On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c5.85

c5.85

The enumeration of the sixty-four alphabets¹ has gained a greater interest by the discovery of a similar, apparently independent list in the Jaina Āgamas. Professor Weber's analysis of the latter shows,² that they too allege the early existence 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 *Brāhmī lipi* or *Bambhī livī*, indicating thereby the pre-eminence of the characters, running from the left to the right, which are used in the majority of Aśoka's Edicts. Both name also the alphabet written from the right to the left, which in the Jaina Prakrit is called *Kharoṭṭhī* instead of *Kharoṣṭhī*. 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 *Puṣkarasārī* (No. 3) or *Pukkharasāriya* (No. 5) and the *Drāviḍa* (No. 12) or *Ḍāmila* (No. 17) characters. The mention of the last alphabet has become important since the discovery of an ancient partly independent variant of the Brāhmī lipi at Bhaṭṭiprolu in the Kistna districts of the Madras Presidency. And it is not improbable that this alphabet is meant by "the writing of the Dravidian country"³. The mention of the *Puṣkarasārī* or *Pukkharasāriyā lipi*, too, possesses some interest, as its name is evidently derived from the patronymic *Pauṣkarasādi* or *Puṣkarasādi*, which appears in Brahminical works on grammar and law as the designation of one, or perhaps of several famous teachers. It is certainly a Brahminical name and indicates that a scion of the race of Puṣkarasad invented some particular alphabet or introduced modifications [24] in an existing one. The name, therefore, furnishes the proof that in early times Brahmans directed their attention to the art of writing, for which view other arguments will be adduced further on. The other names, which like the *Gandharva* or *Gandhavva* agree fully, or like the *nāgalipi* “the writing of the snake-deities” and the *Bhogāvaiyā*, “the writing of Bhogāvatī, the residence of the Nāgas”, in their general meaning, are perhaps in part fanciful and, at least for the present, not particularly instructive.