On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c6.41
On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet c6.41
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c6.41
The word *negamā* is common enough in Pali and in the epigraphic Prakrits, and means always ‘the traders’. It shows here that the coins are mercantile money-tokens, issued by traders, and the words on the obverse may be either names of towns or of guilds.² The latter explanation is perhaps the more probable one. But however that may be, the use of both alphabets by traders proves indeed that both were in popular use in the heart of Gandhāra.