Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s2.t5.1

c7.s2.t5.1

The Brāhmī script as it first appears in inscriptions of the Mauryan period (see table 2.1) is an almost fully developed writing of the characteristic Indian diacritically modified syllabic type described earlier (2.1.3). The repertoire of the script as represented in the Aśokan inscriptions consists of six full (initial) vowel signs (*a*, *ā*, *i*, *u*, *e*, *o*), thirty-two consonants, and eight medial vowel diacritic signs (*ā*, *i*, *ī*, *u*, *ū*, *e*, *o*, *ai*), plus the *anusvāra* sign. The absence of the initial vowel signs *ī* and *ū* is no doubt a statistical accident due to their rarity, but other vowels which are absent in both full and diacritic form, such as *ṛ*, *ṝ*, and possibly *au*, apparently did not yet exist in the script, as they were developed only later when Brāhmī began to be used for writing Sanskrit (see 2.2.5.2). Among the consonants only the sign for *ṅa* is lacking, as is the *visarga*, no doubt also because they are not needed for the Prakrits which Brāhmī was used to record at this time.