient  coins  in  the 
ruins  of  Taxila  he  has  shown  that  the  Kharosthl  held  always, 
during  the  whole  period  for  which  epigraphic  evidence  is  avail- 
able, only  a  secondary  position  by  the  side  of  the  Brahma  al- 
phabet even  in  Northwestern  India.  It  is  rather  curious  that 
the  reminder  regarding  the  essentially  Indian  character  of  the 
alphabet  should  have  been  necessary,  as  even  a  superficial 

1  The  bracketed  figures  refer  to  the  pages  of  the  first  edition  of  this 
article  in  the  Wiener  Zeitschrift  fiir  die  Kunde  des  Morgenlandes,  (Vienna 
Oriental  Journal)  vol.  IX. 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthl  Alphabet.  93 

considera-  [45]  tion  of  its  letters  teaches  that  lesson.  Its  full 
system  of  palatals  and  linguals  cannot  be  designed  for  any 
other  language  than  Sanskrit  or  an  ancient  Prakrit,  the  only 
forms  of  speech  which  possess  five  sounds  of  each  of  the  two 
classes  mentioned.  If  this  has  been  sometimes  forgotten  and 
even  Bactria  has  been  considered  as  the  cradle  of  the  Kharosthl, 
the  cause  is  no  doubt  the  loose  way  in  which  it  used  to  be 
called  the  "Bactrian,  Bactro-Pali  or  Indo-Bactrian"  alphabet, 
which  appellations  are  due  to  its  occurrence  on  the  coins  of 
Greek  kings,  who,  originally  ruling  over  Bactria,  conquered 
portions  of  Northwestern  India.  Sir  A.  Cunningham  very  pro- 
perly points  out,  op.  cit,  p.  35,  that  not  a  single  Kharosthl 
inscription  has  been  found  north  of  the  Hindu  Kush  and  that 
in  Bactria  a  different  alphabet  seems  to  have  been  used.  He 
further  proposes  to  substitute  for  "Indo-Bactrian"  the  Indian 
term  "Gandharian",  which  would  have  been  suitable  in  every 
way,  if  in  the  mean  time  the  old  Indian  name  had  not  been 
found.  The  districts,  in  which  the  largest  number  of  Kharosthl 
inscriptions  have  been  found,  are  situated  roughly  speaking 
between  69°— 73°,  30'  E.  L.  and  33°— 35°  N.  L.,  while  single 
inscriptions  have  turned  up  southwest  near  Multan,  south  at 
Mathura  and  east  at  Kangra,  and  single  letters  or  single  words 
even  at  Bharahut,  in  Ujjain  and  in  Maisur.  This  tract,  to 
which  the  Kharosthl  inscriptions  of  the  third  century  B.  C. 
are  exclusively  confined,  corresponds  to  the  Gandhara  country 
of  ancient  India,  the  chief  towns  of  which  were  Puskalavatl- 
Hashtnagar  to  the  west  of  the  Indus  and  Taxila  or  Shah  Deri  to 
the  east  of  the  river.  And  it  is  here,  of  course,  that  the 
Kharosthl  alphabet  must  have  originated. 

In  addition,  Sir  A.  Cunningham  has  shown  that  the  Kha- 
rosthl held  always  a  secondary  position  and  was  used  even  in 
the  earliest  times  side  by  side  with  the  Brahmi.  This  is  proved 
by  the  evidence  of  his  coins  from  Taxila,  several  of  which 
bear  only  Brahma  inscriptions  or  Kharosthl  and  Brahma  in- 
scriptions, with  letters  of  the  type  of  Asoka's  Edicts.  The  an- 
alysis of  the  legends,  which  I  have  given  ante  p.  48  f.,  shows 
that  those  of  four  types  have  been  issued  by  traders'  guilds 
and  that  one  is  probably  a  tribal  [46]  coin,  belonging  to  a  sub- 
division of  the  Asvakas  or  Assakenoi,  who  occupied  portions 


94  Appendix  I. 

of  the  western  bank  of  the  Indus  at  the  time  of  Alexander's 
invasion.  This  result  considerably  strengthens  Sir  A.  Cun- 
ningham's position,  as  it  indicates  a  popular  use  of  the  Brahma 
alphabet  in  the  very  home  of  the  Kharosthl. 

The  next  step  which  is  required,  is  to  find  the  class  of 
alphabets,  to  which  the  prototypes  of  the  Kharosthl  belonged. 
This  problem  is  settled,  as  Mr.  Thomas  has  first  pointed  out, 
by  the  close  resemblance  of  the  signs  for  na,  lia,  va  and  ra 
to,  or  identity  with,  the  Nun,  Beth,  Waw  and  Resh  of  the 
transitional  Aramaic  alphabet,  and  requires  no  further  discussion. 

Then  comes  the  question,  how  the  Hindus  of  Northwestern 
India  can  have  become  acquainted  with  the  Aramaic  characters 
and  which  circumstances  may  have  induced  them  to  utilise 
these  signs  for  the  formation  of  a  new  alphabet.  Dr.  Taylor, 
The  Alphabet,  vol.  II,  p.  261  f.,  answers  this  by  the  suggestion 
that  the  Akhaemenian  conquest  of  Northwestern  India,  which 
occurred  not  very  long  before  B.  C.  500  and  led  to  a  pro- 
longed occupation,  probably  carried  the  Aramaic  or,  as  he 
calls  it,  the  Iranian,  Persian  or  Bactrian,  alphabet  into  the 
Panjab  and  caused  its  naturalisation  in  that  province.  Though 
it  seems  to  me,  just  as  to  Sir  A.  Cunningham,  impossible  to 
accept  Dr.  Taylor's  reasoning  in  all  its  details,  I  believe  with 
Sir  A.  Cunningham  that  he  has  found  the  true  solution  of  this 
part  of  the  problem.  For  even  if  the  doubtful  and  often  disputed 1 
conquest  of  western  Gandhara  by  Cyrus  about  B.  C.  530  and 
the  equally  doubtful  and  disputed  continuance  of  its  occupation 
during  the  reign  of  Cambyses  were  historical,  the  introduction 
of  the  Aramaean  letters  into  the  Indian  province  could  only 
date  from  the  reign  of  Darius.  According  to  all  accounts  Darius 
first  organised  the  administration  of  the  Akhaemenian  empire 
and  first  sent  Satraps  with  their  staff  of  subordinate  officials 
into  the  provinces.  It  is  obvious  that  only  such  an  administra- 
tive organisation  could  cause  the  spread  of  the  official  alphabet 
in  the  remoter  portions  of  the  empire. 

One  argument  in  his  favour  is  the  occurrence  of  the  Old 
Persian  word  dipi  "writing,  edict"  in  the  Northwestern  versions 


1  Disputed  e.  g.  by  Lassen,  Niese,  J.  Oppert  and  G.  Rawlinson,  assumed  to 
be  historical  by  Droysen,  Dunker  and  others. 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthl  Alphabet.  95 

of  the  Edicts  and  of  its  derivatives  dipati  "he  writes"  and 
dipapati  "he  causes  to  write",  which  are  not  found  in  any 
other  Indian  language.  Dipi  is  undoubtedly  as  Dr.  Taylor 
himself  has  stated  an  Old  Persian  loanword,  and  all  the  three 
words  mentioned  point  to  a  Persian  influence,  dating  from  the 
Akhaemenian  period.  And  the  Sanskrit  and  Pali  lipi  or  libi 
"writing,  written  document",  which  does  not  occur  in  the  Vedic 
and  Epic  literature,  nor  in  the  ancient  works  of  the  Buddhist 
Canon  of  Ceylon,  but  appears  first  in  Sutras  of  Panini,  a  na- 
tive of  Gandhara  (traditional  date  circiter  350  B.  C.),  furnishes  the 
same  [47]  indication,  since  in  all  probability,  as  Dr.  Burnell  con- 
jectured, it  is  a  corruption  of  di-pi,  favoured  by  a  fancied  connexion 
with  the  verb  lip,  limpati  "he  smears"  (see  above,  21  f.).  Equally 
valuable  is  a  second  point,  the  fact  that  the  territory  of  the 
Kharosthl  corresponds  very  closely  with  the  extent  of  the  por- 
tion of  India,  presumably  held  by  the  Persians.  Dr.  Taylor 
and  Sir  A.  Cunningham  very  justly  lay  stress  on  the  statement 
of  Herodotus  (III,  94,  96)  who  asserts  that  the  Persian  satrapy 
of  India  paid  a  tribute  of  360  talents  of  gold  dust.  They  na- 
turally infer  that  the  Indian  possessions  of  the  Akhaemenians 
must  have  been  of  considerable  extent,  as  well  as  that  they  must 
have  included  the  greater  portion  of  the  Panjab. 

But  there  remain  still  two  gaps  which  must  needs  be 
filled  up.  The  Akhaemenian  theory  requires  it  to  be  shown 
that  the  ancient  Persians  actually  used  the  Aramaic  letters  and 
that  peculiar  circumstances  existed  which  compelled  the  Hindus 
to  use  these  letters.  The  second  point  is  at  present  particularly 
important,  because  the  literary  evidence  regarding  the  use  of 
writing  in  India1  (with  which  the  epigraphic  evidence  fully 
agrees)  proves  that  the  Hindus  were  by  no  means  unlettered 
in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  B.  C.,  but  possessed  and  exten- 
sively used  an  alphabet,  which  probably  was  a  form  of  the 
Brahmi  lipi.  As  long  as  it  was  possible  to  maintain  that  the 
Hindus  became  acquainted  with  the  art  of  writing  not  earlier 
than  400  B.  C.,  it  was,  of  course,  easy  to  understand,  that  the 
use  of  the  Aramaic  letters  by  the  conquerors  of  Northwestern 
India  should  have  acted  as  a  natural  incentive  for  their  Hindu 


1  Ante  p.  5ff. 


96  Appendix  I. 

subjects  to  form  out  of  these  characters  an  alphabet  suited 
for  their  own  language.  But  the  case  becomes  different,  if  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  Hindus  possessed  already  a  script 
of  their  own  before  the  Persian  conquest.  With  this  admission 
it  becomes  neccessary  to  show  that  there  were  special  circum- 
stances which  forced  them  to  use  the  alphabet  of  their  conquerors. 
Both  the  points  just  discussed  are  explained,  it  seems  to 
me,  by  certain  discoveries,  made  of  late  years  in  Semitic  pa- 
laeography. M.  Clermont-Ganneau's  important  articles  in  the 
Revue  archeologique  [48]  of  1878  and  1879  have  shown  that 
the  Aramaic  language  and  writing,  which  already  in  the  times 
of  the  Assyrian  empire  occur  in  contracts  and  on  the  official 
standard  weights,  were  frequently  employed  for  official  cor- 
respondence, accounts  and  other  official  purposes  during  the 
rule  of  the  Akhaemenian  kings  in  many  different  provinces 
of  their  empire.  Egypt  has  furnished  Aramaic  inscriptions  on 
stones  and  potsherds  as  well  as  Aramaic  Papyri,  addressed  to 
Persian  governors;  in  western  Asia  and  in  Arabia  both  inscrip- 
tions and  numerous  Satrap  coins  with  Aramaic  legends  have 
been  found,  and  even  Persia  has  yielded  an  Aramaic  inscription 
(of  which  unfortunately  no  trustworthy  facsimile  exists)  at  Senq- 
Qaleh,  midway  between  Tabriz  and  Teheran.1  And,  I  may 
add,  there  is  also  a  scrap  of  literary  evidence  to  the  same 
effect.  A  statement  in  the  Book  of  Ezra  IV.  7,  points  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Aramaic  language  and  writing  was  well- 
known  in  the  Imperial  chancellerie  at  Susa.  For  it  is  said  that 
a  letter,  addressed  by  the  Samaritans  to  Artaxerxes,  "was 
written",  as  the  Revised  Version  of  the  Bible  has  it,  "in  the 
Syrian  (character)  and  in  the  Syrian  tongue".  The  Samaritans 
would  hardly  have  adopted  the  "Aramlt"  in  addressing  their 
liege  lord,  if  it  had  not  been  commonly  used  in  official  cor- 
respondence, sent  out  from,  or  into,  the  Imperial  Secretariat.2 


1  See  Ph.    Berger,    Histoire   de   VEcriture  dans  VAntiquite,  p.  218ff.,    where 
M.  Berger  pertinently  remarks  with   respect  to  the  last  inscription,   that 
it  puts  us  on  the  road  to  India. 

2  As  Prof.  Euting  kindly  points  out  to  me,  a  similar  inference  has  already 
been  drawn  from  the  above  passage  by  the  authors  of  the  Kurzgef.  Com- 
mentar  z.  d.   heil.   Schriften   d.  N.  u.  A.   Test.,   hg.  v.  H.  Strack   und   O. 
Zockler;  Alt.  Test,  Abth.  8,  p.  159. 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthi  Alphabet.  97 

The  custom  itself,  no  doubt,  has  to  be  explained  by  a  strong 
infusion  of  Aramaeans,  or  of  men  trained  in  the  learning  of 
the  Aramaeans,  in  the  lower  grades  of  the  Persian  Civil  Ser- 
vice, among  the  scribes,  accountants,  treasurers  and  mint-masters, 
and  this  is  no  more  than  might  be  expected,  when  a  race  like 
the  Persian  suddenly  comes  into  the  possession  of  a  very  large 
empire  and  becomes  the  heir  of  an  older  civilisation. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  appears  natural  to  assume 
that  the  Persian  Satraps  carried  with  them  also  into  India  their 
staff  of  [49]  subordinates,  who  were  accustomed  to  the  use  of 
the  Aramaean  letters  and  language.  And  this  would  fully  ex- 
plain, how  the  Hindus  of  the  Indo-Persian  provinces  were 
driven  to  utilise  the  characters,  commonly  employed  by  the 
scribes  and  accountants  of  their  conquerors,  though  they  al- 
ready possessed  a  script  of  their  own.  The  Kharosthi  alphabet 
would  appear  to  be  the  result  of  the  intercourse  between  the 
offices  of  the  Satraps  and  of  the  native  authorities,  the  Indian 
chiefs  and  the  heads  of  towns  and  villages,  whom,  as  the  ac- 
counts of  the  state  of  the  Panjab  at  the  time  of  Alexander's 
invasion  show,  the  Persians  left  in  possession  in  consideration 
of  the  payment  of  their  tribute.  The  Hindus  probably  used  at 
first  the  pure  Aramaic  characters,  just  as  in  much  later  times 
they  adopted  the  Arabic  writing  for  a  number  of  their  dialects, 
and  they  introduced  in  the  course  of  time  the  modifications, 
observable  in  the  Kharosthi  alphabet,  for  which  process  the 
additions  to  the  Arabic  alphabet,  employed  for  writing  Hindi, 
furnish  an  analogy,  perhaps  not  perfect  but  nevertheless  worthy 
of  notice. 

In  support  of  these  conjectural  combinations  three  further 
points  may  be  adduced.  First,  the  Kharosthi  alphabet  is  not 
a  Pandit's,  but  a  clerk's,  alphabet.  This  appears  to  me  evident 
from  the  cursive  appearance  of  the  signs,  which  has  been  fre- 
quently noticed  by  others,  from  its  (according  to  Indian  views) 
imperfect  vowel-system,  which  includes  no  long  vowels,  from 
the  employment  of  the  Anusvara  for  the  notation  of  all  nasals 
before  consonants  and  from  the  almost  constant  substitution  of 
single  consonants  for  double  ones.  The  expression  of  all  long 
vowels  by  separate  signs,  which  occurs  in  no  other  ancient 
alphabet  but  the  Brahml  lipi,  was  no  doubt  natural  and  de- 
Buhl  er,  Indian  Studies.  III.  7 


98  Appendix  I. 

sirable  for  the  phoneticists  or  grammarians,  who  developed  that 
alphabet.1  But  it  is  a  useless  encumbrance  for  men  of  business, 
whose  aim  is  rather  the  expeditious  despatch  of  work  than 
philological  or  phonetic  accuracy.  Hence,  even  the  Indian 
clerks  and  men  of  business  using  the  Brahml,  have  never  paid 
much  attention  to  their  correct  use,  though  they  were  in-  [50] 
structed  by  Brahmans  in  the  principles  of  their  peculiar  alphabet.2 
If,  therefore,  these  signs,  which  have  only  a  value  for  school- 
men, do  not  occur  in  the  Kharosthl,  the  natural  inference  is 
that  this  alphabet  was  framed  by  persons  who  paid  regard 
only  to  the  requirements  of  ordinary  life.  The  other  two  pecu- 
liarities mentioned,  the  substitution  of  the  Anusvara  for  all  na- 
sals, standing  before  consonants,  and  the  substitution  of  ka  for 
kka,  of  ta  for  fta  and  so  forth  and  of  kha  for  likha,  of  dha 
for  ddha  and  so  forth,  are  clearly  the  devices  of  clerks,  who 
wished  to  get  quickly  through  their  work.  If  thus  the  Kha- 
rosthl  appears  to  be  an  alphabet,  framed  with  particular  regard 
to  the  wants  of  clerks,  that  agrees  with  and  confirms  the  as- 
sumption, put  forward  above,  according  to  which  it  arose  out 
of  the  official  intercourse  between  the  scribes  of  the  Satraps 
and  those  of  the  native  chiefs  or  other  authorities. 

More  important,  however,  is  the  second  point,  which  is 
intimately  connected  with  the  details  of  the  derivation  of  the 
Kharosthl.  The  originals  of  the  Kharosthl  letters  are,  it  seems 
to  me,  to  be  found  in  the  Aramaic  inscriptions,  incised  during 
the  rule  of  the  earlier  Akhaemenian  kings.  The  whole  ductus 
of  the  Kharosthl  with  its  long  verticals  or  slanting  downstrokes 
is  that  of  the  Saqqarah  inscription  of  482  B.  C.  and  the  pro- 
bably contemporaneous  larger  Teima  inscription,  which  Pro- 
fessor Euting  assigns  to  circiter'bQO  B.  C.  It  is  also  in  these 
inscriptions  that  most  of  the  forms  occur,  which  apparently 
have  served  as  models  for  the  corresponding  letters  of  the 
Kharosthl.  One  or  perhaps  two  seem  to  rest  on  forms  found 
in  the  somewhat  later  Lesser  Teima,  Serapeum  and  Stele  Vati- 
cana  inscriptions,  while  three  are  connected  with  .older  letters 
on  the  Assyrian  Weights  and  the  Seals  and  Gems  from  Babylon. 


1  Ante  p.  86  f. 

2  Ante  p.  43  f.,  note  3. 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthi  Alphabet.  99 

The  accompanying  Comparative  Table,  Plate  II,1  illustrates 
the  details  of  the  derivation,  as  I  understand  it.  Cols.  I  and  II  have 
been  reproduced  by  photozincography  from  Professor  Euting's 
Tabula  Scripturae  [51]  Aramaicae,  Argentorati  1892,  and  give 
the  twenty  Aramaic  signs,  which,  as  I  believe,  have  been  uti- 
lised by  the  Hindus,  Theth  and  Ain  being  rejected  by  them.2 
In  Col.  I  the  fat  signs  belong  to  the  Teinia  inscription  (Euting, 
Col.  9)  with  the  exception  of  No  1,  I,  b  and  No  9,  I,  b— c, 
which  come  from  the  Stele  Vaticana  (Euting,  Col.  12).  The 
thin  signs  have  been  taken  from  the  Saqqarah  inscription 
(Euting,  Col.  11)  with  the  exception  of  No  4,  I,  a;  No  9,  I,  a; 
No  10,  1,  b  and  No  20,  I,  a,  which  are  from  the  Assyrian 
Weights  and  the  Babylonian  Seals  and  Gems  (Euting,  Cols.  6, 
8),  as  well  as  of  No  17,  I,  a — b,  which  are  from  the  Serapemn 
inscription  (Euting,  Col.  12),  and  of  No  10,  I,  a,  which  Pro- 
fessor Euting  has  kindly  added  on  .once  more  looking  over 
the  Babylonian  Aramaic  inscriptions.3 

The  signs  of  Col.  II  have  all  been  taken  from  Professor 
Euting's  Cols.  14 — 17,  and  represent  the  chief  types  on  the 
Aramaic  Papyri,  which  M.  J.  Halevy4  and  others  believe  to 
be  the  prototypes  of  the  Kharosthi.  They  have  been  given  in 
my  Table  chiefly  in  order  to  show  that  they  are  not  suited 
for  the  derivation.  Col.  Ill  gives  the  oldest  forms  of  the  bor- 
rowed Kharosthi  letters  according  to  Tafel  I  of  my  Grundriss 
der  Indischen  Palaographie,  and  Col.  IV  with  the  signs,  which 
I  consider  to  be  derivatives  invented  by  the  Hindus,  comes 
from  the  same  source. 


