Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s1.24

c6.s1.24

An extract from the lost Dṛṣṭivāda of the Jainas also gives some further account of the ancient Brāhmī.⁷ It states that this alphabet contained only 46 radical signs, instead of the usual number of 50 or 51. The letters intended are without a doubt : *A*, *Ā*, *I*, *Ī*, *U*, *Ū*, *E*, *AI*, *O*, *AU* (10), *Aṃ*, *Aḥ*; *ka*, *kha*, *ga*, *gha*, *ṅa*, *ca*, *cha*, *ja* (20), *jha*, *ña*, *ṭa*, *ṭha*, *ḍa*, *ḍha*, *ṇa*, *ta*, *tha*, *da* (30), *dha*, *na*, *pa*, *pha*, *ba*, *bha*, *ma*, *ya*, *ra*, *la* (40), *va*, *śa*, *ṣa*, *sa*, *ha*, *ḷa*; while the *mātṛkās* *Ṛ*, *Ṝ*, *Ḷ*, *Ḹ*, and the ligature *kṣa*, which in later times was often erroneously considered a *mātṛkā*, were excluded. The four liquid vowels are wanting also in the alphabet of the Lalitavistara,⁸ and in that of the modern elementary schools. In the latter the instruction is based on the so-called *Bārākhaḍī* (Skt. *dvādaśākṣarī*), a table of the combinations of the consonants with the twelve vowels mentioned above, *e. g.*, *ka*, *kā*, to *kaṃ*, *kaḥ*. The antiquity of the *Bārākhaḍī*, which from its Maṅgala *Om namaḥ siddham* is at present sometimes called *Siddhākṣarasamāmnāya* or *Siddhamātṛkā*, is attested by Hui-lin (A. D. 788—810),⁹ who mentions it as the first of the twelve *fan* or 'cycles' (evidently Hiuen Tsiang's twelve *chang*)¹⁰ with which the Hindu boys began their studies. Further evidence for the omission of the vowels *Ṛ*, *Ṝ*, *Ḷ*, *Ḹ* is furnished by Hiuen Tsiang's remark¹¹ that the Indian alphabet of his time contained 47 letters (the last one being probably the ligature *kṣa*), and by the fragments of the incomplete alphabet of Aśoka's stone-masons at Gayā,¹² which may be restored as follows: *A*, **A*, **I*, **Ī*, **U*, **Ū*, **E*, **AI*, **O*, **AU* (10), **Aṃ* or **Aḥ*, *ka*, **kha*, **ga*, **gha*, *ṅa*, **ca*, *cha*, **ja*, **jha* (20), **ña*, **ṭa*.