Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s2.t5.2

c7.s2.t5.2

Aśokan Brāhmī displays on the whole a uniform aspect, and although it was formerly believed⁹⁵ to have significant regional varieties, more recent studies have shown that the script was in fact essentially uniform all over India.⁹⁶ There are, however, variant forms for many of the characters, which, though evidently not geographically determined, are still significant for the development of the script; see, for example, the several varieties of initial *a* noted in BIP 6. Also of interest are a few letters such as *dha* (D or ᗡ) and diacritic *o* (e.g., in ł or ⟡, *no*), whose directional orientation has not been fixed (DIP 48).