History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s5.2

v1.c7.s5.2

Until quite recently historians were divided as to the date when writing was in use in India. There were some who stated that writing was known even in the Vedic age, but the majority following Weber, Taylor, Bühler and others were of opinion that writing was introduced into India from the West about the eighth century B.C. These writers built up theories deriving the ancient Indian script, as found in the inscriptions of Aśoka, from the more ancient writing discovered in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Semitic origin was first suggested by Sir W. Jones, in the year 1806, and later on supported by Kopp (1821), Lespius (1834), and many others. The supporters of this theory, however, do not completely agree amongst themselves. For, whilst W. Deccke and I. Taylor derive the Indian script from a South-Semitic script, Weber and Bühler derive it from the Phoenician or a North-Semitic script.¹ Bühler rejects the derivation from a South-Semitic script, stating that the theory requires too many assumptions, and makes too many changes in the letter forms to be quite convincing. He, however, supports Weber's derivation from a North-Semitic script and has given details of the theory.² Ojha³ has examined Bühler's theory in detail and rejects it stating that it is fanciful and that the facts are against it. He states that only one out of the twenty-two letters of the Phoenician (North-Semitic) script resembles a phonetically similar Brâhmî letter. He supports his argument in a most convincing manner by a table of the two alphabets, with phonetically similar letters arranged in a line. He further shows that following Bühler's method of derivation almost any script could be proved to be the parent of another.⁴