1  Arranged  by  Dr.  W.  Cartellieri  and  etched  by  Messrs.  Angerer  &  Goschl 
of  Vienna. 

2  According  to  Dr.  Taylor  these  two  characters  are  also,   reflected  in  the 
Kharosthi.     But    the   sign   opposite    Theth    in  his   Table,    The  Alphabet, 
vol.  II,   p.  236,   is  a  late   vra,  and  Ain,   cannot  be  0,  as   he   doubtfully 
suggests.    M.  Halevy  identifies   Theth  with  the  letter,  which   used  to  be 
read  tha,  but  is  in  reality  tha  and  a  derivative  from  fa,  see  below. 

3  In   this   as  well   as   in   other  respects   I   have  to   acknowledge  Professor 
Euting's  kind  assistance,  who  sacrificed  a  good  deal  of  time  in  order  to 
verify  the   Semitic    signs,   which  I  had  selected   for  comparison,   in   the 
Plates  of  the  Corp.  Inscr.  Sem.  and  carefully  went  with  me  through  my 
Table  during  a  personal  interview  in  Strassburg. 

4  Journ.  Asiatique  1885,  p.  251  ff. 

7* 


100  Appendix  I. 

Before  I  proceed  to  give  my  remarks  on  the  details  of 
the  derivation,  I  will  restate  the  general  principles  which  have 
to  be  kept  in  mind  for  this  and  all  other  similar  researches. 

[52]  (1)  The  oldest  actually  occurring  signs  of  the  alphabet 
to  be  derived  (in  this  case  the  Kharosthi)  have  to  be  compared 
with  the  supposed  prototypes  (in  this  case  actually  occurring 
Aramaic  signs)  of  the  same  period  (in  this  case  of  ca.  500 — 400 
B.  C.). 

(2)  Only  such   irregular  equations  of  signs  are  admissible 
as    can    be    supported   by    analogies    from    other    cases,    where 
nations  are  known   to   have  borrowed   foreign  alphabets.    Thus 
it  is  not  permissible  to  identify  the  Kharosthi  sign   for  ja  with 
the  Aramaic    ga    on    account    of  a    rather   remote    resemblance 
between  what  the   modern   researches   have  shown  to  be  a  se- 
condary form  of  the  Kharosthi  palatal  media   and   the  guttural 
media  of  the  Aramaeans. 

(3)  The  comparison  must  show  that  there  are  fixed  prin- 
ciples of  derivation. 

The  latter  are  given  chiefly  by  the  unmistakable  tenden- 
cies underlying  the  formation  of  the  Kharosthi  signs, 

(1)  A  very    decided   predilection   for  forms,    consisting   of 
long  vertical   or  slanting  lines  with  appendages   added  do  the 
upper  portion, 

(2)  An    antipathy    against    such    with    appendages    at    the 
foot  of  the  verticals,  which  in  no  case  allows  a  letter  to  con- 
sist of  a  vertical  with  an  appendage  at  the  foot  alone; 

(3)  An    aversion    against   heads    of  letters,    consisting    of 
more    than    two    lines    rising    upwards,    as  well   as    against   top 
lines  encumbered  with  transverse  or  pendant  strokes. 

These  tendencies  required  two  Aramaic  letters,  Lamed, 
(No  11,  I  and  III)  and  Shin  (No  19,  I  and  III)  to  be  turned 
topsy-turvy,  and  caused  in  the  Shin  the  development  of  a  long 
vertical  out  of  the  short  central  stroke,  as  well  as  mutilations 
of  some  other  signs.  And  it  would  seem  that  the  aversion 
against  appendages  at  the  foot  is  probably  due  to  the  desire 
to  keep  the  lower  ends  of  the  matrkds  free  for  the  addition 
of  the  medial  u,  the  Anusvara  and  the  ra-strokes  which  are 
ordinarily  added  here,  while  the  top  lines  were  kept  free  from 
transverse  or  pendant  lines  on  account  of  the  signs  for  medial 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthl  Alphabet.  101 

i,  e  and  o.  Some  other  changes,  such  as  turnings  from  the 
right  to  the  left,  have  been  made  in  order  to  avoid  collisions 
with  other  signs,  while  again  other  rnodifi-  [53]  cations  are  purely 
cursive  or  due  to  considerations  of  convenience  in  writing. 

As  regards  the  details,  I  have  to  offer  the  following  re- 
marks regarding  the  Borrowed  Signs. 

No  1.  The  identity  of  A  with  AUpli  is  evident  enough 
(Thomas,  Taylor,  Halevy).  The  long  stretched  shape  of  the 
Kharosthl  letter,  which  leans  to  the  right,  makes  it  in  my 
opinion  more  probable  that  it  is  a  simplification  of  a  sign  like 
that  from  the  Saqqarah  inscription  in  Col.  I,  a,  than  that  it 
should  be  connected  with  the  diminutive  letters  in  Col.  I,  b 
and  in  Col.  II,  which  are  inclined  the  other  way. 

No  2.  Ba  is,  of  course,  a  slightly  modified  form  of  the 
Beth  in  Col.  I,  a— b  (Thomas,  Taylor  and  Halevy).  The  up- 
ward bulge  next  to  the  vertical  has  been  introduced  in  order 
to  make  the  letter  with  one  stroke  of  the  pen,  and  the  bent 
line  at  the  foot  is  represented  by  a  prolongation  of  the  vertical 
in  accordance  with  the  principle  stated  above.  The  Beth  of 
the  Papyri  (when  cursive  forms  are  used  as  in  Col.  II,  b — c 
and  in  Professor  Euting's  Col.  15  b — c,  16  b—  d)  is  more  ad- 
vanced than  the  Kharosthl  ba. 

No  3.  The  identity  of  ga  (Col.  Ill)  with  Gimel  (Cols.  I 
and  II)  has  been  recognised  by  Dr.  Taylor  alone.  The  loop 
on  the  right  has  been  caused  by  the  desire  to  make  the  letter 
with  one  stroke  of  the  pen.  It  may  be  pointed  out  as  an  an- 
alogy that  in  the  late  Kharosthl  of  the  first  and  second  cen- 
turies A.  D.  cursive  loops  are  common  in  ligatures  with  ra 
and  ya  and  that  there  is  a  looped  /a,  exactly  resembling  a  ga, 
on  the  Bimaran  vase  in  the  word  Mumjavata.  The  Aramaic 
prototype  may  possibly  have  been  set  up  straighter  than  the 
forms  given  in  Cols.  I  and  II,  and  it  may  be  noted  that  such 
forms  occur  already  on  the  Mesa  stone  and  in  other  old  in- 
scriptions, see  Euting,  Cols.  1  and  3. 

No  4.  Da  (Col.  Ill)  comes,  as  has  been  asserted  by  all 
my  predecessor's,  from  a  Daleth  like  that  in  Col.  I,  a,  which  is 
found,  as  Professor  Euting  informs  me,  already  on  an  Assyrian 
Weight  of  circiter  600  B.  C.  The  cursive  simplification  of  this 
letter  was  therefore  ancient  in  Mesopotamia.  It  re-occurs  in 


102  Appendix  I. 

the  Papyri,  with  a  slight  [54]  modification,  compare  especially 
Euting,  Col.  14 b.  The  hook  at  the  foot  of  the  da,  (Col.  Ill,  b), 
which  occurs  twice  in  the  Asoka  Edicts  and  survives  in  the 
later  inscriptions,  seems  to  have  been  added  in  order  to  distinguish 
the  letter  from  na  (No  13,  III,  a). 

No  5.  The  identity  of  ha  (Col.  Ill)  with  He  has  not  been 
recognised  hitherto.  But  it  seems  to  me  derived  from  a  round 
He,  like  the  Teima  form  in  Col.  I,  a,  with  the  transposition 
of  the  central  vertical  to  the  lower  right  end  of  the  curve, 
which  is  particularly  clear  in  the  letter,  given  in  Col.  Ill,  b, 
a  not  uncommon  form  in  the  Asoka  Edicts.  A  similar  trans- 
position of  an  inconvenient  pendant,  due  to  the  consideration 
for  the  medial  i,  e  and  o,  will  be  noticed  below  under  No  17. 
The  He  of  the  Papyri,  though  not  rarely  round  at  the  top, 
shows  nearly  always  a  continuation  of  the  central  bar  on  the 
outside  of  the  topline,  and  hence  is  less  suitable  for  comparison. 

No  6.  Va  has  preserved,  as  all  previous  writers  have 
acknowledged,  exactly  the  form  of  the  Waw  in  the  Teima  in- 
scription, which  re-occurs  on  various  later  documents  as  the 
Ostraka  from  Elephantine  and  the  Cilician  Satrap  coins,  and 
which  is  foreshadowed  by  the  letter  of  the  ancient  Assyrian 
Weights  in  Euting's  Tabula  Col.  6.  The  Papyri  again  offer  a  more 
advanced  round  form,  which  is  common  in  the  Kharosthl  in- 
scriptions, incised  during  the  first  and  second  centuries  of 
our  era. 

No  7.  Dr.  Taylor  alone  derives  ja.  (Col.  Ill,  a — b)  from 
Zain,  apparently  relying  on  the  similar  Pehlevi  letter.  The 
form  in  Col.  Ill,  a,  which  is  found  repeatedly1  in  the  Mansehra 
version  and  survives  in  the  legends  of  the  Indo-Grecian  and 
Saka  coins,  is,  however,  without  doubt  the  oldest,  and  derived 
from  a  Zain,  like  those  of  the  Teima  inscription  (Col.  I,  a— b) 
in  which  the  upper  bar  has  been  turned  into  a  bent  stroke 
with  a  hook  rising  upwards  at  the  left  end.  In  the  second  ja 
(Col.  Ill,  b)  the  lower  bar  has  been  dropped  in  order  to  keep 
the  foot  of  the  sign  free.  The  Pehlevi  letter  probably  is  an 
analogous  development.  The  Zain  of  the  Papyri  (Col.  II)  is 


*'  Edict   IK,  9    in   raja,   IV,   16    in    raja,    V,   19    in    raja,   V,  24    in    praja, 
VIII,  35  in  raja,  XII,   1  in  raja. 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthi  Alphabet.  103 

again  [55]   much   more   advanced    and   unfit  to  be   considered 
the  original  of  the  Kharosthi  sign. 

No  8.  With  respect  to  the  representative  of  the  Cheth  I 
differ  from  all  my  predecessors.  The  Aramaic  letter,  such  as 
it  is  found  in  the  Saqqarah  inscription  (Col.  I,  a — c),  in  Teima 
and  various  other  documents1  is  exactly  the  same  as. the  Kha- 
rosthi palatal  sibilant  sa.  The  pronunciation  of  the  Indian  sa 
comes  very  close  to  the  German  ch  in  ich,  lick  etc.,2  and 
hence  the  utilisation  of  the  otherwise  redundant  Cheth  for  the 
expression  of  sa  appears  to  me  perfectly  regular  and  normal. 

No  9.  The  derivation  of  ya  (Col.  Ill)  from  the  Aramaic 
Yod  has  been  generally  assumed,  and  it  has  been  noticed  that 
the  Kharosthi  sign  is  identical  with  the  late  Palmyrenian  and 
Pehlevi  forms  (Euting,  Cols.  21—25,  30—32,  35—39,  58),  which 
of  course  are  independent  analogous  developments,  as  well  as 
that  it  resembles  the  Yod  of  the  Papyri  (Col.  II,  c  and  Euting, 
Cols.  14 — 17),  where  however  the  centre  of  the  letter  is  mostly 
filled  in  with  ink.  Still  closer  comes  the  first  sign  (Col.  II,  b) 
from  the  Stele  Vaticana,  and  it  may  be  that  a  form  like  the 
latter  is  the  real  prototype.  But  I  think  the  possibility  is  not 
precluded,  that  the  Kharosthi  ya  may  be  an  Indian  modification 
of  a  form  like  the  more  ancient  Assyrian  Aramaic  sign  in 
Col.  I,  a,  which  differs  only  by  the  retention  of  the  second  bar 
at  the  right  lower  end.  The  rejection  of  this  bar  was  necessary 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  Kharosthi,  stated  above, 
and  may  therefore  be  put  down  as  an  Indian  modification. 
The  height  of  the  Kharosthi  ya  seems  to  indicate  that  its  pro- 
totype had  not  yet  been  reduced  to  the  diminutive  size,  which 
it  usually  has  in  the  Papyri,  but  which  is  not  yet  observable 
in  the  otherwise  differing  letters  of  the  Teima  and  Saqqfirah 
inscriptions. 

No  10.  The  connexion  of  ka  (Col.  Ill)  with  the  Aramaic 
Kaph  is  asserted  by  M.  J.  Halevy,  but  he  compares  the  sign 
of  the  Papyri  [56]  (Col.  II),  which  is  very  dissimilar.  I  think, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Kharo.sthT  letter  is  a  modification 


1  It  occurs  even  in  the  Papyri  though  these  offer   mostly  more   advanced, 
rounded  forms. 

2  Prof.  A.  Kuhn   long  ago   expressed   his   belief  that  etymologic-ally  An  is 
derived  from  ka  through  a  palatal  %a. 


104  Appendix  I. 

of  the  Babylonian  Kaph  in  Col.  I,  b,  which  was  turned  round 
in  order  to  avoid  a  collision  with  la  and  further  received  the 
little  bar  at  the  top  for  the  sake  of  clearer  distinction  from  pa. 
The  sign  in  Col.  I,  a,  which  likewise  comes  from  Babylon,  has 
been  added  in  order  to  show  the  development  of  that  in  Col.  I,  b, 
from  the  oldest  form. 

No  11.  Lamed,  consisting  of  a  vertical  with  an  appendage 
at  the  foot  had,  as  stated  above,  to  be  turned  topsy-turvy  in 
order  to  yield  the  Kharosthi  la,  with  which  Dr.  Taylor  and 
M.  Halevy  have  identified  it.  Moreover,  the  curve  which  then 
stood  at  the  top  was  converted  into  a  broken  line1  and  at- 
tached a  little  below  the  top  of  the  vertical,  in  order  to  avoid 
a  collision  with  A.  The  signs  of  the  Papyri  (Col.  II)  are  mostly 
far  advanced  and  cursive,  so  that  they  can  not  be  considered 
the  prototypes  of  the  Kharosthi  la. 

No  12.  The  Kharosthi  ma  (Col.  Ill,  a— c)  is,  as  has  been 
generally  recognised,  not  much  more  than  the  head  of  the 
Aramaic  Mem  in  Col.  I.  The  first  two  forms,  which  are  common 
in  Asoka's  Edicts  and  the  second  of  which  occurs  also  on  the 
Lido-Grecian  coins,  still  show  remnants  of  the  side-stroke  and 
of  the  central  vertical  or  slanting  stroke.  But  they  have  been 
placed  on  the  left  instead  of  on  the  right.  The  mutilation  of 
the  letter  is  no  doubt  due,  as  has  been  suggested  by  others, 
to  the  introduction  of  the  vowel  signs,  which  would  have  given 
awkward  forms,  and  the  fact  of  the  mutilation  is  indicated 
by  its  size,  as  it  is  always  much  smaller  than  the  other 
Kharosthi  signs.  The  curved  head  appears  in  the  Saqqarah 
Mem,  which  I  have  chosen  for  comparison,  as  well  as  on  Ba- 
bylonian Seals  and  Gems  (Euting,  Col.  8,  e)  and  in  the  Car- 
pentras  inscription  (Euting,  Col.  13,  c),  and  the  later  forms 
from  Palmyra  prove  that  it  must  have  been  common.  The 
Mem  of  the  Papyri  are  again  much  more  cursive  and  unsuited 
for  comparison. 

[57]  No  13.  Regarding  na  (Col.  Ill,  a),  which  is  clearly  the 
Nun  of  the  Saqqarah  (Col.  I,  a— b)  Teima,  Assyrian  and  Ba- 
bylonian inscriptions,  it  need  be  only  pointed  out  that  the 


1  The   la   of  the   Edicts    almost   invariably   shows   the   broken    line.      The 
later  inscriptions  offer  instead  a  curve  open  below. 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthi  Alphabet.  105 

forms  of  the  Papyri  .are  also  in  this  case  further  advanced 
than  those  of  the  Kharosthl.  The  na,  given  in  Col.  HI,  b,  is 
a  peculiar  Indian  development,  rather  rare  in  the  Asoka  Edicts. 

No  14.  The  identity  of  sa  with  the  Aramaic  Samech  (Col.  I) 
has  hitherto  not  been  recognised.  Nevertheless  the  not  uncom- 
mon form  of  sa  with  the  polygonal  or  angular  head,  given  in 
Col.  Ill,  permits  us  to  assert  that  also  in  this  case  the  Gan- 
dharians  used  for  the  notation  of  their  dental  sibilant  the  sign 
which  one  would  expect  to  be  employed  for  the  purpose.  The 
top  stroke  and  the  upper  portion  of  the  right  side  of  the  Kha- 
rosthl sa  correspond  very  closely  to  the  upper  hook  of  the 
Samech  of  Teima,  being  only  made  a  little  broader.  The  little 
slanting  bar  in  the  centre  of  the  Samech  may  be  identified 
with  the  downward  stroke,  attached  to  the  left  of  the  top  line 
of  sa}  and  the  lower  left  side  of  sa  appears  to  be  the  cor- 
responding portion  of  the  Samech,  turned  round  towards  the 
left  in  order  to  effect  a  connexion  with  the  downward  stroke. 
These  remarks  will  become  most  easily  intelligible,  if  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  the  two  letters  are  separated.  Then  we  have 
for  Samech  ^  and  for  sa  ^.  The  forms,  in  which  the  right 
portion  of  the  head  of  sa  is  rounded,  are  of  course  cursive. 
The  Teima  form  of  the  Samech  with  the  little  horn  at  the  left 
end  of  the  top  stroke  is  unique  in  the  older  inscriptions.  But 
the  Palmyrenian  letters  (Euting,  Cols.  24—29,  32-33,  37, 
39 — 40),  though  otherwise  considerably  modified,  prove  that 
the  Samech  with  an  upward  twist  must  have  been  common. 
Finally,  the  corresponding  Nabataean  characters  (Euting,  Cols. 
46 — 47),  are  almost  exactly  the  same  as  the  Kharosthi  sa  and 
show  that  the  changes,  assumed  above,  are  easy  and  have 
actually  been  made  again  in  much  later  times.  The  signs  of 
the  Papyri  are  again  far  advanced  and  unsuited  for  com- 
parison. 

