An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s4.24

v1.c25.s4.24

The theories about the origin of the Brāhmī script can roughly be grouped into two, one ascribing it to an Indian and the other to a foreign source. Among the advocates of indigenous origin Edward Thomans subscribes to the Dravidian origin; and Cunningham, Dowson, Lassen, and Ojha believe in Aryan or Vedic origin. After the discovery of the Indus writing some scholars have attempted to trace the roots of Brāhmī in that system of writing. Pandey, 1952, on the basis of the name Brāhmī credits the Vedic Brāhmaṇas with its origin. But the use of the name Brāhmī for Aśokan script is itself of doubtful merit. Shamasastry, 1973, derives the Brāhmī characters called Devanagara (the city of gods) from Tantric signs and symbols, representing *devas* (deities). But these suggestions militate against the general pattern of the development of scripts, i.e. pictography, ideography and phonetic scripts, and cannot be accepted because there is no example of this writing before the 4th century B.C. and the earliest available specimens of Brāhmī writing have Jaina or Buddhist associations.