On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c5.89

c5.89

The independence of the Jaina list from that of the Lalitavistara is proved by various discrepancies. First, it is much shorter and includes only eighteen varieties, and among them occurs the *Javaṇāliyā* or according to the printed edition of the Paṇṇāvanā Sūtra, the *Javaṇāniyā*, which corresponds to Pāṇini’s term *Yavanānī*,¹ or, as Kātyāyana’s Vārttika states, “the writing of the Yavanas”. Secondly, the Jainas use the term Bambhī livī in a double sense, not only for a particular variety of writing, but also for every kind of writing. The texts are explicit on this point and say,² *Bambhhīe ṇaṁ livīe aṭṭhārasavihalikkhavihāṇe paṇṇatte | taṁ bambhī* etc. “An eighteenfold order of scripts is taught for the Brāhma writing, viz. the Brāhma” etc. This apparently senseless assertion finds its explanation through passages of the metrical Smṛtis of Nārada and Bṛhaspati, as well as through Brahminical sculptures and pictures of Brahman. The two lawbooks state that “the Creator (Brahman) created writing in order to keep the affairs of the world in their proper course” or “in order to remove doubts regarding legal transactions”.³ On the sculptures in the Bā- [25] dāmī caves,¹ which date from the end of the sixth century A. D., the same idea is expressed by representing Brahman with strips of palmleaves in his right hand, for which modern pictures of the deity substitute an inscribed piece of paper.² It thus appears that there were two legends which the Jainas have combined, one which ascribed to Brahman the invention of all writing and another which restricted his activity to one particular alphabet, that which was the commonest and most generally used. Both myths no doubt were current side by side, and express with a slight variation the belief that writing is a national Indian invention.