On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c7.s1.34

c7.s1.34

No 21. Professor Weber's identification of *Shin* with the palatal sibilant *śa*, which has been accepted by Dr. Deecke, seems also to me self-evident. It is only necessary to substitute for the late Indian form (given in Professor Weber's Col. II) the formerly not accessible, real old Brāhma signs, Col. V, a—c, which are found in the Kālsī, Rūpnāth and Siddāpur versions of the Edicts, on the Bhaṭṭiprolu prism, on the Ghasundi slab and in the Pabhosa cave inscriptions.¹ I con- [68] sider as their prototype the oldest Semitic form with two angles (Cols. I and II), not the very similar Aramaic *Shin* (Col. III) of the sixth century. For in accordance with the principles of the Brāhmī lipi, the Semitic letter had to be turned topsyturvy, and the double angle at the top had to be got rid of, which latter change could be most easily effected by placing the one angle inside the other. The Hindus may be well credited with the independent invention of this modification, as the later Phoenicians and the Ethiopians have likewise introduced it independently. Moreover, the same considerations, which make it impossible to accept the Aramaic *Samech* as the immediate source of the Bhaṭṭiprolu *ṣ* (see above p. 67), speak in this case against the assumption that the Semitic alphabet, adopted by the Hindus, contained the Aramaic *Shin*. Finally the Western letter-numeral *śu* for 100, still shows the two angles quite plainly, see App. II, pl. III and the Grundriss, Taf. IX, Cols. IV—V, XI.