Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c9.s2.t1.73

c9.s2.t1.73

BAYLEY'S explanation offers great difficulties, *inter alia* by the assumption that the Hindus borrowed from four or five different, partly very ancient and partly more modern, sources. But the comparative table of the Egyptian and Indian signs given in his paper, and his remarks about the agreement of their methods in marking the hundreds, induce me to give up BHAGVĀNLĀL'S hypothesis, and to adopt, with certain modifications, the view of BURNELL, with whom also BARTH concurs.² It seems to me probable that the Brāhma numeral symbols are derived from the Egyptian Hieratic figures, and that the Hindus effected their transformation into Akṣaras, because they were already accustomed to express numerals by words (compare below, § 35, A).