On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c7.s3.18

c7.s3.18

*na* and [Figure:] *nā*. This system, according to which the consonants have no inherent *a*, seems to have been invented in order to avoid the necessity of forming the ligatures, which make the ordinary Brāhma alphabet cumbersome and difficult to read in its later developments, and in order to express final consonants more conveniently. I believe it, therefore, to be of later origin, especially as the other Bhaṭṭiprolu vowel-signs do not differ from the ordinary ones. The invention must, of course, have been made for writing Sanskrit, as the Prakrits have few groups of dissimilar medial consonants and no final ones.