Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s1.31

c6.s1.31

All these various points tend to show that the popular Brāhmī contained, as the Jaina tradition asserts, since the third century B. C. only 46 letters, and that, as the occurrence of the vowels *AI*, *AU*, *Am*, *Aḥ* and the consonant *ṅa* proves, it was adapted to the wants of the Sanskrit language. But it is not [3] improbable that the Brahmans already then used particular signs for the liquid vowels in their works on grammar and phonetics. The method, however, according to which the actually known signs for these sounds have been formed, differs from that adopted for the other vowel-signs. The medial *ṛ*, *ṝ*, and *ḷ* were developed first, and the initials later; while in the case of *a*, *ā*, &c., the process was the contrary one (see below, § 4, and § 24, A, 6, 7). The Chinese have also preserved an Indian tradition asserting that *ṛ*, *ṝ*, and *ḷ* are later additions to the original alphabet.¹