On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c3.7

c3.7

² It is a matter of course that M. Halévy sticks to the derivation of the Brāhma symbols for 4—9 from the Kharoṣṭhī 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 Brāhma symbols, we are told, had no time to look up Pāṇini, and so they put *cha* for *catuḥ* 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 Brāhma 6 of the 3^rd cent. B. C. is declared to be a modification of the “cursive” Kharoṣṭhī *sa* of the 1^st cent. B. C. The equally untoward fact that the Brāhma numeral signs include symbols for 20—100 and for 1000, which cannot be derived from Kharoṣṭhī letters, is carefully kept out of sight.