Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s5.11

c6.s5.11

In any case, it is *a priori* probable that the Vāṇias were the first to adopt the Semitic alphabet;¹ for they, of course, came most into contact with foreigners, and they must have felt most strongly the want of some means for recording their business transactions. The Brahmans wanted the art of writing less urgently, since they possessed, as passages of the Ṛgveda show,² from very early times a system of oral tradition for the preservation of their literary treasures.