On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c6.10

c6.10

Now the local distribution of these forms, which with the exception of Nos 2 and 3 are of very frequent occurrence, is as follows. The angular forms Nos 1—3, as well as the variety mentioned in note 1, are confined to the Southern versions of the Edicts. They appear only in Girnār and Siddāpur, Dhauli and Jaugada, and it may be noted that in Girnār and Siddāpur they are in the majority, Nos 4—7 appearing only occasionally, while in the two Southeastern versions (with the exception of the Jaugada Separate Edicts) the contrary is the case. On the other hand I know of no case where a purely angular form is found in the Kālsī, Delhi, Bairāt, Sānchi, Allahābād, Mathia, Radhia, Rampūrva Barābar, Sahasrām and Rūpnāth Edicts. In the majority of these documents Nos 4—7 alone are used. No 8 occurs very frequently in Kālsī (sometimes with small variations) and once or twice in Rāmpūrva. Hence it would appear that the angular forms are southern peculiarities and that, as they are undoubtedly the more ancient ones, they furnish an instance of the conservatism, frequently observable in the southern alphabets of later times. This inference is confirmed by the fact that other ancient inscriptions of the same or nearly the same period, like those on the Kolhapur and Bhaṭṭiprolu relic caskets and from the Nānāghāt cave, likewise show the angular forms, (mostly side by side with the curved ones), while the documents, found north of the Narmadā, such as those on the Bharahut and Sānchi Stūpas and in the Nāgārjunī caves, as well as the coins of Agathocles offer almost exclusively the *A* with two curves, rarely the mixed form No 4. A solitary exception in Mahābodhi Gayā (Cunningham, op. cit., plate V, No 2) may be explained by the consideration that, as the dialect of several Gayā inscriptions shows, Southerners came to visit that famous place of pilgrimage, and that the person who wrote the copy may have been a Southron.