Indian Palaeography c11.2

c11.2

SINCE Bühler wrote *On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet*, no new material has been found which could throw further light on this vexed question. Ojha¹ critically analysed the derivations proposed by Bühler and showed that the differences in the letter-forms, except in a few cases, were so fundamental that the Brāhmī forms could not be derived from those of North Semitic characters. The discovery of the Indus Valley writing has led some scholars to guess that Brāhmī was locally developed out of the Indus Valley system. But no one has been able to demonstrate how this evolution could take place.² In fact, the long gap between the time when the Indus Valley writing was in use and that when Brāhmī is first attested throws doubt on such a supposition. However, in recent years some further points have emerged from the discussion on the origin of the alphabet,³ which enable us to review the origin of Brāhmī afresh.