Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s3.18

c6.s3.18

The Eraṇ coin with the legend running from the right to the left,² offers a contribution to the earlier history of the Brāhmī. It shows the ancient *sa* with the straight side-stroke, but the later *ma* with the semicircular top, and the *dha* turned to the left. The coin probably dates from the time when the Brāhmī was written both from the right to the left and from the left to the right. Even if one makes due allowance for the fact that coins often reproduce archaic forms long gone out of fashion, one can only agree with CUNNINGHAM (CAI. 101), who thinks that the coin is older than the Maurya period; and one must allot it, if not to B. C. 400, at least to the middle of the fourth century. The time when the Brāhmī was written βουστροφηδόν probably lies somewhat before the Maurya period, since the Aśoka edicts show only few traces of the writing from right to left, in the *O* of Jaugada and Dhauli and in the rare *dha* of Jangada and Delhi-Sivālik (plate II, 8, VI, and 26, V, VI).³ In connection with this coin it is also necessary to mention the Patnā seals (C.ASR. 15, pl. 3, 1, 2), which very likely are older than the time of the Mauryas. The first with the legend Nadaya (Naṇḍāya), "(the seal) of Nandā," shows a *da* open to the right, [9] and the second with the inscription *Agapalasa* (*Aṃgapālaśśa*) shows an *A* in its original position (pl. II, 1, I). More important results for the history of the Brāhmī may be obtained from the Drāviḍī of the relic caskets of Bhaṭṭiprolu,⁴ already referred to above. This alphabet contains, besides various characters agreeing with the southern variety of the Aśoka edicts, (1) three signs, *dh*, *d* and *bh*, in the position of the writing running from right to left; (2) three signs, *c*, *j* and *ṣ*, which are more archaic than those of the Aśoka edicts and of the Eraṇ coin; (3) two signs, *l* and *ḷ*, derived independently from the old Semitic originals; (4) one new sign, *gh*, derived from *g*, the *mātṛkā gha* of the Brāhmī being at the same time discarded. The reasons for the assertions under 2 and 3 will be adduced in the next paragraph. But if the assertions themselves are true, it certainly follows that, whatever the age of the inscriptions may be, the Drāviḍa alphabet separated from the main stock of the Brāhmī long before the Eraṇ coin was struck, at the latest in the fifth century B. C.