On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c10.11
On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet c10.11
- Language
- English
c10.11
The principles of its spelling in no way differ from those of the epigraphic Kharoṣṭhī. The long vowels are not marked, the Anusvāra does duty for all nasals in compound consonants, single non-aspirate consonants stand for not much later. I believe that, like the Bower MS., it was written in India — as the dialect and the characters suggest, in Gandhāra — and that it was carried by some Buddhist monk into Chinese Turkestan.