On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c5.57

c5.57

Dr. Bhagvānlāl renders the untranslated word *rūpa* by “painting”, while Professors Oldenberg and Rhys Davids, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XIII, p. 201, take it to mean in the Mahāvagga “money-changing”, because Buddhaghoṣa says in the commentary that "he who learns the *rūpa-sutta* must turn over and over many *kārṣāpaṇas* 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 *rūpa* "forms" and to which Buddhaghoṣa's explanation may also refer.¹ After the children have mastered the art of writing and the most elementary arithmetical operations, addition, subtraction and particularly the *āṅk* or complicated multiplication tables, they are instructed in the practical application of arithmetic [14] to simple commercial and agricultural affairs. They learn, how many Ḍāms, Korīs, Pāisās, Pāulās 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 agricultural arithmetic is no doubt what is meant by *rūpa* 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