On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c8.70

c8.70

(3) In the ligatures the sign for the consonants, to be pronounced first, stands above and the next is interlaced with the lower end of the first, except in the case of groups with *ra*, where *ra* is almost invariably placed below.² The forms of the Kharoṣṭhī ligatures are shaped exactly like those of the Brāhmī and, like these, illustrations of the grammatical term *saṁyuktākṣara* "a conjunct syllable". The neglect of non-aspirates, preceding aspirates, and of the double consonants, with the exception of the nasals, which can be marked without trouble by the Anusvāra, is, as already pointed out, a clerks' trick and the same as that used in the Brāhmī lipi³ of the Prakrit inscriptions. The treatment of *ra* in groups is closely analogous to that adopted in Girnār, where this letter or its cursive representative always occupies the same position, whether it must be pronounced before or after the consonant with which it is combined. There is, however, this [65] difference that in the Girnār Brāhmī *ra* stand always at the top and in the Kharoṣṭhī invariably at the foot. The one writes *e. g.* *rta* for *rta* and *tra*, and the other *tra* both for *rta* and *tra*.