No  15.  The  identity  of  pa  with  Phe  is  plain  enough 
(Thomas,  Taylor,  Halevy).  The  Semitic  letter  (Col.  I)  has  been 
turned  round  [58]  in  order  to  avoid  the  resemblance  to  A.  The 
form  with  a  hook,  attached  to  the  right  top  of  the  vertical 
(Col.  Ill,  a)  occurs  still  a  few  times  in  the  Mansehra  version 
of  the  Edicts.  Usually  the  hook  or  curve  is  placed  lower,  as 
in  Col.  Ill,  b,  and  it  may  be  noted  that  in  the  Mansehra  pa 


106  Appendix  I. 

it  is  attached  nearly  always  very  high  up,  in  the  Shahbazgarhl 
letter  not  rarely  lower. 

No  16.  On  phonetic  grounds  it  may,  of  course,  be  ex- 
pected that  Tsade  should  have  been  used  for  the  Indian  ca. 
But  the  recognition  of  the  real  Kharosthi  representative  has 
been  impeded  by  the  circumstance  that  the  earlier  tables  of 
the  alphabet  neglect  to  give  the  form  of  ca,  which  comes  clos- 
est to  the  Semitic  letter,  viz.  that  with  the  angular  head  (Col.  III). 
The  tables  give  only  the  ca  with  the  semicircular  top,  though 
the  other  form  is  by  no  means  rare  in  the  Edicts  and  is  used 
also  in  the  cha  (Col.  IV)  of  the  same  documents  and  even 
survives  in  the  late  Kharosthi  inscriptions  of  the  first  and  se- 
cond centuries  of  our  era.  If  the  angular  ca  is  chosen  for 
comparison,  it  is  not  difficult  to  explain  how  the  Kharosthi 
sign  was  developed.  The  Hindus  made  the  top  of  the  Tsade 
(Col.  I,  a — b)  by  itself,  separating  it  from  the  remainder  of 
the  vertical,  and  omitted  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of 
their  writing,  which  do  not  admit  more  than  two  strokes  at 
the  tops  of  letters  (see  above  p.  52)  the  small  hook  on  the 
right  of  the  angle.  Next,  they  placed  the  lower  part  of  the 
vertical  under  the  point  of  the  angle  and  in  doing  so  added 
a  small  flourish  to  the  top  of  this  line,  which  in  course  of 
time  became  an  important  element  of  their  sign.  The  Tsades 
of  the  Papyri  (Col.  II)  come  very  close  to  the  Kharosthi  ca  and 
the  second  even  shows  the  small  projection  on  the  left,  just 
below  the  top.  Nevertheless  they  are  only  independent  an- 
alogous developments.  For  in  both,  the  long  line  on  the  left 
has  been  made  continuous  with  one  stroke  of  the  pen  and  the 
hook  or  curve  on  the  right  has  been  added  afterwards.  More- 
over, in  the  sign  of  Col.  II,  b,  it  is  very  plain  that  the  small 
projection  on  the  left  of  the  main  line,  which  makes  the  letter 
so  very  like  the  Kharosthi  ca,  has  been  caused  by  a  careless 
continuation  of  the  right  hand  hook  across  the  vertical. 

[59]  No  17.  The  utilisation  of  the  ancient  Qoph  for  the 
expression  of  kha  in  the  Brahma  alphabet  suggests  the  con- 
jecture that  the  curious  Kharosthi  sign  for  kha  may  be  derived 
from  the  corresponding  Aramaic  character.  And  in  the  Serapeum 
inscription  the  Qoph  (Col.  I)  has  a  form  which  conies  very 
close  to  the  Kharosthi  kha.  Only  the  upward  stroke  on  the 


The  Origin  of  the  Kbarosthi  Alphabet.  107 

left  is  shorter  and  there  is  still  a  small  remnant  of  the  original 
central  line  of  the  ancient  North-Semitic  character.  The  smaller 
Teima  inscription1  (Euting,  Col.  10)  has  a  Qoph,  in  which  the 
central  pendant  has  been  attached  to  the  lower  end  of  the 
curve  (compare  above  the  case  of  the  Kharosthi  ha).  These 
two  forms,  it  seems  to  me,  furnish  sufficient  grounds,  for  the 
assumption,  that  in  the  earlier  Aramaic  writing  the  component 
parts  of  the  looped  Qoph  (Col.  II,  c)  were  disconnected  and 
arranged  in  a  manner,  which  might  lead  to  the  still  simpler 
Kharosthi  sign,  where  the  central  pendant  seems  to  have  been 
added  to  the  upstroke  on  the  left  in  order  to  gain  room  for 
the  vowel-signs.  To  this  conclusion  points  also  the  first  cor- 
responding sign  of  the  Saqqarah  inscription  (Euting,  Col.  11,  a) 
though  the  top  has  been  less  fully  developed  and  the  ancient 
central  pendant  has  been  preserved  much  better.2 

No  18.  Ra  (Col.  Ill)  has  been  recognised  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  Resh  by  all  previous  writers.  But  it  deserves  to 
be  noted  that  the  sign,  which  comes  nearest  to  the  Kharosthi 
letter  is  the  character  from  Saqqarah,  given  in  Col.  I,  b.3  The 
Papyri  offer  mostly  more  advanced  forms  with  top  lines  sloping 
downwards  towards  the  right. 

No  19.  Regarding  Shin  (Col.  I)  and  its  Kharosthi  counter- 
part, the  sign  for  the  lingual  sibilant  *a  (Col.  Ill),  see  above 
p.  100.  I  may  add  that  round  forms  of  Shin  appear  already 
on  the  Babylonian  Seals  and  Gems  (Euting,  Col.  8). 

No  20.  The  oldest  representatives  of  the  Semitic  Taw  ap- 
pear in  the  dental  tha  (Col.  IV,  a),  which  consists  of  the  old 
Assyrian  [60]  Aramaic  Taw  (Col.  I,  a)  of  the  8th  century  B.  C.,4 
or  of  a  slight  modification  of  the  very  similar  Saqqarah  letter 
(Col.  I,  b)  (turned  round  from  the  right  to  the  left)  plus 
the  bar  of  aspiration  on  the  right,  about  which  more  will  be 
said  below,  and  in  the  lingual  ta  (Col.  IV,  b— c),  where  the 
second  stroke  on  the  right  in  b  and  on  the  left  in  c  denotes 
the  organic  difference  or,  as  the  Hindus  would  say,  the  diffcr- 

1  Compare  the  end  of  1.  1  of  the  facsimile  in  M.  Ph.  Berger's  Histoire  de 
TEcriture,  p.  217. 

2  Compare  also  the  sign  from  the  Lion  of  Abydos,  Euting,  Col.  7. 

3  Compare  also  Euting,  Col.  7,  b. 

4  Ante  p.  72. 


108  Appendix  I. 

ence  in  the  Varga.  In  the  second  form  of  ta  (Col.  IV,  c)  the 
bar,  which  originally  stood  at  the  side,  has  been  added  at  the 
top,  and  out  of  such  a  form  the  dental  ta  (Col.  Ill)  appears 
to  have  been  developed.  Its  top  line  has  been  lengthened  con- 
siderably and  the  downstroke  has  been  shortened  and  bent  in 
order  to  avoid  a  collision  with  va  and  ra.  The  steps,  which 
led  to  its  formation,  are  therefore  (1)  /"  or  -J*,  (2)  "^,  (3)  *J. 

With  respect  to  the  Derivative  Signs,  my  views  are  as  follows. 

(1)  The  aspiration  is  expressed  by  a  curve,  by  a  hook 
or  by  a  straight  stroke,  which  latter,  as  the  case  of  bha  (No  2,  Col.  IV, 
a—  b)  shows,  is  a  cursive  substitute  for  the  curve.  At  the  same  time 
the  original  form  of  the  unaspirated  letters  is  sometimes  slightly 
modified.  The  curve  appears  on  the  right  of  the  ga  in  gha 
(No  3,  Col.  IV)  at  the  top  of  da  in  dha  (No  4,  Col.  IV,  a)  with- 
out any  change  in  the  original  forms.  In  bha  (No  2,  Col.  IV,  a) 
it  is  attached  to  the  right  of  ba;  the  wavy  top  of  which  is 
converted  into  a  simple  straight  stroke,  from  the  middle  of 
which  the  vertical  line  hangs  down.  The  same  sign  shows  also 
frequently  in  the  Asoka  Edicts  a  hook  for  the  curve  and  as 
frequently  a  cursive  straight  stroke  (No  2,  Col.  IV,  b),  slanting 
downwards  towards  the  right.  The  hook  alone  is  found  in  tha 
(No  20,  Col.  IV,  d),1  which  has  been  derived  from  the  preceding 
form  of  ta  (No  20,  Col.  IV,  c)  by  the  addition  of  a  hook  open- 
ing upwards.  The  straight  stroke  alone  is  found,  on  the  left 
of  the  original  letter  and  slanting  downwards,  in  jha  (No  7, 
Col.  IV),  and  likewise  on  the  left  but  rising  upwards,2  in  pha 
(No  15,  Col.  IV).  In  tha  (No  20,  Col.  IV,  a)  [61]  the  stroke  of 
aspiration  appears  on  the  right.  It  has  the  same  position  in 
chha  (No  16,  Col.  IV)  and  in  dha  (No  4,  Col.  IV,  c).  But  in 
the  former  sign  the  small  slanting  stroke  at  the  top  of  the 
vertical  on  the  left  has  been  straightened  and  combined  with 
the  sign  of  aspiration  into  a  bar  across  the  vertical.  In  dha 
the  whole  head  of  the  unaspirated  letter  (No  4,  Col.  IV,  b)  has 
been  flattened  down  and  reduced  to  a  single  stroke,  which 
together  with  the  sign  of  aspiration  forms  the  bar  across  the 
top  of  the  vertical. 


1  The  sign  in  the  table  is  really  tho. 

2  There  are  also  examples,  in  which  the  stroke  is  made  straight. 


The  origin  of  the  Kharosthl  Alphabet.  109 

With  respect  to  the  origin  of  the  mark  of  aspiration  I 
can  only  agree  with  J)r.  Taylor,  who  explains  it  as  a  cursive 
form  of  ha,  The,  Alphabet,  vol.  II,  p.  260,  note  1.  The  manner, 
in  which  it  was  attached  in  each  particular  case,  seems  to  have 
been  regulated  merely  by  considerations  of  convenience  and 
the  desire  to  produce  easily  distinguishable  signs.  The  way  in 
which  the  hook  or  curve  of  aspiration  has  been  used  in  the 
Brahma  alphabet  is  analogous.  There  too,  it  is  added  very  ir- 
regularly sometimes  to  the  top,  sometimes  to  the  middle  and  more 
frequently  to  the  foot  of  the  letters,  where  properly  it  ought 
to  stand.1  If  the  Kharosthl  characters  never  show  it  at  the  foot, 
the  cause  is  no  doubt  the  desire  to  keep  the  lower  ends  of  the 
signs  free  from  encumbrances,  as  has  been  noticed  above  p.  100. 

The  device  for  expressing  the  lingualisation  in  ta  (No  20, 
Col.  IV,  b — c)  and  na  (No  13,  Col.  IV,  a)  is  very  similar  to  that 
sometimes  used  in  the  Brahma  alphabet,  in  order  to  indicate 
the  change  of  the  Varga  or  class  of  the  letter.  A  straight 
stroke,  added  originally  on  the  right,  serves  this  purpose  in 
the  Bhattiprolu  la,  in  the  Brahma  na,  na  and  ha.2  The  case 
of  the  Kharosthl  ta  has  been  stated  above  in  the  remarks  on 
the  representatives  of  Taw.  With  respect  to  na  it  is  sufficient 
to  point  out  that  it  has  been  developed  from  the  na  No  13, 
Col.  Ill,  b,  by  a  slight  prolongation  of  the  right  hand  stroke. 
The  case  of  the  lingual  da  (No  4,  Col.  IV,  b)  is  doubtful.  Pos- 
sibly it  may  be  derived  from  an  older  dental  da,  like  that 
[62]  in  No  4,  Col.  I,  a,  by  the  addition  of  a  short  vertical  straight 
line  on  the  right,  which  coalesced  with  the  vertical  of  the  da 
and  thus  formed  the  sign  with  the  open  square  at  the  head. 
But  it  is  also  possible  that  the  Aramaic  alphabet,  imported  into 
India,  possessed  several  variants  for  Daleth,  and  that  the  heavier 
one  (No  4,  Col.  I,  b)  was  chosen  by  the  Hindus  to  express  the 
heavier  lingual  da,  while  the  lighter  or  more  cursive  one  was 
utilised  for  the  dental  da. 

The  origin  of  the  remaining  two  Kharosthl  consonantic 
signs,  the  palatal  na  (No  13,  Col.  IV,  b,  c)  and  of  the  Anusvara 
in  mam  (No  12,  Col.  IV)  has  been  already  settled  by  Mr.  E. 


1  Ante  p.  76  f. 
a  Ante  p.  76. 


110  Appendix  I. 

Thomas.  He  has  recognised  that  the  palatal  na  consists  of  two  den- 
tal no,,  joined  together.,  and  it  may  be  added  that  in  the  Asoka 
Edicts  sometimes  the  right  half  and  sometimes  the  left  half  is 
only  rudimentary,  as  shown  by  the  two  specimens  given  in 
the  Table.  He  has  also  asserted  that  the  Anusvara  is  nothing 
but  a  subscript  small  ma,  which  proposition  is  perfectly  evident 
in  the  form  given  in  the  table,  less  apparent,  but  not  less  true 
in  other  cases,  for  which  I  must  refer  to  Tafel  I.  29.  IV  of 
my  Grundriss  der  indischen  Palaeographie. 

As  regards,  finally,  the  Kharosthl  vowel  system,  and  the 
compound  consonants  (not  given  in  the  accompanying  table)  I 
can  only  agree  with  Mr.  E.  Thomas,  Professor  A.  Weber  and 
Sir  A.  Cunningham,  that  they  have  been  elaborated  with  the 
help  of  the  Brahma  alphabet.  Among  the  vowel  signs  the 
medial  ones  have  been  framed  first  and  afterwards  only  the 
initial  /,  U,  E,  0  (No  1,  Col.  IV,  a— d).  They  consist  merely 
of  straight  strokes,  which  (1)  in  the  case  of  i  go  across  the 
left  side  of  the  upper  or  uppermost  lines  of  the  consonant,  (2) 
in  the  case  of  it  slant  away  from  the  left  side  of  the  foot,  (3) 
in  the  case  of  e  stand,  slanting  from  the  right  to  the  left,  on 
the  top  line  of  the  consonant  (mostly  on  the  left  side)  and  (4) 
in  the  case  of  o  stand  below  the  top  line  (compare  iho,  No  20, 
Col.  IV,  d)  or  slant  away  from  the  upper  half  of  the  vertical 
as  in  0.  The  position  of  the  four  medial  vowels  thus  closely 
agrees  with  that  of  the  corresponding  signs  of  the  Brahma  al- 
phabet, where  i,  e  and  o  stand  at  the  top  of  the  consonants 
and  u  at  the  foot.  This  circumstance  [63]  alone  is  sufficient 
to  raise  the  suspicion  that  there  is  a  direct  connexion  between 
the  two  systems  of  vowel-notation;  see  add.  p.  124.  And  the 
suspicion  becomes  stronger,  if  some  further  facts  are  taken  into 
consideration.  In  the  Brahma  alphabet  of  the  Asoka  Edicts 
the  medial  e  and  u  are  mostly  expressed  by  straight  strokes. 
The  medial  o,  too,  consists  at  least  in  one  case,  Delhi  Sivalik 
Pillar  Edict,  VII.  2,  1.  2  (nigohani)  of  a  straight  bar  across  the 
top  of  the  consonant,  and  has  the  same  form  frequently,  on  the 
Persian  sigloi  (see  below  p.  113)  and  in  the  Bhatjjiprolu  in- 
scriptions. Again  the  medial  i  of  the  Girnar  version  is  expressed 
by  a  shallow  curve,  which  in  many  instances  is  not  distinguishable 
from  the  medial  a.  Thus  even  the  oldest  Brahma  documents 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthi  Alphabet.  Ill 

furnish  instances,  in  which  all  the  four  vowels,  expressed  in 
the  Kharosthi  by  straight  strokes,  have  exactly  the  same  form, 
and  it  is  very  probable  that  in  the  ordinary  writing  of  every 
day  life  these  cursive  forms  were  in  the  case  of  o  and  i  much 
more  frequent  than  the  Edicts  show,  as  well  as  that  they  go 
back  to  earlier  times  than  the  third  century  B.  C.  If,  finally, 
the  fact  is  added,  that  the  Kharosthi,  like  the  Brahml  con- 
siders the  short  a  to  be  inherent  in  all  consonants  and  does 
not  express  it  by  any  sign,  it  becomes  difficult  to  avoid  the 
inference,  drawn  already  by  Professor  Weber,  that  the  Kha- 
rosthi system  of  medial  vowels  has  been  borrowed  from  the 
older  alphabet. 

The  marking  of  the  initial  7,  U,  E,  0  (No  1,  Col.  IV,  a— d) 
by  A  plus  the  corresponding  medial  vowel-sign  is,  of  course, 
an  independent  invention  of  the  fraraer  or  framers  of  the  Kha- 
rosthi and  probably  due  to  a  desire  to  simplify  the  more  cum- 
bersome system  of  the  Brahml,  which  first  developed  the  initial 
vowels,  next  used  them  in  combination  with  the  consonants 
and  finally  reduced  their  shapes  in  such  combinations  to  simple 
strokes  and  curves.1  Similar  attempts  have  been  repeatedly 
made  on  Indian  ground.  The  modern  Devanagarl  has  its  ^ft 
and  ^  since  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century,  the  modern 
Gujarat!  has  its  E,  AI,  0  and  AU,  consisting  of  A  plus  the 
medial  vowel-signs,  and  [64]  the  Tibetan  alphabet,  framed  out 
of  the  Vartu  letters  of  the  seventh  century  A.  D.,  expresses 
even  I  and  U  by  A  plus  i  and  u.  These  examples  show 
that  the  idea  at  all  events  came  naturally  to  the  Hindus  and 
that  it  is  unnecessary  to  look  for  a  foreign  source  of  its  origin. 

The  rules  for  the  treatment  of  the  compound  consonants 
again  agree  so  fully  with  those  of  the  Brahml,  especially  with 
those  adopted  in  the  Girnar  version,  that  they  can  only  be 
considered  as  copies  of  the  latter. 

(1)  Double  consonants  like  kka,  tta,  and  groups  of  un- 
aspirated  consonants  like  kkha,  ttha  etc.,  are  expressed  by  the 
second  element  alone,  except  in  the  case  of  two  nasals  of  the 
same  class,  where  "the  first  may  be  optionally  expressed  by  the 
Anusvara  as  in  amna  or  ana.  Three  times,  however,  a  double 


Ante  p.  77ft'. 


112  Appendix  I. 

ma  is  used  in  the  word  samma0  (samyak-pratipatti),  Shahbaz- 
garhi  Ed.  IX.  19,  XL  23  and  XIII.  5.1 

(2)  Groups    of   dissimilar    consonants    are    expressed    by 
ligatures  of  the  signs,   except  if  the   first  is  a  nasal,   for  which 
the  Anusvara  is  used  throughout. 

