On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c7.s3.3

c7.s3.3

² History Anc. Sansk. Lit., p. 507 ff. This assertion has been hotly contested by Professor Goldstücker in his Introduction to the Mānava Kalpa Sūtra, p. 13 ff. But Professor Kielhorn, who has studied the Vyākaraṇa during so many years, informs me that he does not know of a single passage even in the Bhāṣya, which indicates with certainty, that a written text of Pāṇini's grammar is referred to, or where the technical terms of the grammarians and their theoretical speculations refer to written signs; see also his remarks in Gurupūjākaumudī p. 29 ff. It seems, therefore, to be a fact that the grammatical and phonetic researches were begun either before the introduction of writing or independently of writing, and that even those ancient authors, who like Pāṇini, mention alphabets and clerks, continued to work on in the old manner. I must, however, add that Geheimrath von Böhtlingk dissents and believes that the phrase *yathānyāsam* in the Mahābhāṣya (e. g. I, 22, l. 3) points to a written text.