Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s2.t6.11

c7.s2.t6.11

While the changes which Brāhmī underwent in this period in northern India are relatively minor and superficial, the Bhaṭṭiprōḷu inscriptions present a unique and radically different southern variety of the script. This script, found in nine inscriptions¹⁰⁰ on relic caskets from the *stūpa* at Bhaṭṭiprōḷu in Andhra Pradesh, differs from standard early Brāhmī in two important respects. First, the formation of five of the consonantal characters, namely *gha*, *ja*, *ma*, *la*, and *sa* (or *ṣa*)¹⁰¹ is radically different. The character *ma*, for example, (𑁤) is upside-down compared with the standard form (ɤ) of the letter. Particularly interesting is the formation of *gha* (𑀖), which can be seen (EI 2, 323–4) as a secondary derivative of the sign for *ga*, unlike standard Brāhmī *gha*, which appears to be a distinct character probably derived directly from Semitic *ḥet*.¹⁰²