On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c7.1

c7.1

As the literary evidence points to the common use of writing in India during the fifth and perhaps in the sixth century B. C., and as the palaeographic evidence proves the Brāhmī lipi to be the oldest Indian alphabet and to be probably identical with the script referred to in the Buddhist Canon, it is a matter of course that its source must be found in the more ancient Semitic characters. A short time ago such a result would have precluded the possibility of all attemps to make Southern Arabia the country from which the parents of the Brāhma letters came. But at present, pretensions to a high antiquity are put forward on behalf of various epigraphic documents from the latter country. The theories, it is true, are still conflicting. Some ascribe certain Sabaean inscriptions to the tenth century B. C. or an earlier period, while others declare those of the Minaeans to belong to very ancient times and deny the antiquity of the Sabaean documents. More light on these questions is required, but even as matters stand at present, it seems to me hazardous to make use of the old argument, that the derivation of the Brāhma letters from a South-Arabian source is *a priori* impossible, because the inscriptions, found there, are of too modern dates.