Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
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CHAPTER V
NON-SEMITIC OFFSHOOTS OF ARAMAIC BRANCH
"ALPHABET FOLLOWS RELIGION"
It has been said in reference to the Arabic alphabet "that if 'trade follows the flag, the alphabet follows religion." This was also true of various other alphabets of Aramaic origin, some varieties of which became the sacred scripts of the five great faiths of Asia-Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. We may add Nestorianism and Manichæism (see the preceding Chapter), and perhaps also the faith of the Armenians. The importance of the Aramaic offshoots is even greater from the linguistic point of view; indeed, besides the various peoples of Semitic speech who employed alphabets of Aramaic origin (see preceding Chapter) many peoples speaking other languages, such as Indo-Iranian, Turki and Mongolian, have adopted and adapted to their speech, alphabets derived from the offshoots of the Aramaic branch.
KHAROSHTHI SCRIPT AND THE PROBLEM OF INDIAN WRITINGS
The question of the origin of the Indian scripts is one of the most fascinating problems in the history of writing. Many Indian scripts and offshoots of Indian writing exist to-day used for tongues belonging to various linguistic groups. A great number of inscriptions have been found in India, engraved on rocks or stone monuments, on copper, bronze or iron, on precious metals, painted or engraved on pottery.
All these scripts seem to have descended from two prototypes, the Kharoshthi and the Brahmi (that is, lipi, "script"). The latter may be considered as the national Indo-Aryan system of writing and the true parent of the great majority of the Indian scripts, while the influence of the Kharoshthi script on other Indian writings seems to have been negligible. On the other hand, while the origin of the Kharoshthi seems to be evident, the origin of the Brahmi is still uncertain and hotly discussed. We shall deal with the latter in the next chapter; here we must mention the Kharoshthi, which is called also Bactrian (from the ancient district Bactria), Indo-Bactrian, Aryan, Bactro-Pali, north-western Indian, Kabulian (so termed by Faulmann), Kharostri, and so forth.
However, the term Kharoshthi is now commonly used. In a Chinese Buddhistic work of A.D. 668 this ancient term was already in use. It has been variously explained, as (1) connected with Kharoshtha (kharaoshtha, "ass-lip"), the supposed creator of this script; (2) as used to indicate the barbaric peoples, Turks and Tibetans, on the north-western boundaries of India; (3) as connected with
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