Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s2.t2.24

c7.s2.t2.24

Recently several writers have put forth theories to the effect that Brāhmī was purposefully invented ex nihilo in or around the time of Aśoka. S. R. Goyal, for example,⁵⁵ argued that the phonetically logical structure, primary geometric forms, and geographical uniformity of early Brāhmī show that it was “an invention of the grammarians” (10) of the time of Aśoka. Similar arguments were presented by T. P. Verma, who proposed an origin in Buddhist circles.⁵⁶ N. P. Rastogi, in *Origin of Brāhmī Script*, offered a purely formal presentation of “the origin of the Brāhmī script from the geometric signs in the Vedic period” (139).