On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c8.34
On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet c8.34
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c8.34
No 3. The identity of *ga* (Col. III) with *Gimel* (Cols. I and II) has been recognised by Dr. Taylor alone. The loop on the right has been caused by the desire to make the letter with one stroke of the pen. It may be pointed out as an analogy that in the late Kharoṣṭhī of the first and second centuries A. D. cursive loops are common in ligatures with *ra* and *ya* and that there is a looped *ja*, exactly resembling a *ga*, on the Bimāran vase in the word *Muṁjavata*. The Aramaic prototype may possibly have been set up straighter than the forms given in Cols. I and II, and it may be noted that such forms occur already on the Mesa stone and in other old inscriptions, see Euting, Cols. 1 and 3.