Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t6.5

c7.s3.t6.5

¹⁷⁰ According to Halévy (“Essai sur l’origine,” 248–9), the Kharoṣṭhī vowel diacritics for *i* and *u* reflect the use of *yod* and *waw* as *matres lectionis* for these vowels in Aramaic, and the adoption of *a* as the inherent vowel in Kharoṣṭhī is due to the absence of any such graph for that vowel in the parent script.