An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s4.28

v1.c25.s4.28

Deecke, Taylor and Sethe advocate a s. Semitic origin of Brāhmī. Rhys Davids holds that 'the Indian letters were derived from the pre-Semitic form of writing used in the Euphrates valley from which both the n. and s. Semitics also originiated.' Diringer considers the early Aramaic alphabet as the prototype of Brāhmī. Dani equates the sound and form of only 11 Brāhmī letters with those of n. Semitic and early Phoenician letters and concludes that 'the Brahmi letters are not literally "derived" from the Semitic ... but are only based on them. The idea may have been brought from further afield'.