(3)  In   the    ligatures    the    sign    for  the   consonants,    to    be 
pronounced  first,   stands  above  and  the  next  is  interlaced  with 
the   lower   end  of  the  first,   except  in   the   case  of  groups  with 
ra,   where  ra   is   almost  invariably  placed   below.2    The    forms 
of  the  Kharosthl  ligatures  are  shaped  exactly  like  those  of  the 
B rah  mi   and,    like  these,   illustrations   of  the   grammatical  term 
samyuktaksara    "a    conjunct    syllable".     The    neglect    of    non- 
aspirates,    preceding    aspirates,    and    of  the    double    consonants, 
with   the   exception  of  the   nasals,  which  can   be  marked  with- 
out   trouble    by    the    Anusvara,    is,    as    already    pointed    out,    a 
clerks'   trick   and   the   same   as   that  used   in  the   Brahmi    lipi3 
of  the  Prakrit  inscriptions.     The   treatment   of   ra  in  groups  is 
closely  analogous    to    that   adopted   in  Girnar,  where  this  letter 
or  its  cursive  representative  always  occupies  the  same  position, 
whether  it   must    be   pronounced  before   or  after  the  consonant 
with   which   it  is   combined.    There    is,    however,    this  [65]  dif- 
ference that  in  the  Girnar  Brahmi  ra  stand  always   at  the  top 
and    in  the  Kharosthl  invariably   at  the   foot.    The   one   writes 
e.    g.    via    for    rta    and    tva,    and    the    other    tra    both   for    rta 
and  tra. 

These  remarks  at  all  events  suffice  to  show  that  a  rational 
derivation  of  the  Kharosthl  from  the  Aramaic  of  the  Akhae- 
menian  Period,  based  on  fixed  principles,  is  perfectly  possible 
and  the  attempt  has  this  advantage  that  it  shows  some  letters, 
as  da,  ka  and  ta,  to  be  closely  connected  with  Mesopotamian 
forms,  which  a  priori  might  be  expected  to  have  been  used 
by  the  writers  of  the  Satraps,  ruling  over  the  extreme  east 
of  the  Persian  empire.  If  the  ruins  of  the  eastern  Persian  provin- 
ces are  ever  scientifically  explored  and  ancient  Aramaic  inscrip- 

1  In  the  third  case  Sir  A.  Cunningham's  copy  of  the  Shahbazgarln  Edicts 
in  the  Corpus  Inscr.  Ind.,  vol.  I,  PI.  II,  gives  the  mma  correctly. 

2  There  is  only  one  exception  in  the  Mansehra  version  Ed.  V,  24,   kar^a- 
bhikare. 

3  Compare  also  the  Grundriss,  I,   11,  §  14. 


The  Origin  of  the  Kharosthi  Alphabet.  113 

tions  are  found  there,  forms  much  closer  to  the  Kharosthi  will 
no  doubt  turn  up. 

The  third  and  last  point,  the  existence  of  which  has  been 
indicated  above,  furnishes  perhaps  the  most  convincing  proof 
for  Dr.  Taylor's  theory.  It  is  simply  this,  that  Mr.  E.  J.  Rapson 
has  discovered  of  late  on  Persian  silver  sigloi,  coming  from 
the  Panjab,  both  Kharosthi  and  Brahma  letters.  Mr.  Rapson 
was  good  enough  to  show  me  specimens,  belonging  to  the 
British  Museum,  during  my  late  visit  to  England,  and  I  can 
vouch  for  the  correctness  of  his  observation.  I  think,  I  can 
do  not  better  than  quote  his  paragraph  on  the  Persian  coins 
in  India  from  the  MS.  of  his  contribution  to  Mr.  Trubner's 
Grundriss  der  Indo -Arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde, 
which  will  appear  in  Vol.  II,  Section  3  B: — 

§  7.  "During  the  period  of  the  Achaemenid  rule  (c.  510—331 
B.  C.)  Persian  coins  circulated  in  the  Panjab.  Gold  double 
staters  were  actually  struck  in  India,  probably  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  4th  cent.  B.  C.  [Babelon,  LRS  Perses  Achemenides, 
pp.  IX,  XX,  16,  PI.  II,  16-19;  27].  Many  of  the  silver  sigloi, 
moreover,  bear  countermarks  so  similar  to  the  native  punch 
marks1  as  to  make  it  seem  probable  that  the  two  classes  of 
coins  were  in  circulation  together;  and  this  probability  is  in- 
creased by  the  occurrence  on  sigloi,  recently  acquired  by  the 
British  Museum,  of  Brahma  and  Kharosthi  letters."2 

[66]  This  appears  to  me  sufficient  to  establish  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Kharosthi  did  exist  in  India  during  the  Akhae- 
menian  times  and  did  not  originate  after  the  fall  of  the  empire. 
At  the  same  time  we  learn  that  before  331  B.  C.  the  Kha- 
rosthi and  the  Brahma  letters  were  used  together  in  the  Pan- 
jab, just  as  was  the  case  in  the  3rd  and  2nd  centuries  B.  C. 

In  conclusion  I  may  offer  a  suggestion  regarding  the  name 
of  the  script  of  Gandhara.  The  Buddhist  tradition  derives  the 
term  Kharosthi  from  the  name  of  its  inventor  who  is  said  to 
have  been  called  Kharostha  "Ass'-lip".  I  am  ready  to  accept 
this  as  true  and  historical,  because  the  ancient  Hindus  have 

1  Babelon,  op.  cit.,  p.  XI  attributes  these  countermarks  to  other  provinces 
of  Asia. 

2  Compare    now   his   article   in    the   Journal   Royal  Asiatic   Society    1895, 
p.  865  ff. 

Buhler,  Indian  Studies.  III.  8 


114  Appendix  I. 

very  curious  names— apparently  nicknames.1  Thus  we  find  al- 
ready in  the  Vedas  three  men,  called  £unahsepa,  Sunahpuccha 
and  /Sunolaiigula  "Dog's-tail",  and  Sunaka  "Little-Dog"  is  the 
progenitor  of  a  very  numerous  race.  Again  a  Kharljahgha 
"She-Ass'-Leg"'  is  according  to  a  Gana  in  Panini's  Grammar 
likewise  the  father  of  a  tribe  or  family. 

1  But  compare  now  the  interesting  article  of  Professor  A.  Ludwig  in  the 
Gurupujakaumudl  p.  68.  Professor  A.  Ludwig  takes  kharot.tha  to  be  the 
original  form  of  the  name  and  kharostha  a  false  transliteration  into 
Sanskrit.  And  be  considers  kharottha  to  be  the  Indian  representative 
of  a  possible,  though  not  actually  found,  Aramaic  haruttha  Kfimin 
"engraving,  writing1'.  In  favour  of  Professor  A.  Ludwig's  view  that 
kharostha  may  be  due  to  the  false  transliteration  of  a  foreign  word 
it  may  urged  that  its  derivative  kharostht,  more  usually  spelt  kharostt 
and  even  kharosti  or  kharostri  (Mahavastu  p.  135,  1.  5),  occurs  only  in 
Northern  Buddhist  texts  and  that  these  are  full  of  similar  blunders  in 
the  conversion  of  Pali  words  into  Sanskrit.  If  the  actual  and  fre- 
quent occurrence  of  haruttha  should  be  proved  hereafter,  I  should  be 
quite  ready  to  give  up  my  conjecture  in  favour  of  his.  Regarding  other 
derivations  of  the  name  Kharostha  see,  A.  Weber,  Indische  Streifen, 
vol.  Ill,  p.  8f. 


Appendix  II. 
Tlie  Origin  of  the  ancient  Brahma  Numerals. 


In  my  Grundriss  der  Indischen  Palaographie,  p.  77 f.,  I 
have  briefly  discussed  the  various  theories  regarding  the  origin 
of  the  ancient  system  of  numeral  notation  found  in  the  older 
inscriptions  and  MSS.  which  are  written  in  Brahma  characters. 
And  I  have  expressed  the  opinion  that  in  spite  of  serious  difficulties 
Dr.  Burnell's  suggestion,  according  to  which  it  has  been  derived 
from  an  Egyptian  source,  seems  for  the  present  more  probable  than 
any  of  the  other  attempts  at  an  explanation  of  its  origin.  As 
Dr.  Burnell's  remarks  on  this  point  in  his  Elements  of  South 
Indian  Palaeography,  p.  65 f.,  are  only  general  and  very  brief, 
a  more  detailed  comparison  of  the  two  Egyptian  systems  which 
can  come  into  question,  the  hieratic  and  its  immediate  derivative, 
the  demotic,  will  not  be  superfluous.  In  order  to  facilitate  it 
the  accompanying  Plate  III1  exhibits  in  Col.  I  the  most  im- 
portant forms  of  the  hieratic  numerals  according  to  Professor 
Euting's  table,  given  under  No  LXXIV  in  the  Palaeographic  So- 
ciety's Oriental  Series,  in  Col.  II  the  demotic  signs  according  to 
the  plates,  appended  to  Professor  Brugsch's  Deinotische  Gram- 
matik,  and  in  Cols  III— IV  the  Indian  numerals  according  to 
the  originals  from  which  Cols  I— IV  of  Tafel  IX  of  my  Grund- 
riss have  been  compiled.  Among  the  figures  for  6,  Col.  Ill,  c, 
shows  however  an  additional  sign,  that  of  the  Sahasrain  Edict, 
which  has  been  omitted  in  the  Grundriss. 

The  resemblance  of  the  principles  of  the  Egyptian  and 
Indian  systems  is,  if  not  complete,  at  least  very  great.  Both 


1  Drawn    by   Mr.   Bo'hm   and   etched    by   Messrs   Angerer   and   GOschl   of 

Vienna. 

8* 


116  Appendix  II. 

have  separate  signs  for  1—9,  10—90,  100  and  1000.  In  both 
the  numerals  1 — 3  are  expressed  by  strokes,  either  vertical  or 
horizontal1  or  by  combinations  thereof  and  the  symbols  begin 
with  4.  In  both  the  signs  for  200  and  300  consist  of  that  for 
100,  united  respectively  with  the  signs  for  one  and  two.2  The 
not  very  important  differences  are  (1)  that  the  Indians  form 
2000  and  3000  on  the  same  principle  as  200  and  300,  while 
the  Egyptians  add  in  these  cases  the  signs  for  two  and  three 
to  the  symbol  for  1000;  (2)  that  the  Indians  form  400-900 
and  4000—9000  by  the  combinations  of  100  with  4—9  and  of 
1000  with  4—9,  while  the  Egyptians  have  at  least  for  400  the 
combination  100  +  3;  (3)  and  that  the  Egyptians  have  a  sepa- 
rate sign  for  10,000  which  is  wanting  in  the  Indian  system. 
The  first  two  discrepancies  may  possibly  be  due  to  the  for- 
malism of  the  Hindus,  which  may  have  induced  them  to  reject 
the  vacillation  in  the  Egyptian  system  and  to  rigorously  ad- 
here to  one  and  the  same  principle. 

If  we  turn  to  the  comparison  of  the  several  symbols 
beginning  with  4,  it  is  evident  that  the  oldest  Indian  forms 
of  eight  out  of  the  total  of  seventeen  come  close  to  the 
hieratic  or  to  both  the  hieratic  and  the  demotic.  It  is  also 
evident  that  those  differences,  which  are  observable,  are  due 
either  to  the  desire  to  simplify  the  cumbersome  Egyptian 
signs  or  to  the  tendency  to  transform  them  into  Brahma  letters 
and  syllables.3  The  five  of  Col.  V,  a,  appears  to  be  derived 
from  the  hieratic  sign  of  Col.  I,  which  has  been  turned  from 
the  left  to  the  right,  while  the  side-limb  has  been  attached 
lower  in  order  to  obtain  an  approach  to  the  Brahma  tra.  The 
six  of  Col.  Ill,  a,  likewise  comes  close  to  that  of  Col.  I,  the 
slight  alteration  being  made  in  order  to  obtain  the  looped 
Brahma  ja,  from  which  latter  the  signs  in  Col.  Ill,  b — c,  and  in 
Col.  V,  a  looped  sa  and  phra  or  phuy  seem  to  have  been  de- 
veloped in  their  turn.  The  seven  of  Cols  IV — V  looks  like 


1  Horizontal   strokes   occur  in   the  Egyptian   signs   for   2  and  3,   referring 
to  the  days  of  the  month. 

2  The  strokes  no   doubt   represent   an   original  repetition   of  the   symbols 
for  100,  and  it  is  as  if  the  Romans  wrote  CI  and  CH  for  CC  and  CCC. 

3  Regarding   this    tendency   and    its   ultimate   effects,    see    the   Grtindriss, 
p.  75 ff. 


The  Origin  of  the  ancient  Brahma  Numerals.  117 

a  modification  of  that  in  Col.  I,  a,  made  in  order  to  obtain 
a  sign  similar  to  gra  or  gu,  the  later  Indian  letter-symbol. 
The  nine  of  Cols  IV — V  agrees  almost  exactly  with  the  hier- 
atic and  demotic  signs  in  Cols  I— II.  The  fifty  of  Col.  Ill,  b, 
is  produced  by  a  slight  simplification  of  the  symbols  in  Cols 
I— II,  while  the  fifty  of  Col.  Ill,  a,  has  been  turned  round  from 
the  left  to  the  right.  More  strongly  modified  and  more  re- 
mote from  the  hieratic  signs  are  the  Indian  symbols  for  60 
and  70  in  Col.  V,  the  second  of  which  has  been  converted  into 
a  Brahma  p il.  Finally  the  thousand  of  Cols  IV — V,  especially 
the  second,  look  like  derivatives  from  the  corresponding  Egyp- 
tian signs  in  Cols  I — II,  which  however  have  been  turned  topsy- 
turvy and  slightly  altered  in  order  to  produce  the  Brahma  syl- 
lables ro,  cu  and  dhu. 

The  list  of  closely  similar  signs  will  also  include  the  hun- 
dred, if  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  Indian  signs  of  Col.  V, 
which  look  like  modifications  of  the  hieratic  in  Col.  I,  in  reality 
are  older  than  those  of  the  Afioka  Edicts  and  of  the  Nanaghat 
inscription  in  Cols  III— IV.  And  it  seems  to  me  possible  to 
defend  such  an  assumption.  For  the  Andhra  and  Ksatrapa 
signs  for  100,  which  are  also  found  very  frequently  in  the 
Sanskrit  inscriptions  of  the  5th  —  8th  cent,  A.  D.  from  Western 
India  as  well  as  in  the  Kalinga  landgrants  of  the  8th  cent., 
in  all  probability  represent  the  syllable  hi.1  Its  sa  has  a  form 
which  corresponds  to  the  oldest  Semitic  Shin2  with  two  angles 
but  has  been  turned  topsy-turvy,  and  which  is  older  than  the  &*  of 
the  third  century  B.  C.3  Further,  with  the  assumption  that  the 
hundred  of  Col.  V  is  really  the  oldest,  it  becomes  possible  to 
explain  the  origin  of  those  in  Col.  Ill — IV.  As  the  Asoka 
sign  opposite  200 4  in  Col.  Ill,  a,  clearly  shows,  they  represent  the 
Brahma  syllable  su,  and  su  is  in  Prakrit  the  regular  represcn- 


1  See  the  Grundriss,  p.  77  and  note  20,  where  two  inscriptions  are  referred  to, 
in  which  more  modern  forms  of  Su  or  Sa  appear  in  the  hundred. 

2  See  above  Plate  I,  21,  Cols  I— II. 

3  See  above  Plate  I,  21,  Col.  V,   as  well  as  Tafel  II,  37,  I— II,  XI  etc.  of 
the  Grundriss,  and  compare  the  remark  made  above  p.  71. 

4  Equivalent  to  the  ordinary  su  with  an  unusual  elongation  of  the  vertical, 
which   seems   to  do  duty  for  the  additional  horizontal  stroke,   commonly 
found  in  200  on  the  right  side. 


118  Appendix  II. 

tative  of  a  Sanskrit  §u.  The  process  of  the  development  of  the 
Indian  hundreds  would  therefore  be  as  follows.  The  Hindus 
first  converted  the  hieratic  hundred  into  an  archaic  su  (Col.  V). 
Next  they  substituted  its  phonetic  Prakrit  representative  su 
for  it  (200,  Col.  HI,  a)  and  finally  they  again  modified  the  form  of 
su  in  order  to  indicate  that  it  has  not  a  phonetic  but  a  nu- 
meral value  (200,  Col.  Ill,  b— c;  100—700,  Col.  IV). 

With  the  admission  of  another  conjecture  the  cases  of 
close  resemblance  will  extend  to  a  tenth  sign.  It  is  undeniable 
that  the  Indian  sign  for  40  in  Col.  V  is  almost  exactly  identical 
with  the  Egyptian  symbols  for  30  in  Cols  I— II.  As  the  Indian 
30  shows  a  remote  similarity  to  the  Egyptian  407  it  is  tempting 
to  assume  that  the  Hindus  made  the  signs  for  30  and  40  ex- 
change their  places,  be  it  through  negligence  or  for  some 
other  reason. 

The  remaining  signs  differ  much  more.  But  it  is  quite 
imaginable  that  the  four  and  eight  of  Col.  I  may  have  be  con- 
verted respectively  into  the  ka  of  Col.  Ill l  and  the  hra  or  hu 
of  Col.  V,  that  the  ten  of  Col.  I,  being  turned  from  the  left  to 
the  right,  became  the  thu  of  Cols  IV — V,  and  that  the  twenty 
of  Col.  I  by  a  considerable  simplification  yielded  the  tha  of 
Col.  V.2  The  most  difficult  signs  are,  as  Dr.  Burnell  has  also 
recognised,  those  for  80  and  90.  There  is  no  actual  resem- 
blance between  the  Egyptian  and  the  Indian  forms.  But  it 
deserves  to  be  noted  that  in  both  the  hieratic  and  the  Indian 
systems  they  apparently  form  a  separate  group,  in  which  the 
higher  numeral  is  differentiated  from  the  lower  one  by  the  ad- 
dition of  a  second  line,  standing  in  the  hieratic  sign  below 
and  running  in  the  Indian  ninety  horizontally  across  the  middle. 


1  The   four  of  Col.  V.   (compare   also  those   of  400  and  4000  in  Col.  IV), 
which   may  be   read   ki  and  pka,   are  in  my  opinion  later  developments 
from  the   simple   ka.    The    apparent  vowel    or   pa -mark  at    the    top    is 
probably    merely   formed    out    of   a   flourish,   which   originally  indicated 
that  the  letter  had  not  a  phonetic  value;   compare  the  late  rnka,  nkd 
in  Tafel  IX,  Col.  XXIV -XXV  of  the  Grundriss,  where  a  similar  striving 
at    differentiation     is     perceptible,     and    the     remarks     in    the     Grund- 
riss, I,  11,  p.  75. 

2  On  the   supposition  that  this   is  the   older  form,   the   tha  of  Col.  IV  in 
20,000  might  be  regarded  as  a  phonetic  substitute. 


The  Origin  of  the  ancient  Brahma  Numerals.  119 

The  results  of  this  comparison,  the  nearly  complete  identity 
of  the  principles  of  the  two  systems  and  the  closer  or  remoter 
resemblances  between  the  great  majority  of  their  symbols,  raise, 
it  seems  to  me,  a  strong  presumption  in  favour  of  Dr.  Bumell's 
theory,  which,  however,  has  to  be  modified  by  the  admission 
that  the  hieratic  signs  rather  than  the  demotic  are  the  parents 
of  the  Indian  Brahma  numerals  and  that  the  tendency  to  frame 
out  of  them  Brahma  letters  or  syllables  and  again  to  differentiate 
these  from  the  ordinary  letters  is  already  visible  in  a  number 
of  cases.  And  I  believe  that  this  tendency  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  Hindus  since  ancient  times  were  accustomed  to  express 
numerals  by  such  words  as  rupa  ='1,  bhuta  =  5  and  so  forth.1 
In  order  to  convert  Dr.  Burnett's  theory  into  an  absolute  cer- 
tainty, the  discovery  of  more  ancient  signs  of  the  third  and  earlier 
centuries  B.  C.  is  required  as  well  as  the  discovery  of  historical  or 
traditional  information  regarding  an  ancient  intercourse  between 
India  and  Egypt.  For  the  present  this  is  entirely  wanting  and 
the  only  way,  in  which  one  could  try  to  account  for  the  in- 
troduction of  the  Egyptian  numerals  into  India,  would  be  to 
conjecture  that  the  early  Indian  navigators  and  merchants  might 
have  reached  countries  which  stood  under  Egyptian  influence 
or  might  have  met  on  their  voyages  with  Egyptian  traders.  But 
such  a  conjecture  is,  of  course,  precarious,  as  long  as  it  is  not 
supported  by  collateral  proof. 


