Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t4.8

c7.s3.t4.8

Other consonantal combinations, particularly those involving stops and sibilants, are also prone to take special and often obscure forms in Kharoṣṭhī, for instance, 𐨯 *sa* + 𐨟 *ta* > 𐨯𐨿𐨟 *sta*. Some special consonantal signs are problematic in that both their graphic constituents and their phonetic value are uncertain, notably the common character 𐨲, which regularly corresponds to Sanskrit *kṣa*¹⁴⁵ but which can hardly be derived from a graphic combination of 𐨐 *ka* and 𐨮 *ṣa*; Dani (DIP 259) considers it a reduction of 𐨖 *cha*, while Rapson (KI III.320 n. 3) suggests a connection with 𐨮 *ṣa*. Thus it is not at all certain that Kharoṣṭhī characters of this type are really conjuncts in the standard sense of the term; they may have arisen from modifications of single consonants, or may have been created ad hoc