Indian Palaeography c12.s5.30

c12.s5.30

(xxx–xxxii) All the three sibilants are found in Aśokan Brāhmī, but the commonest is the dental *sa*, occurring in all the inscriptions. The other two are present in the Kalasi R.E. (XI–XIV), while palatal *śa* is found also at Kalasi (I–IX), at Maski, in the Mysore inscriptions and in a conjunct with *va* at Bairat. The cerebral *sha* has also been read by Hultzsch and others at Sarnath and in the Kauśāmbi M.P.I., but this reading is mistaken. As the forms of *sa* and *sha* do not differ much, there was often confusion on the parts of the writer, the engraver, and the reader. The same confusion prevails in the Mahasthan Brāhmī inscription.¹ All the three sibilants are found in Aśokan Kharoshṭhī, and the fact that the North-western Chapaḍa uses them in the Mysore inscriptions suggests that their occurrence is due to the hand of a person coming from the north-west.