Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c4.35

c4.35

I have already mentioned the numerous indications that point to a Semitic original of the Indian alphabets, and which are generally received as sufficient; the immediate original is, however, as yet uncertain. Three probable sources may be suggested. The first is that the Indian alphabet came direct from Phœnicia, and was introduced by the early Phœnician traders[^2). The second is that the original of these alphabets is to be sought in the modified Phœnician alphabet used by the early Himyarites of Arabia, and this has been lately put forward as an ascertained and certain fact[^3). As a third possibility I would suggest that the Indian alphabets may be derived from an Aramaic character used in Persia or rather in Babylonia.