On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c5.126

c5.126

If we return to the passage of the Samavāyāṅga Sūtra, the various facts adduced make it plain that Abhayadeva's explanation of the extract from the *Dṛṣṭivāda* is substantially correct. The forty-six radical signs of the ancient Brāhmī *lipi* included twelve vowels *a*, *ā*, *i*, *ī*, *u*, *ū*, *e*, *ai*, *o*, *au*, *aṃ*, *aḥ* 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 *kṣa*, but *ḷa*. It appears further, that there is no reason to distrust the Jaina tradition, according to which the statement of the *Dṛṣṭivāda* 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 Aṅga in the most important particular.