See  the  Grundriss,  I,  11,  p.  80  ff. 


Addend  a. 


P.  9,  1.  28.  Another  case  of  a  letter  of  defiance  (panna) 
sent  to  a  king  by  his  adversaries  is  mentioned  in  Jataka, 
No.  23,  Fausboll,  vol.  I,  p.  178  (Rhys  Davids). 

P.  10,  1.  12.  Promissory  notes  (panna)  and  their  redemption 
by  payment  are  mentioned  in  the  introduction  to  Jataka  No  40, 
Fausboll,  vol.1,  p.  227,  1.  3f.,  and  p.  230,  1.  Iff.  (Rhys  Davids). 

P.  11,1.  14.  According  to  Jataka  No  388  (Fausboll,  vol.  Ill, 
p.  292)  the  future  Buddha  caused  the  judicial  rules  to  be  written  in 
a  book  (pot thaka)  and  recommended  that,  in  future,  cases  should  be 
decided,  after  reference  to  it.  A  book  (potthqka)  is  mentioned  also  in 
the  Uddalaka  Jataka  No  487,  Fausboll,  vol.  IV,  p.  487, 1. 17  f,  where 
Uddalaka's  preparations,  intended  to  captivate  the  king,  are  de- 
scribed as  follows:  "But  he  himself  took  with  him  eight  or  ten 
disputant  Pandits,  placed  a  lovely  book  (potthaka)  on  a  char- 
ming reading  desk  (adhdraka)  and  sat  down,  surrounded 
by  his  pupils,  on  a  prepared  seat  which  was  furnished  with 
a  support  for  the  back1'.  Here  the  book  can  only  be  a  MS. 
of  a  literary  work,  and  the  reading  desk  is  probably  one  of 
those  little  tripods,  consisting  of  three  laquered  pieces  of  wood, 
which  are  commonly  used  by  the  Jaina  Yatis  at  their  vdcands. 
The  whole  description  is  merely  an  accessory  without  any  im- 
portance for  the  story  and  may  be  an  interpolation,  as  its 
rather  modern  look  suggests. 

P.  31,  1.  5.  From  Mr.  Halhed's  Grammar  of  the  Bengal 
language,  p.  17  ff.  (Calcutta,  1778),  to  which  Dr.  B.  Liebich 
has  drawn  my  attention,  it  appears  that  about  the  end  of  the 
last  century  the  Bengal  schoolmasters  still  used  a  set  of  twelve 
tables,  including  chiefly  compound  tetters,  which  may  be  re- 
motely connected  with  Hiuen  Tsiang's  twelve  chang  and  Huilin's 


Addenda. 


121 


twelve  fan.  Mr.  Halhed  calls  them  the  twelve  Phola,  which 
name  according  to  the  Jonesian  transliteration  would  be  Phala 
and  corresponds  to  the  Sanskrit  phalaka,  'board,  tablet',  and 
he  states  that  they  severally  are  kya,  kra,  kna,  kla,  kva,  kma, 
kr,  kl,  rka,  hka,  ska  and  siddhi.  He  adds  that  siddhi  is  an 
abbreviation  of  siddhir  astu1  and  that  this  Phala  consists  of  the 
sixteen  vowels.  Mr.  Halhed  also  gives  the  contents  of  two 
other  Phalas  in  full,  which  I  copy  here  in  transcription,  as  his 
grammar  is  rather  rare. 

The  Phala  nka  includes: 


nka 

nkha 

nga 

ngha 

nna 

nca 

ncha 

nja 

njha 

nna 

nta 

ntha 

nda 

ndha 

nna 

nta 

ntha 

nda 

ndha 

nna 

mpa 

mpha 

mba 

mbha 

mma 

nya 

ra 

iila 

nva 

— 

Ma 

nsa 

nsa 

hha 

nksa}  or  34  signs, 

and  Phala  ska: 

ska 

skha 

dga 

dgha 

Mr  a 

§ca 

scha 

bja 

bjha 

jiia 

sta 

stha 

Ida 

bdha 

hna 

sta 

stha 

bda 

bdha 

hna 

spa 

spha 

dba 

dbha 

hma 

hya 

ra 

hla 

hva 

— 

tsa 

tsa 

tsa 

tha 

tksa, 

or  again  34  signs. 

Though  it  is  evident  that  the  twelve  Phala  are  not  identical 
with  Hiulin's  twelve  fan,  Mr.  Halhed's  statements  show  at  all 
events  that  a  syllabary  in  twelve  sections  was  actually  used 
in  India,  at  least  in  Bengal.  Probably  the  division  is  an  old 
one  and  has  been  taken  over  from  one  compilation  into  the 
other,  though  the  tables  underwent  changes  in  other  respects. 


This  is  a  common  Mangala  in  Sanskrit  books  and  inscriptions,  and 
stated  by  Itsing  (A  Record  of  the  Buddhist  Religion,  p.  170,  Takakusu) 
to  be  a  name  of  the  whole  Indian  syllabary.  An  other  work  quoted  by 
Mr.  Takakusu,  (op.  cit.  p.  171  note)  the  Siddhakosha  of  A.  D.  880,  gives 
Siddhdm  (sic)  as  the  name  of  the  sixteen  vowels. 


122  Addenda. 

Full  certainty  on  the  exact  character  of  the  Indian  syllabaries 
and  their  history  can  only  be  obtained  by  an  examination  of  the 
various  works,  called  lipiviveka,  mat  rkaviveka ,  varnamala 
and  so  forth,  mentioned  in  the  publications,  connected  with 
the  Search  for  Sanskrit  MSS.,  and  in  the  Catalogues  of  European 
libraries.  The  kindness  of  Dr.  Grierson,  who  made  enquiries 
regarding  the  actual  occurrence  of  Huilin's  twelve  tables  through 
Mr.  Prothero,  Educational  Inspector  of  Patna,  enables  to 
add,  that  the  indigenous  schools  of  Bengal  proper  still  teach 
the  compound  letters,  but  do  not  teach  the  combinations  of 
the  vowels  with  the  ligatures.  But  it  appears  that  this  is  not 
the  case  in  Bihar,  where  only  the  common  cursive  Kaethl 
(Kdyastha-lipi)  is  taught.  There,  as  one  of  the  Deputy  In- 
spectors, Mr.  Soinnath  Jharkhundi  says,  the  instruction  in  the 
varnamala  stops,  when  the  boys  have  mastered  the  vowels  A, 
A  ...  Ah,  the  consonants  ka,  kha  .  .  .  ha,  and  the  Bartarii 
ka,  ka  .  .  .  kau,  kam,  kah  and  so  forth,  which  latter  corresponds 
exactly  to  the  Barakhadl  of  Western  India.  Further  enquiries 
in  Gujarat  have  only  had  a  negative  result  and  have  elicited 
the  answer  that  no  tables  for  compound  consonants  are  known. 

Regarding  another  more  extensive  syllabary  in  18  tables, 
see  Itsing,  op.  cit,  p.  LXff.  and  p.  170ff.  (Takakusu). 

P.  32,  1.  6.  Read  a  round-topped  ga  on  No  14  instead  of 
on  No  13. 

P.  38,  1.  16.  For  plate  V,  No  2  read  plate  X,  No  2. 

P.  91,  1.  13.  The  kindness  of  Dr.  S.  von  Oldenburg  has 
put  me  in  possession  of  a  photograph  of  a  portion  of  the  Kha- 
rosthl  MS.  brought  by  M.  Petroffski  from  Khotan,  and  he  has 
generously  given  me  permission  to  say  here  a  few  words  about 
it.  The  photograph  contains  a  part  of  a  new  version  of  the 
bramhanavagga  of  the  Dhammapada  in  a  dialect  of  North- 
western India,  in  many  respects  closely  connected  with  that  of 
the  Shahbazgarhl  rock  edicts  of  Asoka,  but  in  some  respects 
more  advanced  in  the  direction  of  the  later  Prakrits.  With  the 
Asoka  Edicts  the  language  of  the  MS.  shares  the  clear  distinc- 
tion between  the  three  Sanskrit  sibilants,  the  preservation  of 
ra  in  groups,  the  substitution  of  o  for  final  atn  and  various 
characteristic  forms  like  bramana  (brammana)  for  brdhmana 
or  bramhana.  Advanced  forms  are  e.  g.  niha'i  (nihai)  for 


Addenda.  123 

nidhaya,  dana  (danna)  for  danda,  china  (chinna)  for  chinda, 
with  which  latter  Pali  forms  like  punnarlka  for  pundarlka  may 
be  compared. 

The  principles  of  its  spelling  in  no  way  differ  from  those 
of  the  epigraphic  Kharosthl.  The  long  vowels  are  not  marked, 
the  Anusvara  does  duty  for  all  nasals  in  compound  consonants, 
single  non-aspirate  consonants  stand  for  double  ones,  and  before 
aspirates  the  corresponding  non-aspirate  is  left  aut.  The  Bud- 
dhists of  the  Northwest,  therefore,  found  it  unnecessary  to  have 
recourse  to  the  more  accurate  spelling  of  the  Pandits,  which 
their  brethren  in  the  South  have  adopted. 

The  characters  show  the  higly  cursive  type  of  the  Kusana 
period  and  come  very  close  to  those  on  the  Wardak  vase,  in- 
cised during  the  reign  of  Huviska.  The  wavy  lines  in  the 
side-limbs  of  ka,  pa  and  bha  are  however  more  fully  developed. 
On  the  other  hand  some  very  cursive  forms  of  ka  and  bha, 
in  which  the  side-limbs  of  these  letters  are  attached  to  the  top- 
lines  are  wanting  in  the  thirty  lines  accessible  to  me.  The 
Padas  of  the  Slokas  carefully  divided  and  at  the  end  of  each 
Sloka,  which  almost  invariably  fills  a  line,  stands  a  mark  re- 
sembling the  circular  Indian  nought,  the  first  sign  of  inter- 
punctuation  found  in  a  Kharosthl  document. 

With  respect  to  the  exact  probable  date  of  the  MS.,  it  is 
difficult  to  say  anything  certain,  as  the  question  when  the  fa- 
mous three  Kusana  kings  reigned  is  not  yet  settled.  If  M.  S. 
Levi  (Journ.  Asiatique,  1897,  p.  1  ff.)  is  right  in  contending  that 
even  Bazdeo  -Vasudeva  belongs  to  the  middle  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, the  Petroffski  MS.  cannot  be  much  later  than  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era.  But,  though  I  fully  agree  with  M.  Levi  in 
believing  that  Kaniska  is  not  the  founder  of  the  feaka  era,1 
I  do  not  yet  venture  to  give  an  unqualified  adhesion  to  his 
theory,  the  full  proof  for  which  has  still  to  be  furnished.  For 
the  present  I  would  only  say  this  much  that  the  Petroffski 
MS.  is  certainly  the  oldest  Indian  MS.,  yet  discovered,  and  that 
it  perhaps  was  written  in  the  first  century  A.  D.  and  certainly 


See  my  remarks  on  this  subject  and  on  the  reasons  why  for  practical 
purposes  I  have  adopted  the  theory  of  Messrs  Fergusson  and  Oldenberg, 
in  the  WZKM.  I,  169. 


124  Addenda. 

not  much  later.  I  believe  that,  like  the  Bower  MS.,  it  was 
written  in  India  —  as  the  dialect  and  the  characters  suggest,  in 
Gandhara  —  and  that  it  was  carried  by  some  Buddhist  monk 
into  Chinese  Turkestan. 

P.  110.  And  it  ought  to  be  noted,  that  while  no  good 
reason  is  apparent  why  u  should  have  been  placed  at  the  foot 
in  the  Kharosthl,  it  is  patent  that  the  sprawling  /  and  /_  of  the 
Brahmi  was  not  fit  to  be  placed  at  the  top  of  the  consonants, 
but  better  suited  the  position  at  the  foot,  where,  in  letters  not 
ending  in  verticals,  it  could  be  abbreviated,  without  the  risk  of 
confusion  with  e,  a  and  ai. 


Plate  I. 


Comparative  Table 


of 


the  oldest  Semitic  and  the  Brahma  Alphabets. 


g:        Is      Asoka,  Bkattiprolu  and  cognate  Inscriptions 

I        1 

J3        Original  letters  Derivatives 


I 

D 

m 

IV 

v 

•VI 

1 

< 

< 

» 

>r 

2 

<9 

5 

*0 

ODD 

rf 

3 

A 

^ 

A 

t 

4 

^ 

^ 

a  D 

O   C1  d  4    >  *<  r" 

5 

3 

5j 

AA 

L  U  U 

6 

Y 

AA 

L  9D    LQ  11  f  ? 

7 

I 

1C 

C  P  f   £ 

/^ 

8 

B 

N 

*m 

L  L 

9 

0 

^ 

0 

OC 

10 

f 

^ 

*d1 

JLi  J/ 

11 

y 

y 

t  _f_ 

12 

J 

^T 

^ 

JA 

b 

13 

"1 

tX 

*t> 

^  ^ 

*o  . 

14 

9 

3 

*'\ 

± 

"h  I 

IS 

^ 

$ 

'^ 

•  ^ 

± 

if  1-i  J»b 

16 

o 

0 

0 

DQ<0^{ 

•:  :•  /.tff  :: 

17 

j? 

P 

^ 

L 

b 

18 

h- 

f^ 

*b 

d  d  4 

cb  d> 

19 

9 

9 

2  1 

20 

^ 

<1 

s;vn 

21 

w 

w 

V^ 

A^  X\/Js 

22 

t 

X 

£/ 

AAA 

Plate  II. 


Comparative  Table 

of 

the  Perso- Aramaic  and  the  Kharosthi. 

Kharosthl 


Inscrip-                                Borrowed 
tions             PaP?n            Letters           Derivatives 

I 

II 

in 

IV 

1 

f    H 

^ 

7 

<n  71 

2 

J# 

2?J 

7 

%  x 

3 

A 

^ 

f 

^ 

4 

>  H 

*i>v 

5  ^ 

7  ^  7 

5 

1\  "A 

JH\ 

1  \ 

6 

7 

7)7 

~] 

7 

fc  ^ 

w 

!t  T( 

y 

8 

v^rl 

Krw 

n 

9 

a-    ^ 

A4>S 

A 

10 

7  ? 

w 

7 

11 

at 

u« 

7 

12 

^ 

^ 

*-»  V  ^ 

±L 

13 

;; 

^ij 

5  T 

P  V   V 

14 

*i 

t^^ 

*7 

15 

j 

?1^ 

r  ^ 

?i 

16 

» 

^ 

T 

f 

17 

"bV, 

/>>> 

<^ 

18 

i-T 

y» 

"7 

19 

1^ 

^^ 

T 

20 

A/ 

/y» 

•7 

t  f-=n 

Plate  III. 


Comparative  Table 

of 

Egyptian  Indian  Numerals. 


Hieratic 

Demotic 

%*t* 

£~~ 

l^3§ 
<jj  W  « 

"S 

CO 

Naraghat 
inscriptioi 
2nd  cent.  B. 

Jill 

Wl 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

v 

1 

J 

1 

• 

— 

2 

*i 

"I 

: 

II 

3 

K\ 

Uj 

J5 

4 

yiin 

+ 

f  t 

1 

i 

h    'i 

t 

^ 

^  *  <r 

*f 

1  t\ 

"^^j 

1 

1 

**>*=> 

-2- 

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Verlagskatalog  von  Karl  J.  Triibner  in  Strassburg. 
IV.  (fcrientattfrfje  f  6itoto0te. 

Andreas,  F.  K.,  Iranische  Schriftkuncle  siche:  Grundriss  der  iranischen 
rhilologie. 

Bacher,  Dr.  Wilh.  (Professor  an  der  Landes-Rabbinerschule  zu  Budapest)* 
Die  Agada  der  Babylonischen  Amoraer.  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Geschichte 
der  Agada  und  zur  Einleitung  in  den  Babylonischen  Talmud,  gr.  8°. 
XVI,  151  S.  1878.  ^/4  4  

Fur  Alle,  welche  sich  mit  der  Litteratur-  und  Culturgeschichte  der  Juden  vom  Beginn 
des  dritten  nachchristliohen  Jahrhunderts  bis  zum  Ende  des  Alterthums  bcschaftieen 
wollen,  ist  Bachers  Sc-hrift  ein  unentbchrliches  Hulfsmittel.  Theolog.  Litteraturztg.  1879  3. 

Man  vergleiche  auch  die  Rezension  im  Literarischen  Centralblatt  1879,  Nr.  15. 

—  —  ®te  2lgaba  bet  Xannaiten. 

I.  SBanb:  35on  -£riCel  bi§  5lfi6a.    SSon  30  tor  fct§  135  ttacfi  b   g.  3     8° 

457  @.     1884.  (ji  s  — )  Sergriffen. 

II.  SBonb:   Son   TOa§  £ob  Bt3  3"m  5lbf^IuB  bet  SWif^no.     (135  bi§ 

220  nati)  ber  getoSljttl.  ^eitredjn.)  8°.  VIII,  578  ©.  1889.    Ji  10  — 
S)te  2Igaba  bet  potafttnenfifc^en  3lmotaet. 

I.  SBanb:  Sont  3l6jc^tu§  bet  3Jlifdjna  Bi3  sum  lobe  Sorfjartani.    (220  6i8 

279  narf)  bet  geto.  ^eittet^nitng.)  8°.  XVI,  587  ©.  1892.    Jt,  10  — 

II.  33anb:  £ie  ©^iilet  ^oii)anan§.  gt.  8°.  VI,  545  @.  1896.       UZ  10  — 
Abraham  Ibn  Esra  als  Grammatiker.    Ein  Beitrag  zur  Geschichte 

der  Hebraischen  Sprachwissenschaft.     8°.     192  S.     1882.  Jl.  4  

Die  Bibelexegese  der  jiidischen  Religionsphilosophen   des 

Mittelalters  vor  Maimuni.     gr.  8°.     VIII,  156  S.     1892.          M  4  — 
Varianten  zu  Abraham  Ibn  Esra's  Pentateuch-Commentar  aus  dem 

Cod.  Cambridge.  Nr.  46.    8°.    IV,  108  S.    1894.    (In  hebr.  Sprache).     M.  3  - 

DieBibelexegeseMosesMaimuni's.  8°.  XVI,176S.  1897.    M.  4  — 

—  siehe  auch :  Sa'di's  Aphorismen. 
Baines,  A.,  Indian  Ethnography  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie 

und  Altertumskunde  II.  Band,  5.  Heft.)  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

Bartholomae,  Chr.,  Altiranisches  Worterbuch.  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

Vorgeschichte  der  iranischen  Sprachen.  —  Awestasprache  und  Altpersisch. 

