On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c6.34

c6.34

These coins have been figured by Sir A. Cunningham in his Coins of Ancient India, plates II and III. He has pointed out, op. cit. p. 61, that they are partly punch-marked silver pieces and partly single or double die copper pieces, all of the standard peculiar to India, and he takes them for this reason and on account of the very archaic forms of the letters of the legends, "to be anterior to the Greek conquest of Alexander". It will perhaps be safer to say "anterior to the Greek conquest of Demetrius". From their inscriptions, which are partly in Brāhma characters of the Kālsī type¹ and partly both in Brāhma and in Kharoṣṭhī letters, Sir A. Cunningham has already drawn the obvious inference, that both alphabets were used in Northern India during the third century B. C. Something more, it seems to me, may be elicited from an analysis of the legends.