On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c6.48

c6.48

The second point, the improbability that the Kharoṣṭhī was already developed or in general use even in its home as early as say 500 B. C. requires here only a few remarks as the details have been discussed fully below in Appendix I. Its derivation from the Aramaic alphabet has been generally accepted, ever since Mr. E. Thomas pointed it out, and the shape of its *ba*, *na*, *ra* and *va* makes a doubt impossible. According to Dr. I. Taylor's suggestion, The Alphabet, Vol. II, p. 261, which [50] is most probable on historical and palaeographical grounds, its immediate source is the Aramaic alphabet of the Akhaemenian period, and the introduction of the Aramaic letters into India dates from the time, when the Akhaemenian kings of Persia had conquered the Panjab, just those districts where the Kharoṣṭhī has its real home.¹ As the Persian con- [51] quest probably happened shortly before 500 B. C., it is impossible that the Kharoṣṭhī can have been developed before 450 B. C., and it is not to be thought of that it could have penetrated into Eastern India, where the Buddhist Canon was composed, during the fifth century, much less could it have been there in so general use, as the alphabet mentioned by the ancient Buddhists certainly was. Under the circumstances just discussed, the assumption that the alphabet, referred to in the Jātakas, the Mahāvagga and so forth is the Brāhmī—which, I repeat, the palaeographic facts contained in Aśoka's Edicts, the Indian letters on the Persian Sigloi, the legend of the Eraṇ coin, the Bhaṭṭiprolu inscriptions strongly suggest—undeniably gains a very high degree of probability.