Siehe :  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 
Benfey,  Theodor,  Vedica  und  Verwandtes.  kl.  8°.  177  S.  1877.    Jt  6  — 

Inhalt:  I.  ri  bezeichnet  in  den  Veden  sowol  den  kurzen  als  langen  Vokal.  II.  Rig- 
veda  X.  170,  =  Atharvaveda  XVIII.  1,8.  III.  Nediyams  nedishtha.  IV.  1st  Rigveda  VII. 
44,3  ma^ccator  oder  ma^gcator  in  der  Samhita  zu  lesen?  V.  Ist  Rigveda  III.  53,19 
spandane  oder  syandane,  Rigveda  IV.  3,20  aspandamano  oder  asyandamano  zu  lesen? 
VI.  Wie  kam  der  Verfasser  der  Isten  Varttica  zu  Panini  VII.  3,87  dazu,  eine  Wurzel 
spa<;  mit  langem  a  anzunehmen?  VII.  <;vanin  oder  cjvani'.  VIII.  jajhjhhatis  Rigveda. 
V.  52,6.  IX.  Ze'j;  TcX^wv.  X.  Karbara  oder  Karvara  gefleckt,  scheckig.  Indoger- 
manische  Bezeichnung  der  dem  Beherrscher  der  Todten  gehorigen  Hunde.  IX.  Wahrung 
meines  Rechtes  (betreffend  die  Entdeckung  der  urspriinglichen  Stelle  des  Accents  im 
Indogermanischen).  Index. 


Prof.  Th.  Benfey  has  just  published,  under  the  title  Vedica  und  Verwandtes  a  series 
}f  a  number  of  very  nice  and  subtle  question 

t  terms  in  the  Vedas   and  exhibiting  fully  the  av 
learning  and  critical  acumen.  Academy  No.  267,  Juni  16,  1877. 


of  papers  mainly  of  a  number  of  very  nice  and  subtle  questions  of  verbal  criticism  and 
explanation  of  different  terms  in  the  Vedas   and   exhibiting  fully  the  authors  profound 


Vedica  u.  Linguistica.    kl.  8°.    278  S.    1880.  (Ji  10  50) 

(In  den  Verlag  von  Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  &  Co.  in  London  ubergegangen.) 

Bhandarkar,  R.  G.,  The  Path  of  Devotion  or  Bhaktimarga,  the 
Vaisnava,  Saiva,  Sakta  and  Saura  Sects.  (Grundriss  der  indo- 
arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  III.  Band,  6.  Heft). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 


16  VERLAGSKATALOG  von  KARL  J.  TRUBNER  in  Strassburg. 

Bloomfield,  M.,  Vedic  Literature  (Sruti) :  Atharvaveda  (Grundriss  der 
indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumsknnde  II.  Band,  Heft  Ib). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 

Brockelmann,  Carl,  Das  Verhaltniss  von  Ibn-El-Atirs  Kamil  Fit- 
Ta'rihzuTabarisAhbarErrusulWalmuluk.  (Diss.)  8°.  58  S.  1890. 

Jt  1  80 

Das  Buch  von  der  Erkenntniss  der  Wahrheit  oder  der  Ursache  aller 
Ursachen.  Aus  dem  syrischen  Grundtext  ins  Deutsche  iibersetzt  von 
Karl  Kayser,  Licentiat  der  Theologie  und  Pastor.  8°.  XXIII,  367  S. 
1893.  (Nur  in  200  Exemplaren  gedruckt.)  Jl.  15  — 

Biihler,  Georg,  Indische  Palaographie  von  circa  350  a.  Chr.  —  circa 
1300  p.  Chr.  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde 
I.  Band  11.  Heft).  Lex.  8°.  IV,  96  S.  mit  17  lithogr.  Tafeln  in  besonderer 
Mappe.  1896.  JK  18  50 


s  jetzt  nicht  zusammenhangend  bearbeitet 


-  The  Sources  of  Indian  History :  Literature  and  Inscriptions 
(Grundriss   der   indo-arischen  Philologie   und   Altertumskunde   II.   Band, 
3.  Heft  a).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

-  Political  History  of  India  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  Mahom- 
medan   conquest   with   a   chapter    on   chronology    (Grundriss    der   indo- 
arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  II.  Band,  9.  Heft). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 

—  Indian  Studies,  No.  III.  On  the  Origin  of  the  Indian  Brahma 
Alphabet.  Second  Edition,  revised.     Together  with  two  Appendices  on 
the  Origin  of  the  Kharosthi  Alphabet  and  of  the  so-called  Letter-Nume- 
rals of  the  Brahmi.     With  three  plates.     Gr.  8°.     XIII,  124  S.    1898. 

< und  M.  A.  Stein,  Indische  Geographic  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen 

Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  II.  Band,  4.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

J.  Jolly  and  Sir  R.  West,  Sociology,  clans,  castes,  consti- 
tution of  villages  and  towns,  forms  of  government  and  ad- 
ministration. —  Economics,  tenures,  commerce  and  banking, 
handicrafts  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde 
II.  Band,  6.  und  7.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

Burgess,  J.,  Architecture,  Sculpture  and  Painting  in  India  (Grund- 
riss der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  III.  Band,  11.  Heft). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 

Cappeller,  Carl  (Professor  des  Sanskrit  an  der  Universitat  Jena),  Sanskrit- 
Worterbuch,  nach  den  Petersburger  Worterbiichern  bearbeitet.  Lex.-8°. 
VIII,  541  S.  1887.  Broschirt  JL  15  — ,  in  Halbfranz  geb.  Jk  17  — 

(Ankiindigung  siehe:  III.  Indogerm.  Sprachwissenschaft.) 

—  A  Sanskrit-English  Dictionary.     Based  upon  the  St.  Petersburg 
Lexicons.    Lex.  8°.    VIII,  672  S.    1891.      Geb.  in  engl.  Leinwand  Ji.  21  — 

Den  ausschliesslk-hen  Vertrieb  fur  England  und  die  Kolonien  haben :  Luzac  &  Co. 
in  London,  fur  die  Vereinigten  Staaten :  Ginn  &  Co.  in  Boston  ubcrnommen. 
—  siehe  auch:  Pracandapandava  und  Vamanas  Stilregeln. 
Catalog  der  Universitats-  und  Landesbibliothek  in  Strassburg  s.  Katalog. 
Clementina,  herausgegeben  von  Paul  de  Lagarde.     8°.    200  S.     1865. 

(Ji.  8  — )  Vergriffen. 
(Aus  dem  Verlag  von  B.  G.  Teubner  in  Leipzig  in  den  meinigen  iibergegangen.) 


IV.  Orientalische  Philologie.  17 


Clementis  Roman!  Recognitiones  Syriace.  Edidit  Paulus  Antonius 
de  Lagarde.  Lex.-8°.  pp.  VIII,  167.  1861.  (Ji  20  —  )  Jt  14  — 

(Aus  dem  Verlag  von  B.  G.  Teubner  in  Leipzig  in  den  meinigen  iibergegangen.) 

Ehni,  J.,  Der  vedische  Mythus  des  Yama,  verglichen  mit  den  analogen 
Typen  der  persischen,  griechischen  und  germanischen  Mythologie.  8°. 
VI,  216  S.  1890.  JL  5  _ 

Ethe,  C.  H.,  Neupersische  Litteratur  siehe:  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 

Euting,   Julius,    Sechs    phonikische   Inschriften    aus    Idalion.     4° 

17  S.  mit  3  Taf.     1875.  Jt  4  _ 

Abgesehen  von  der  Bereicherung,  welche  der  phonizische  Sprachschatz  durch  die 
Kntzifi'erung  dieser  Inschriften  erfahrt,  wird  durch  dieselben  die  Geschichte  Cyperns  im 
2.  und  3.  Jahrhundert  y.  Ghr.  wesentlich  erhellt.  Die  darunter  befindliche  bilinguis  (in 
cyprischer  und  phonizischer  Sprache)  durfte  in  ihrer  ersten  genauen  Darstellung  der 
cyprischen  Schriftzeichen  auch  fur  klassische  Philologen  Interesse  darbieten. 
—  Erlauterung  einer  zweiten  Opferverordnung  aus  Carthago. 
Herrn  Prof.  Dr.  H  .J.  Fleischer  zur  Feier  seines  fiinfzigjahrigen  Doctor- 
jubilaums  als  Gruss  dargebracht.  8°.  10  S.  Mit  1  Tafel.  1874.  UK  1  60 


Durch  dieses  Bruchstiick  erfahrt  unsere  Kenntnis  des  phonizischen  Cultus  und  Sprach- 
schatzes  manche  schatzbare  Erweiterung.  Literar.  Centralblatt. 

--  Sammlung  der  Carthagischen  Inschriften,  herausgegeben  mit 
Unterstiitzung  der  k.  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften  zu  Berlin.  Band  I. 
Tafeln  1—202  und  Anhang,  Tafel  1—6.  In  4°.  1883.  Jt  60  — 

—  —  siehe  auch:  Katalog  und  Qolasta;  ferner  XI.  Alsatica,  XV.  Vermischtes. 
Evangelien,  Die  vier,  arabisch  aus  der  Wiener  Handschrift  herausgeg.  von 

Paul  de  Lagarde.     8°.     XXXII,  143  S.     1864.  (UK  5  —  )  ^  3  50 

(Aus  dem  Verlag  von  B.  G.  Teubner  in  Leipzig  in  den  meinigen  iibergegangen.) 
Pranke,  0.,  Grammatik   des   klassischen  Sanskrit  der  Grammatiker, 
der  Litteratur  und  der  Inschriften,  sowie  der  Mischdialekte  (epischer  und 
nordbuddhistischer).  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertums- 
kunde  I.  Band,  5.  Heft.)  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

—  Paligrammatiker,  Paligrammatik  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen 
Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  I.  Band,  7.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

Fiirst,  Julius  (Rabbiner),  Glossarium  graeco-hebraeum  oder  der 
griechische  Worterschatz  der  jiidischen  Midraschwerke.  Ein  Beitrag  zur 
Kultur-  und  Altertumskunde.  8°.  216  S.  1891.  Ji  7  — 

Garbe,  Richard,  Samkhya  und  Yoga  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philo- 
logie III.  Band,  4.  Heft).  Lex.  8°.  54  S.  1896.  MB  — 

«Wir  spenden  der  in  sehr  praciser  Form  alles  Wissenswerthe  bietenden  Schrift  in 
ihren  beiden  Theilen  die  verdiente  Anerkennung.»     Literar.  Centralblatt  1896.    Nr.  51. 

—  —   siehe  auch  :  Vaitana  Sutra. 

Geiger,  Wilhelm,  Grammatik  und  Litteratur  des  Singhalesischen 
(Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  I.  Band,  10.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

—  —   Afganisch.   —  Baluci.   —   Geographic   von  Iran.     Siehe:   Grundriss    der 
iranischen  Philologie. 

Geldner,  Carl  F.,  Studien  zum  Avesta.     1.  Heft.    8°.    IX,  181  S.     1882. 

(Nicht  mehr  erschienen.)  «*  5 

--  Vedische  Litteratur  (Sruti):  Die  drei  Ve  den  (Grundriss  der  indo- 

arischen  Philologie  II.  Band,  1.  Heft  a).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

_   _  Awestalitteratur  siehe:  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 
Goldschmidt,  Prof.  Siegfr.,  Prakrtica.     8°.     32  S.     1879.  Ji  1  — 

—  —   siehe  auch  :  Eavanavaha. 

Grierson,  G.  A.,  The  Aryan  Vernaculars  of  Modern  India  and  their 
Literature  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde 
I.  Band,  9.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 


n      er    enzenen      etrage    entste,      aurc      zu    vermeen,      ass      ie    einzelnen 

hnitte  gleich  nach  ihrer  Ablieferung  einzeln  gedruckt  und  ausgegeben  werden.  Durch 

gemeinsamen  Titel   und   ein    ausfuhrliches  Namen-  und  Sachregister   am  Schluss 

Bandes  werden  die  einzelnen  Hefte  zu  einem  gemeinschaftlichen  Ganzen  zusammen- 


18  VERLAGSKATALOG  von  KARL  J.  TRUBNER  in  Strassburg. 

Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde,  unter  Mit- 
wirkung  von  A.  Baines-London,  It.  G.  Bhandarkar-Puna,  M.  Bloomfield- 
Baltimore,  J.  Bwr^ess-Edinburgh,  0.  Franke-Konigsherg,  It.  (?«rie-Tiibingen, 
W.  GW^er-Erlangen,  K.  Geldner-Berlin,  G.  A.  Gnerson-Calcutta,,  A.  Hille- 
brandt-  Breslau  ,  H.  Jacobi-Ronn,  J.  Jo/Zy-Wurzburg,  H.  Kern-Leiden, 
E.  .Kw/m-Munchen,  C.  It.  Lanman-Cambridge  (Mass.),  E.  Z/eMwan«-Strass- 
burg,  B.  Liebich-Breslau,  A.  Macdonell-Oxtord,  B.  Meringer-Vfien,  R.  Pischel- 
Halle,  E.  J.  Rapson-London,  J.  S.  <S>pe«/er-Groningen,  M.  A.  Stein-Lahore, 
G.  Tftibaut-Mlahahad.  A.  Venis-Benares,  Sir  R.  West-London,  M.  Winter- 
wj'te-Oxford,  Th.  Zctchariae-Halle.  Herausgegeben  von  Georg  Buhler. 

In  diesem  Werk  soil  zum  ersten  Mai  der  Versuch  gemacht  werden,  einen  Gesamt- 
iiberblick  iiber  die  einzelnen  Gebiete  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  in 
knapper  und  systematischer  Uarstellung  zu  geben.  Die  Mehrzahl  der  Gegenstande  wird 
damit  iiberhaupt  zum  ersten  Mai  eine  zusammenhangende  abgerundete  Behandlung  er- 
fahren;  deshalb  darf  von  dem  Werk  reicher  Gewinn  fur  die  Wissenschaft  selbst  erhofft 
werden,  trotzdem  es  in  erster  Linie  fur  Lernende  bestimmt  ist. 

Gegen  dreissig  Gelehrte  aus  Deutschland,  Oesterreich,  England,  Holland,  Indien  und 
Amerika  haben  sich  mit  Hofrat  G.  Buhler  in  Wien  vereinigt,  um  diese  Aufgabe  zu 
losen,  wobei  ein  Teil  der  Mitarbeiter  ihre  Beitrage  deutsch,  die  ilbrigen  sie  englisch 
abfassen  werden.  (Siehe  nachfolgenden  Plan.) 

Besteht  schon  in  der  raumlichen  Entfernung  vieler  Mitarbeiter  eine  grossere  Schwierig- 
keit  als  bei  anderen  ahnlichen  Unternehmungen,  so  schien  es  auch  geboten,  die  Unzu- 
traglichkeit  der  meisten  Sammelwerke,  welche  durch  den  unberechenbaren  Ablieferungs- 
termin  der  einzelnen  Beitrage  entsteht,  dadurch  zu  vermeiden,  dass  die  einzelne 
Abschnitte  gleich  nach  ihrer  Ablieferun 
einen 
jedes 
gefasst. 

Das  Werk  wird  aus  drei  Banden  Lex.  8°  im  ungefiihren  Umfang  von  je  1100  Seiten 
bestehen.  Der  Subskriptionspreis  des  ganzen  Werkes  betragt  durchschnittlich  65  Pf.  pro 
Druckbogen  von  16  Seiten;  der  Preis  der  einzelnen  Hefte  durchschnittlich  80  Pf.  pro 
Druckbogen.  Auch  fur  die  Tafeln  und  Karten  wird  den  Subskribenten  eine  durchschnitt- 
liche  Ermassigung  von  20%  auf  den  Einzelpreis  zugesichert.  Ueber  die  Einteilung  des 
Werkes  giebt  der  nachstehende  Plan  Auskunft. 

Plan  des  Werkes: 

NB.  Die  mit  *  bezeichneten  Hefte  sind  bereits  erschienen. 
Band  I.     Allgemeines  und  Sprache. 

1.  Geschichte  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  von 
Ernst  Kuhn. 

2.  Vorgeschichte  der  indo-arischen  Sprachen  von  R.  Meringer. 

3.  «)  Die  indischen  Systeme  der  Grammatik,  Phonetik  und  Etymologic 

von  B.  Liebich. 

*  b]  Die  indischen  Worterbiicher  (Kosa)  von  Th.  ZctcMriae.  Subskr.- 
Preis  Ji  2.  —  ,  Einzelpreis  Ji.  2.50. 

4.  Grammatik  der  vedischen  Dialekte  von  C.  R.  Lanman  (englisch). 

5.  Grammatik  des  klassischen  Sanskrit  der  Grammatiker,  der  Litte- 
ratur  und  der  Inschriften,  sowie  der  Mischdialekte  (epischer  und 
nordbuddhistischer)  von  0.  Franke. 

*6.  Vedische    und   Sanskrit-Syntax  von   J".  S.  Speyer.     Subskr.-Preis 
Jl>.  4.  —  ,  Einzelpreis  Ji.  5.  —  . 

7.  Paligrammatiker,  Paligrammatik  von  0.  Franke. 

8.  Prakritgrammatiker,  Prakritgrammatik  von  R.  Pischel. 

9.  Grammatik  und  Litteratur  des  tertiaren  Prakrits  von  Indien  von 
G.  A.  Grierson  (englisch). 

10.  Grammatik  und  Litteratur  des  Singhalesischen  von  Wilh.  Geiger. 
*11.  Indische  Palaeographie   (mit  17  Tafeln)  von  G.  Buhler.     Subskr.- 
Preis  Jl.  15.—,  Einzelpreis  Ji  18.50. 

Band  II.     Litteratur  und  Geschichte. 
1.  Vedische  Litteratur  (Sruti). 

a)  Die'  drei  Veden  von  K.  Geldner. 

b)  Atharvaveda  von  M.  Bloomfield  (englisch). 


IV.  Orientalische  Philologie.  19 


Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  etc.  (Fortsetzung). 

2.  o)  Epische  Litteratur  von  H.  Jacobi. 

b)  Klassische  Litteratur  (einschliesslich  der  Poetik  und  der  Metrik) 
von  H.  Jacobi. 

3.  Quellen  der  indischen  Geschichte. 

«)  Litterarische  Werke  und  Inschriften  von  G.  Buhler  (englisch). 
*b)  Indian   Coins   (with   five  plates)   by  E.  J.  Rapson  (englisch). 
Subskr.-Preis  Jz  5.  —  ,  Einzelpreis  UK  6.  —  . 

4.  Geographic  von  G.  Buhler  und  M.  A.  Stein. 

5.  Ethnographie  von  A.  Baines  (englisch). 


™nG.Buhler,J.  Jolly  unA  Sir  R.  West  (englisch). 


*8.  Recht  und  Sitte  (einschliesslich  der  einheimischen  Litteratur)  von 

J.  Jolly.     Subskr.-Preis  Jt  6.50,  Einzelpreis  Jt  &.—. 
9.  Politische  Geschichte  bis  zur  muhammedanischen  Eroberung  von 

G.  Buhler  (englisch). 
Band  III.     Religion,  weltliche  Wissenschaften  und  Kunst. 

1.  *o)  Vedic   Mythology  by  A.   A.   Macdonell  (engl).      Subskr.-Preis 

Ji  7.50,  Einzelpreis  Ji  9.—. 
b)  Epische  Mythologie  von  M.  Winternitz. 
*2.  Ritual-Litteratur,  Vedische  Opfer  und  Zauber  von  A.  Hilhbrandt. 

Subskr.-Preis  Ji8.—,  Einzelpreis  ^59.50. 
3.  Vedanta  und  Mimamsa  von  G.  Thibaut. 

*4.  Samkhya  und  Yoga  von  R.  Garbe.    Subskr.-Preis  Ji.  2.50,  Einzel- 
preis UK  3.—. 

