Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s19.t1.30

c7.s19.t1.30

(23) As *va* was very generally pronounced *ba*, the ancient sign for *ba* was lost in Northern, Central and Western India, and it was replaced by *va* in the inscriptions of the 7th and later centuries (plate IV, 29, XX; V, 32, II, &c.). In the MSS. the substitution occurs even earlier (plate VI, 37, V, VI). A new *ba*, consisting of *va* with a dot in the centre of the loop, occurs since the 11th century (plate V, 32, XVI), and this form is the parent of the modern Devanāgarī letter.