5.  Nyaya  und  Vaisesika  von  A.  Venis  (englisch). 

6.  Vaisnavas,  Saivas,  Sauras,  Ganapatas,  Skandas,  Saktas  von  R.  G. 
Bhandarkar  (englisch). 

7.  Jaina  von  E.  Leuinann. 

*8.  Manual  of  Indian  Buddhism  by  H.  Kern  (englisch).  Subskr.-Preis 

JL  5  50,  Einzelpreis  Ji  7.—. 
9.  Astronomic,  Astrologie  und  Mathematik  von  G.  Thibaut. 

10.  Medizin  von  J.  Jolly. 

11.  Bildende  Kunst  (mil  Illustrationen)  von  J.  Burgess  (englisch). 

12.  Musik. 

Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie,  unter  Mitwirkung  von  F.  K.  Andreas, 
Chr.  Bartliolomae,  C.  H.  EtU,  K.  F.  Geldner,  P.  Horn,  H.  Hiibschmann, 
A  V.  W  Jackson,  F.  Justi,  Th.  NSldeke,  C.  Salemann,  A.  Scan, 
F.  H.  Weissbach,  E.  W.  West  und  V.  Zukovskij  herausgegeben  von 
Wilh.  Geiger  und  Ernst  Kuhn. 


Der  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie   wird   in  Lieferungen  von  ^'ch^«< 

^^^^^ 


Plan  des  Werkes: 

1  BanEinleitung.     Geschichte     der    iranischen    Philologie   Prof. 
Dr.  E.  Kuhn. 


of-D,  fir. 

\2.  Awestasprache  und  Altpersisch  Prof.  Dr.  Chr. 
(3.  Mittelpersisch  Akademiker  Dr.  C.  Salemann. 

4   Neupersische  Schriftsprache  Pnvatdozent  Dr.  P.  Horn. 

5.  Die  iibrigen  modernen  Sprachen  und  Dialekte. 


A.  Afyanisch  /  Prof  Dr    w   Geiger. 

B.  Baluci        \ 

C.  Kurdisch  Prof.  Dr.  A.  Soctn. 


20  VERLAGSKATALOG  von  KARL  J.  TRUBNER  in  Strassburg. 

Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie  (Fortsetzung). 

D.  Ossetisch  Prof.  Dr.  H.  Hiibschmann. 

P.'  E™Gilaki  etc.  |    "*»*«  *• 
G.  Dialekte  in  Persien  Prof.  V.  ZukovsMj. 
II.  Band. 

Abschnitt  II.     Litteratur.    • 

1.  Awestalitteratur  Prof.  Dr.  C.  F.  Geldner. 

2.  Die  altpersischen  Inschriften  Dr.  F.  H.  Welssbach. 

3.  Die  Pahlavilitteratur  Dr.  E.  W.  West. 

4.  Das  iran.  Nationalepos  Prof.  Dr.  Th.  Noldeke. 

5.  Neupersische  Litteratur  Prof.  Dr.  C.  H.  Etht. 
Abschnitt  III.     Geschichte  und  Kultur. 

1.  Geographie  von  Iran  Prof.  Dr.  W.  Geiger. 

2.  Geschichte  Irans  von  den  altesten  Zeiten  bis   zum  Ausgang 
der  Sasaniden  Prof.  Dr.  F.  Justi. 

3.  Geschichte  Irans  in  islamitischer  Zeit  Privatdozent  Dr.  P.  Horn. 

4.  Die  iranische  Religion  Prof.  Dr.  A.  V.   W.  Jackson. 

5.  Mlinzen,  Gemmen  Privatdozent  Dr.  P.  Horn. 

6.  Schriftkunde  Dr.  F.  K.  Andreas. 

Bis  jetzt  erschienen:  I.  Band.    1.  Lieferung  Jl  8  — ,  2.  Lieferung  Ji  4  50 
II.      „       1.,  2.  und  3.  Lieferung  a  Jt.  8  — 

Hillebrandt,  Alfred,  [Indische]  Ritual-Litteratur.  Vedische  Opfer  und 
Zauber  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  III.  Band,  2.  Heft). 
Lex.-8°.  189  S.  1897.  Jt  9  50 

Holtzmann,   Adolf,   Agni  nach  den  Vorstellungen  des  Mahabharata.    8°. 

36  S.     1878.  Jt,.  1  — 

Arjuna.      Ein    Beitrag    zur    Reconstruction    des    Mahabharata.      8°. 

69  S.     1879.  Ji  1  60 

,  £>ie  2)en?toiirbigfeitcn  <Sd)afj   2atna^'§   be§   6rften  bon 
(1515—1570).     3lu§  bem  Driginaltej:t  sum  erften  2Me  iiberje^t  unt> 
ntit  (Sttautetungen  berfe^en.    It.  8°.     156  @.    1891.  Jk  3  — 

Grundriss    der    neupersischen    Etymologic    (Sammlung    indo- 

germanischer  Worterbiicher,  IV.  Band).  8°.  XXV.  384  S.  1893.    Jt  15  — 
Geschichte  der  neupersischen  Schriftsprache.  —  Geschichte  Irans  in  isla- 
mitischer Zeit.  —  Miinzen,  Gemmen  von  Iran.   Siehe :  Grundriss  der  iranischen 
Philologie. 

Hiibschmann,  H.,  Persische  Studien.    8°.    288  S.     1895.  Jl  10  — 

Jnhalt:  1.  Beitrage  zu  Horn's  Grundriss  der  neupersischen  Etymologic. 
2.  Neupersische  Lautlehre. 

—  —  Etymologie  und  Lautlehre  der  ossetischen  Sprache.   (Samm- 
lung indogerm.  Worterbiicher,  I.  Band.)  8°.  VIII,  151  S.  1887.       Jt  4  — 

—  —   Die  ossetischc  Sprache  siehe:  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 

—  —   Das  indogerman.  Vocalsystem  siehe:   III.  Indogerm.  Sprachwissenschaft. 
Huth,  Dr.  Georg  (Privatdozent  an  der  Universitat  Berlin),  Die  tibetische 

Version  der  Naihsargikaprayac.  cittikadharmas.  Buddhistische 
Suhnregeln  aus  dem  Pratimokshasutram.  Mit  kritischen  Anmerkungen 
herausgegeben,  iibersetzt  und  mit  der  Pali-  und  einer  chinesischen  Fassung, 
sowie  mit  dem  Suttavibhanga  verglichen.  (Diss.)  8°.  51  S.  1891.  Jt  2  — 

Geschichte  des  Buddhismus  in  der  Mongolei.    Aus  dem  Tibe- 

tischen  des  Jigs-med  nam-mk'a,  herausgegeben,  iibersetzt  und  erlautert. 

I.  Teil:  Vorrede,   Text,   kritische   Anmerkungen.     gr.  8°.     X,  296  S. 

1892.  Jt  20  — 

II.  Teil:  Uebersetzung.     Nachtrage  zum  ersten  Teil.     gr.  8°.     XXXII, 

456  S.     1896.  Ji  30  — 


IV.  Orientalische  Philologie.  21 


Jackson,  A.  V.  W.,    Die   iranische   Religion   siehe:   Grundriss    der  iranischen. 

Philologie. 

Jacobi,  H.,  Epische  Litteratur  Indiens.  —  Klassische  Litteratur 
Indiens  einschliesslich  der  Poetik  und  der  Metrik  (Grundriss  der  indo- 
arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  II.  Band,  2.  Heft  a  und  b). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 

Jensen,  P.,  Die  Kosmologie  der  Babylonier.  Studien  und  Materialien. 
Mit  einem  mythologischen  Anhang  und  drei  Karten.  gr.  8°.  XVI,  546  S. 
1890.  Ji  40  — 

.  .  .  Jensen  hat  in  ausgezeichneter  Weise  nicht  nur  das  gesamte  Material  verwertet, 
er  hat  sich  auch,  ehe  er  an  seine  Arbeit  ging,  eingehend  unter  der  Leitung  eines  tttch- 
tigen  Astronomen  mit  den  betreffenden  astronomischen  Fragen  bekannt  gemacht.  Der 
Lohn  seiner  muhevollen  Arbeit  waren  nicht  unerhebliche  Resultate,  welche  meist  durch 
Epping's  und  Strassmaier's  «Astronomisches  aus  Babylon*  ihre  Bestatigung  gefundea 
haben.  Von  allgemeinem  Interesse  ist  besonders  der  Nachweis,  dass  der  grossere  TeiF 
der  Tierkreisbilder,  ja  wahrscheinlich  alle,  aus  Babylonien  stammt.  .  .  Hochst  dankens- 
wert  sind  die  Abschnitte  der  «Weltsch6pfung  und  Weltbildung*  und  iiber  die  «Sintflut» 
.  .  .  Aber  mit  dem  Hinweis  auf  den  religionsgeschichtlichen  Ertrag  der  Arbeit,  der  hier 
nur  angedeutet  werden  konnte.  ist  ihre  Bedeutung  nicht  erschopft,  nicht  geringer  ist  ihr 
Wert  fur  die  philologische  Forschung.  Jensen  beherrscht  in  ausgezeichneter  Weise  das 
Material,  und  bei  seiner  tuchtigen  philologischen  Schulung,  seinem  Scharfsinn  und  seiner 
hervorragenden  Kombinationsgabe  war  es  nicht  anders  zu  erwarten,  als  dass  er  unsere 
Erkenntnis  um  ein  gutes  Stuck  fordern  wiirde ;  man  mag  im  Einzelnen  da  und  dort 
anderer  Meinung  sein,  im  Grossen  und  Ganzen  ist  diese  Arbeit  unbestreitbar  eine  ttich- 
tige  Leistung,  die  kein  Historiker  oder  semitischer  Philologe  ohne  Nutzen  aus  der  Hand 
legen  wird.  Die  dem  Buche  beigegebenen  Karten:  Lauf  der  Venus,  der  babyloniscb.fr 
Tierkreis  und  die  Welt  nach  babylonischer  Vorstellung  fordern  wesentlich  das  Ver- 
standnis.  Die  Ausstattung  des  Werkes  ist  mustergiiltig. 

Literar.  Centralblatt  1890.    Nr.  15.    W.  N. 

Die  Verlagshandlung  erlaubt  sich  ferner  auf  die  ausfflhrlichen  Besprechungen  in  der 
Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie  V,  1  (Zimmern),  der  Theologischen  Literatur- 
zeitung  1890  Nr.  7  (Budde),  der  Revue  critique  1890  Nr.  25  (Halevy)  und  der  Bei- 
lage  zur  Allgemeinen  Zeitung  1890  Nr.  34  zu  verweisen. 

Hittiter  und  Armenier.    17  Bogen  mit  10  lithographischen  Tafeln 

und  einer  Karte.  <&  25  — 

Inhalt:  I.  Das  Volk  und  das  Land  der  Hatier.  —  II.  Die  Inschriften  der  Hatier. 
A)  Verzeichnis  der  Inschriften.  B)  Uebersetzungen  der  Halfte  des  inschriftlichen  Mate- 
rials mit  Commentar.  —  III.  Das  Schriftsystem  der  Hatier.  A)  Die  Sehriftzeiehen  und 
ihre  Verwendung.  B)  Das  Vorbild  der  hatischen  Schrift.  C)  Der  palaeo-armenische 
Ursprung  der  hatischen  Schrift.  —  IV.  Die  Sprache  der  Hatier  und  das  Armenische. 
A)  Grammatisches:  a)  zur  Formenlehre,  b)  zur  Syntax.  B)  Lexikalisches:  a)  Appellative, 
b)  Nomina  propria.  C)  Der  Lautbestand  der  hatischen  Sprache  im  Verhaltnis  zu  dem 
des  Indogermanischen  und  des  Armenischen.  —  V.  Zur  hatisch-armcnischen  Religion. 
A)  Hatische  Gotterzeichen.  B)  Hatische  Gotternamen.  C)  Hatische  Cotter.  D)  Einfluss 
des  syrischen  Cultus  auf  den  der  Hatier.  E)  Die  Religion  der  Hatier  und  die  der  Ar- 
menier. —  VI.  Zur  hatisch-armenischen  Geschichte. 

Jolly,  Julius,  Recht  und  Sitte  [in  Indien]  einschliesslich  der  einheimischen 
Litteratur  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde 
II.  Band,  8.  Heft).  Lex.-8°.  160  S.  1896.  ^  8  - 

«Der  Verfasser  bietet  uns  das  zu  einer  Uebersicht  uber  die  gesammte  indische  Rechts- 
und  Sittengeschichte  verarbeitete  reife  Ertriigniss  seiner  eigenen  wie  der  Mitforscher 
Untersuchungen  in  einer  bis  dahin  unerreichten  Vollstandigkeit.  Nach  Massgabc  von 
Jolly's  bisherigen  Beitragen  zur  Theorie  und  Geschichte  des  indischen  Rechts  durfte  man 
Bedeutendes  erwarten.  Dennoch  ist  man  uberrascht  zu  sehen,  mit  wie  grosser  Selb- 
standigkeit  und  Sicherheit  im  Urtheil  die  ganze  weitschichtige  Materie  .  .  .  zur  Darslellung 
gebracht  wird.»  Literar.  Centralblatt  1896.  Nr.  36. 

Meclizin   in    Indien   (Grundriss   der   indo-arischen   Philologie   und 

Altertumskunde  III.  Band,  10.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

-   siehe  auch :  Biihler,  Jolly  und  West. 
Justi,F.,  Geschichte  Irans  von  den  altesten  Zeiten  bis  zum  Ausgang  der  Sasa- 

niden.  Siehe:  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 
Katalog  der  kaiserlichen  Universitats-  und  Landesbibliothek  in  Strassburg 

Arabische  Literatur.     [Verfasst  von  Dr.  Julius  Eutmg.]    4°     VIII, 

111  S.     1877. 

Festschrift  zur  400jahr.  Jubelfeier  der  Eberhard-Karls-Universitat  zu  Tubingen. 


22  VERLAGSKATALOG  von  KARL  J.  TRUBNER  in  Strassburg. 

Katalog  der  kaiserlichen  Universitats-  und  Landesbibliothek  in  Strassburg. 
Orientalische  Handschr iften  Theil  I:  Hebraische,  arabische, 
persische  und  tiirkische  Handschriften,  bearbeitet  von  Dr.  S.  Landauer. 
4°.  IV,  75  S.  1881.  Jl.  b  — 

Kautzsch,  E.  und  A.  Socin,  Die  Aechtheit  der  moabitischen  Alter- 
th timer,  gepriift.  Mit  2  Tafeln.  8°.  VIII,  191  S.  1876.  Jl.  4  — 

Nach  dem  fast  einstimmigen  Urteil  aller  Kritiker  und  Sachverstandigen  (Noldeke^ 
Deutsche  Rundschau,  Miirz  1876 ;  S  p  r  e  n  g  e  r ,  Academy,  March  11,  1876 ;  Ch.  C  1  e  r  m  o  n  t  - 
Ganneau,  Revue  critique  11  mars  1875;  Jenaer  Literaturzeitung  Nr.  15,  1876  etc.  etc.) 
ist  es  den  beiden  Verfassern  gelungen,  den  Beweis  zu  liefern,  dass  die  in  Berlin  befind- 
lichen  moabitischen  Altertiimer  modern  e  False  hungen  sind.  Jedenfalls  bildet  das 
Buch  den  wichtigsten  aller  bisher  erschienenen  Beitrage  zur  Losung  dieser  Streitfrage 
und  besitzt  bleibenden  Wert  durch  die  darin  betindlichen  eingehenden  Untersuchungen 
iiber  alttestamentliche  Geschichte,  Religion  und  Archaologie. 

Kayser,  Karl,  siehe:  Buch  von  der  Erkenntniss  der  Wahrheit. 
Kern,  H.,   Manual   of  Indian   Buddhism   (Grundriss   der   indo-arischen 
Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  III.  Band.  8.  Heft).    Lex.  8°.    138  S.    1896. 

JL  7  - 


....  «Es  ist  Kern  gelungen,  seine  Aufgabe  mit  grossem  Geschick  zu  losen.  Den 
gerade  in  der  buddhistischen  Forschung  der  Neuzeit  sich  anmeldenden  schiidlichen  Folgen 
der  Isolierung  durch  eine  die  verschiedenen  Arbeiten  einander  naher  bringende  Thatigkeit 


entgegenzuwirken,  ist  ein  grosses  Verdienst  des  vorliegenden  Manual,  das  darum  im 
Rahmen  des  «Grundrisses.>  auch  so  angesehen  seine  voile  Existenzberechtigung  hat. 

Literar.  Centralblatt  1897.    Nr.  2. 

Kuhn,  Ernst,  Geschichte  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Alter- 
tumskunde (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde 
I.  Band,  1.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

—  Geschichte   der   iranischen    Philologie    siehe:    Grundriss    der    irauischen 
Philologie. 

Lagarde,  Paul  de,  Anmerkungen  zur  griechischen  Uebersetzung 
der  Proverbien.  8°.  VIII,  96  S.  1863.  (Jt  3  — )  Vergriffen. 

(Aus  dem  Verlag  von  B.  G.  Teubner  in  Leipzig  in  den  meinigen  iibergegangen.) 

—  siehe   auch :   Clementina.  —  dementis  Roman!  Recognitiones  Syriace.  — 
Evangelien,  die  vier.  —  Libri  Veteris  Testament}  Apocryphi  Syriace.  —  Ono- 
mastica   sacra.  —  Ferner  unter  VI.   Klass.   Philologie,  Neulatein:   Scaligeri 
Poemata.  —  Titus  Bostremis. 

Landauer,  Dr.  S.,  siehe:  Katalog  der  K. Univ.-  n.  Landesbibliothek  in  Strassburg: 

Orientalische  Handschriften. 
Lanman,  C.  R.,  The  Grammar   of   the   Vedic   Dialects  (Grundriss  der 

indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  I.  Band,  4.  Heft). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 

Leumann,  E.,  Jain  a  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Alter- 
tumskunde III.  Band,  7.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

tibersicht  iiber  die  Avashyaka-Literatur  mit  Excerpten  aus  der 

Silanka-Handschrift  und  einer  photographischen  Reproduktion  derselben 
sowie  mit  einer  Pratika-Liste  zum  Viseshavasyakabhashya.  Gross-Folio. 
Etwa  12  Bogen  Text  und  35  Tafeln  in  Lichtdruck.  (Unter  der  Presse.) 

Leumann,  E.  u.  J.,  Etymologisches  Sanskritworterbuch  (Sammlung 
indogermanischer  Worterbiicher,  V.  Band).  (Unter  der  Presse.) 

Libri  Veteris  Testament!  Apocryphi  Syriace,  e  recognitione  Pauli  Antonii 
de  Lagarde.  8°.  pp.  XXXIX,  272.  1861.  (JL  20  — ).  Jt  14  - 

Liebich,  B.,  Die  indischen  Systeme  der  Grammatik,  Phonetik  und 
Etymologic  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde 
I.  Band,  3.  Heft  a).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

Macdonell,  A.  A.,  Vedic  Mythology  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philo- 
logie und  Altertumskunde  III.  Band,  1.  Heft  a).  Lex.  8°.  177  S.  1897. 

Ji.  9  — 


IV.  Orientalische  Philologie 


Meringer,  R.,   Vorgeschichte   der   indo-arischen   Sprachen   (Grund- 
riss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  I.  Band,  2.  Heft). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 

Noldeke,  Theodor,  Das   iranische   Nationalepos.     Besonderer  Abdruck 
aus  dem  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie.    8°.    82  S.    1896.        Ji.  4  50 


Das  neue  vorliegende  Heft   des  iranischen  Grundrisses   (vgl.  lauf.  Jahrg.  Nr.  12.    S)>. 
ringt  zuniichst  den  Abschluss  der  meisterhaften  Studio  von  Noldeke  iiber  das 
Schahname.    Wer  es  beim  Les«n  des  ersten,   im  ersten  Hefte   des  zweiten  Bandes  ent- 


425  d.  Bl.)  br 


haltenen  Theiles  noch  nicht  gemerkt  hat,  der  wird  jetzt  zugeben  miissen.  dass  in  Zukunft 
eine  wissenschaftliche  Beschiiftigung  mit  der  epischen  Dichtung  im  Allgemeinen  oder 
mit  der  alteren  Epik  eines  Einzelvolkes  nicht  moglich  ist,  wenn  man  nicht  diese  Dar- 
stellung  des  iranischen  Nationalepos  grilndlich  durchgearbeitet  und  sich  zu  eigen  gemacht 
hat.  Sie  stellt  sich  wiirdig  neben  die  ebenfalls  tief  eindringenden  und  neue  Ziele  er- 
schlicssenden  Untersuchungen  Comparetti's  iiber  das  finnische  Nationalepos.  Schon  was 
Noldeke  selbst  an  Parallelen  aus  dem  altgriechischen,  altgermanischen  und  anderen 
volksthiimlichen  Epen  anfiihrt,  wird  jedem  classischen  und  germanischen  Philologen  sehr 
erwiinscht  und  anregend  sein.  Literar.  Centralblatt  1896,  Nr.  43. 

Onomastica  sacra  edidit  P.  de  Lagarde.  Zvvei  Theile  in  einem  Band.  1870. 
8°.  VIII,  304,  160  S.  (Ji.  15  — ).  (JI.  10  — )  Vergriffen. 

(Aus  dem  Verlag  von  B.  G.  Teubner  in  Leipzig  in  den  meinigen  ubergegangen.) 
Pfungst,  Dr.  Arthur,  Das  Sutta  Nipata  siehe:  Sutta  Nipata. 
Pischel,  R.,  Prakritgrammatiker,    Prakritgrammatik   (Grundriss   der 
indo-arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  I.  Band,  8.  Heft). 

(In  Vorbereitung.) 

Pracandapandava.  Ein  Drama  des  Rajacekhara.  Zum  ersten  Male 
herausgegeben  von  Carl  Cappeller.  8°.  50  S.  1885.  Ji  3  50 

Qolasta  oder  Gesange  und  Lehren  von  der  Taufe  und  dem  Aus- 
gang  der  Seele.  Mandaischer  Text  mit  sammtlichen  Varianten  nach 
Pariser  und  Londoner  Manuscripten ;  mit  Unterstiitzung  der  deutschen 
morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft  autographirt  und  herausgegeben  von 
Dr.  Jul.  Euting.  Stuttgart  1867.  gr.  Fol.  40  Bogen.  (Friiherer  Laden- 
preis  M.  100  — ,  ermiissigt  auf  Ji.  75  — .)  Vergriffen. 

Rapson,  E.  J.,  Indian  Coins.  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie  und 
Altertumskunde  II.  Band.  Heft  3  b.)  With  5  plates.  Lex.  8°.  52  S.  1898. 

JL  6  — 

Ravanavaha  oder  Se  tub  and  ha.  Prakrit  und  Deutsch  herausgegeben  von 
Siegfried  Goldschmidt.  Mit  einem  Wortindex  von  Paul  Gold- 
schmidt  und  dem  Herausgeber.  Erste  Lieferung.  Text  und  Wortindex 
enthaltend.  4°.  XXIV,  194  S.  1880.  —  Zweite  Lieferung:  Ubersetzung. 
4°.  136  S.  1884.  (<&  43  — ) 

Sabbag,  Miha/il,  Die  Brieftaube.  Schneller  als  der  Blitz,  fliichtiger  als 
die  Wolke.  Aus  dem  Arabischen.  Nebst  einem  Anhange :  Beitrage  zur 
Geschichte  der  Taubenpost.  8°.  55  S.  1879.  (UL  1  50)  Vergriffen. 

Grammatik  der  arabischen  Umgangssprache  in  Syrien  und 

Aegypten.  Nach  der  Miinchner  Handschrift  herausgegeben  von  H.  1  hor- 
becke.  8°.  X,  80  S.  1886.  •*  4 

Sa'di's,  Muslicheddin,  Aphorismen  undSinngedichte.  Zum  ersten  Male 
herausgegeben  und  iibersetzt  von  Dr.  W.  Bacher.  Mit  Beitragen  zur 
Biographic  Sa'di's.  Mit  Subvention  des  Autors  durch  die  Kaiserl.  Aka- 
demie  der  Wissenschaften  in  Wien.  8°.  LXXIV,  200  S.  1879.  Ut  6  - 
Der  Verfasser  bietet  im  vorstehenden  Werke  don  Freunden  porsischor  Literatur  zum 
ersten  Male  in  deutscher  fmetrischer)  Bearbeitung  die  Aphorismen  Sadis.  1J  Ueber- 
setzung  parallel  lauft  der  Urtext,  der,  sehen  wir  von  dor  Calcn  tacr  und  Caw  nporer  Aus- 
gabe  dor  (1,'Hiunn  (werko  .li.-s  Dichtcrs  ab,  jetzt  zum  ersten  Male  aus  cmor  ourop  Oft 
hervorgeht,  In  dor  voran^oschickton  Biographio  erhalten  wir  in  anziehender  Se&ttderang 
ein  farbenreiches  Bild  von  dem  wechselvollen  Leben  dieses  Hauptvertreters  der  d.dak- 
tischen  Poesie  der  Perser.  Literar.  Centralbl.  18,9,  Nr.  4 

Salemann,  C.,  Mittelpersisch.  -  Pamirdialekte.  -  Mazandaraui,  Gilaki  etc. 
Siehe :  Gmndriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 


24  VERLAGSKATALOG  von  KARL  J.  TRUBNER  in  Strassburg. 

Scherman,  Dr.  Lucian,   Philosophische   Hymnen    aus   der  Rig-   und 

Atliarva-Veda-Sanhita  verglichen  mit  den  Philosophemen  der  alteren 

Upanishad's.     8°.     VII,  96  S.     1887.  M.  2  50 

-Seybold,  Chr.,  Die  arabische  Sprache  in  den  romanischen  Landern.    Siehe  : 

Grundriss  der  romanischen  Philologie  unter  VIII.  Roman.  Philologie. 
Silanka  siehe  Leumann,  E. 
Socin,  A.,  Die  kurdische  Sprache  siehe:  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 

—  siehe  auch:  Kautzsch  n.  Socin. 
Speyer,   J.   S.,    Vedische    und    Sanskrit-Syntax   (Grundriss    der  indo- 

arischen  Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  I.  Band,  6.  Heft).    Lex.  8°.    96  S. 

1896.  ^  5  — 

Stackelberg,  Reinh.,  Beitrage  zur  Syntax  des  Ossetischen.    8°.    V, 

99  S.     1886.  Ji  3  — 

Stein,  M.  A.,  Indische  Geographic  siehe:  Biihler  und  Stein. 
Sutta  Nipata,  Das.    Eine  Sammlung  von  Gesprachen,  welche  zu  den  kano- 

nischen  Biichern  der  Buddhisten  gehort.    Aus  der  englischen  Uebersetzung 

von  Prof.  V.  Fausboll  in  Kopenhagen.    (Sacred  books  of  the  East,  vol. 

X.)     Ins  Deutsche   iibertragen   von   Dr.  Arthur   Pfungst.     1.  Lief.     8°. 

X,  80  S.     1889.  Jt  1  50 

Thibaut,   G.,   Vedanta   und   Mimamsa.   —    Astronomie,    Astrologie 

und  Mathematik    in  Indien  (Grundriss    der   indo-arischen  Philologie 

und  Altertumskunde  III.  Band,  3.  und  9.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

Thorbecke  siehe:  Sabbag,  Arab.  Grammatik. 
Vaitana  Sutra,  Das  Ritual  des  Atharvaveda.    Aus  dem  Sanskrit  iiber- 

setzt  und   mit  Anmerkungen   versehen   von  Dr.   Rich.   Gar  be.     8°.     V, 

116  S.     1878.  M  4  — 

Vamanas  Stilregeln,  bearbeitet  von  Carl  Cappeller.   Lex.  8°.   XII,  38  S. 

1880.  Jk  1  50 

Venis,  A.,  Nyaya  and  Vaiseshika  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen  Philologie 

und  Altertumskunde  III.  Band,  5.  Heft).  (In  Vorbereitung.) 

"Weissbach,  F.  H.,  Die  altpersischcn  Inscliriften  siehe :  Grundriss  der  iranischen 

Philologie. 

West,  E.  W.,  Pahlavi-Literature  siehe:  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 
West,  Sir  R.,  siehe:  Biihler,  Jolly  und  West. 
Winternitz,  M.,  Epische  Mythologie  Indiens  (Grundriss  der  indo-arischen 

Philologie  und  Altertumskunde  III.  Band,  1.  Heft  b).       (In  Vorbereitung.) 
Zachariae,  Theodor,  Die  indischen   Worterbucher   (Kosa)   (Grundriss 

der   indo-arischen  Philologie   und   Altertumskunde   I.   Band,   3.   Heft   b). 

Lex.  8°.     IV.  40  S.  1897.  M  2  50 

Znkovskij,  V.,  Die  persischen  Dialekte  siehe:  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philo- 
logie. 


V. 

Dtimichen,  Dr.  Johannes  (Professor  an  der  Universitat  Strassburg),  Bau- 
geschichte  des  Denderatempels  und  Beschreibung  der  ein- 
zelnen  Teile  des  Bauwerks  nach  den  an  seinen  Mauern  befmdlichen 
Inschriften.  kl.  fol.  50  S.  und  57  Tafeln  Inschriften  nebst  2  Planen. 

1877.  U*  60  — 
Der  Herausgeber  des,vorstehenden  Werkes,  einer  der  fruchtbarsten  und  thatigsten 

Aegyptologen  in  der  Veroffentlichung  unbekannter  und  wichtiger  Inschriften  des  agypti- 
schen Altertums,  hat  sich  durch  diese  neue  Publikation  wiederum  ein  besonderes  Ver- 
dienst  um  die  von  ihm  mit  Liebe  und  Eifer  gepflegte  Wissenschaft  erworben.  Den  Kern 
der  Arbeit,  um  welchen  sich  eine  erschopfende  Anzahl  teils  bekannter,  teils  unbekannter 
Texte  als  erklarendc  oder  analoge  Beispiele  gruppieren,  bilden  die  von  dem  Herausgeber 
auf  seiner  letzten  agyptischen  Reise  mit  grossen  Miihen  und  Kosten  freigelegten  unteren 
Rander  der  Aussenwande  des  hochberuhmten  Tempels  von  Dendera  (Tentyra  der  Alten), 
welche  eine  vollstandig  erhaltene  Bauurkunde  unter  Angabe  der  Maasse  aller  Sale, 
Zimmer,  Treppen  etc.  des  Tempels  enthalten. 

Prof.  Brugsch  in  den  Gottinger  gel.  Anzeigen  vom  28.  Marz  1877. 

Die   Oasen   der  libyschen  Wiiste.    Ihre  alten  Namen  und  ihre 

Lage,  ihre  vorziiglichsten  Erzeugnisse  und  die  in  ihren  Tempeln  ver- 
ehrten  Gottheiten,  nach  den  Berichten  der  agyptischen  Denkmaler.  Mit 
19  Tafeln  hieroglyphischer  Inschriften  und  bildlicher  Darstellungen  in 
Autographic  des  Verfassers.  4°.  VI.  34  S.  1878.  Jt  15  — 

Der  Verfasser  giebt  die  Losung  eines  schwierigen  geographischen  Ratsels,  die  ihm 
vollstandig  gelungen  ist.  Alle  spateren  Arbeiten  uber  die  Gesehichte  und  alte  Geographic 
der  Oasen  werden  an  D.'s  wichtige  Arbeit  und  die  in  ihr  niedergelegten  Resultate  anzu- 
kniipfen  haben.  G.  Ebers  im  Literar.  Centralblatt  1877,  Nr.  20. 

Ueber   die  Tempel  und   Graber  im   alten   Agypten  und  ihre 

Bildwerke  und  Inschriften.     Vorlesung,  gehalten   am  19.  November  1872 
in  der  kaiserl.  Universitat  zu  Strassburg.     8°.     32  S.     1872.       Jk  —  60 
M.  Dumichen  resume  fort  nettement  pour  1'instruction  du  public  une  foule  d'idees 
courantes  dans  la  science.  Revue  critique. 

Zur  Erinnerung  an  Richard  Lepsius.    8°.    23  S.    1884.    Jl  1  — 

Faselius,  Aug.,   Altagyptische  Kalenderstudien.    gr.  8°.     IV,  82  S. 

1878.  •*  2  40 
Lauth,  Prof.  Dr.  Jos.,   Agyptische   Chronologie,  basiert  auf  die  voll- 

standige  Reihe  der  Epochen  seit  Bytes-Menes  bis  Hadrian-Antonin  durch 
3  voile  Sothisperioden  =  4380  Jahre.  Autographiert.  8°.  VI,  240  S., 
o  Tafeln.  1877. 

Moses-Hosarsyphos  Sali'  Hus  Levites-A'Haron  f rater  Ziphorah- 

Dabariah  conjux  Miriam-Bellet  soror  Elisheba-Elizebat  fratria.  Ex  monu- 
mento  inferioris  Aegypti  per  ipsum  Mose  abhinc  annos  MMMCD  dedicate 
nunc  primum  in  lucem  produxit  Franc.  Jos.  Lauth.  Cum  duabus  tabulis 
et  uno  photogrammate.  4°.  lithogr.  248  S.  1879.  Ji  25  — 

Spiegelberg,  Wilhelm  (Privatdozent  der  Agyptologie  an  der  Universitat 
Strassburs),  Rechnungen  aus  der  Zeit  Setis  I.  (ca.  1350  v.  Chr.)  mit 
anderen  Rechnungen  des  neuen  Reiches  herausgegeben  und  erklart. 


2  Bande  folio.     1896. 


70  ' 


Inhalt  des  Textbandes  (VIII,  100  S.)  I.  Gesehichte  der  Papyri  Rollin  II  Aenssero 
BeschaiTenheit  der  Handschriften.  III.  Datierung  und  Lokalisierun?  der  Handsch 
IV.  Zur  Palaeographie  der  Papyri  Rollin.  V.  Character  und  Inhalt  der  Rechnungen 
VI.  Uebersetzunl  der  Rechnungen.  VII.  Kommentar.  VIII.  Anhanp,  en  haltpnd  cine  chro 
nologisch  geordnete  Liste  von  Namen  Sgyptischer  Kriegs-  nnd  Handcls«rhifr«  und  emcn 
Warentarif  der  erwahnten  Epoche  der  agyptischen  Gesehichte.  Lino  b  n.lic  Uber  da, 
Wertverhaltnis  von  Gold,  Silber  und  Kupfer,  in  welcher  msbcsondero  die 


Wertverhaltnis  von  Gold,   Silber  und  Kupfer,   in  wecer  mscsonero     ie  an 
Entwertung  des  Silbcrs   im  Pharaoncnreich  ziffernmassig  nachgew1esen  ist,  bildet  den 
Schluss  der  Arbeit. 


26  VERLAGSKATALOG  von  KARL  J.  TRUBNER  in  Strassburg. 

Spiegelberg,  Wilhelm,  Rechnungen  aus  der  Zeit  Setis  I.  (Fortsetzung). 

Der  Tafelband  (mit  43  Tafeln)  enthalt  die  bearbeiteten  Papyri  in  Autographic  und' 
Lichtdruck  nebst  einer  hieroglyphischen  Umschrift  der  samtlichen  Texte. 

«Dass  die  von  Hrn.  Pleyte  schon  1868  sehr  unvollkommen  herausgegebenen  und 
erklarten  Rechntfngen  der  Papyri  Rollin  der  Bibliotheque  nationale  zu  Paris  in  ver- 
besserter  Form  und  in  einer  dem  heutigen  Standpunkt  der  agyptologischen  Wissensehaft 
entsprechenden  Weise  behandelt  wtirden,  erschien  schon  lange  als  ein  Bedurfnis.  Auch 
Ref.  hat  fur  die  Novembersitzung  1895  der  Bibl.  Archaeol.  Society  eine  Arbeit  tiber  einen 
Teil  der  Papyri  Rollin,  die  Backerrechnungen  eingereicht,  die  bereits  gedruckt  in  einem 
der  nachsten  Hefte  der  Proceedings  dieser  Gesellschaft  erscheinen  wird.  Herr  Dr.  Spiegel- 
berg hat  es  sich  aber  zur  Aufgabe  gemacht.  samtliche  Rechnungen  dieser  Papyri  in 
corrector  Weise  herauszugeben  und  zu  kommentieren.  Dabei  ist  dem  selben  die  . . .  Ver- 

lagshandlung  durch  wurdige  Ausstattung  zu  Hilfe  gekommen Ein  Verdienst  hat 

sich  Spiegelberg  erworben,  dass  er  den  von  Pleyte  falsch  Ra-nefer-cheper-ka  gelesenen 
Konigsnamen  als  den  Tutmes  I  Ra-aa-cheper-ka,  an  einer  andern  Stelle  als  den  Ame- 
nophis  II  erkannte,  und  dass  er  eine  Rcihe  agyptischer  Worter  teils  neu,  teils  priiziser 
bestimmtc  ...»  Literarisches  Centralblatt  1896,  Nr.  11. 

« .  .  .  .  The  author's  aims  are  high,  and  his  method  excellent.  No  fragment  seems  to 
have  proved  too  small  and  worn  for  him  to  attempt  its  decipherment ;  and  where  he 
attempts  he  succeeds.  By  his  present  work,  for  which  in  every  other  respect  but  that 
of  metrology  he  was  so  admirably  qualified,  he  has  again  laid  all  Egyptologists  under 
great  obligations  ...  F.  LI.  Griffith,  The  Academy,  1896,  Okt.  10. 

«  Les  Papyrus  Rollin  do  la  Bibliotheque  Nationale  ont  deja  ete  publics  et  commentes 
en  partie  par,  Pleyte,  en  1868.  L'ouvrage  a  rendu  bon  service  en  son  temps,  mais  les 
progres  de  PEgyptologie  ont  ete  si  rapides,  depuis  lors,  que  beaucoup  des  donnees  qu'il 
renferme  ne  peuvent  plus  etre  considerces  comme  exactes.  M.  Spiegelberg  a  repris  les 
manuscrits  deja  examines  par  Pleyte,  il  y  a  joint  d'autres  fragments  qui  etaient  inedits 
pour  la  plupart,  et  il  a  donne  du  tout  une  transcription  et  une  interpretation  excellentes 
sur  la  plupart  des  points. »  G.  Maspero.  Revue  critique  1897,  N°  5. 

—  —  Arbeiter  und  Arbeiterbewegung  im  Pharaonenreich  unter  den 
Ramessiden  (ca.  1400—1100  v.  Chr.).  Eine  kulturgeschichtliche  Skizze. 
Lex.  8°.  IV,  25  S.  Mit  1  Tafel  und  2  Abbildungen.  1895.  ^  1  — 

Die  Agyptische   Sammlung    des  Museum-Meermanno-Westreenia- 

num  im  Haag.     Hrsg.  u.  erLautert.     4°.     29  S.     Mit  5  Tafeln.    1896. 

Ji  0   - 


M.  DaMont-Schauberg,  Strassburg. 


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