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No. 25.]
THE TIBETAN ALPHABET.
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by taking 24 from the Indian alphabet, and inventing six new characters himself. For the expression of the Tibetan vowels he added four vowel signs.
The West Tibetan school states that king Broń btgan sgampo sent his minister Thonmi and 16 follow students to Kashmir, to learn the characters. They learnt the characters from the Brahman Li byin, and pandit Senge taught them the language (Sanskrit). Bringing them into agreement with the Tibetan language, they formed 24 g Sal byed and 6 Rins, altogether 30 characters. (The following sentence is probably a later addition): Besides, they made them to agree with the Nagara characters of Kashmir and brought them into shape.
Looking at these two, the West Tibetan record strikes me as being the more original of the two. In the first place, the country from which the alphabet was brought to Tibet, is given here as being Kashmir. This is more in accordance with the result of Dr. Vogel's examination of the alphabet. Then, the passage about the forming of the Tibetan alphabet after the Indian Lanteha and Vartula characters, which is altogether doubtful, is omitted here. The West Tibetan account makes mention of the Indian Nägari alphabet, it is true, but this passage looks like a later interpolation.
European statements.-The Central Tibetan account, which makes the Tadian Lantsha and Vartula characters the parents of the Tibetan alphabet, was accepted by a number of European and Indian writers on this subject. Thus, Jäschke in his Tibetan grammar, p. 1, Bays that the Tibetan script was adapted from the Lañtsba form of Indian characters. Grünwedel, in his Mythology says, that the Tibetan script was formed after the Indian characters of those times, the so-called Vartula ; and Sarat Ch. Das, in his article. The Sacred and Ornamental Characters of Tibet' (J. A. S. B., Vol. LVII, p. 41) speaks of the letters which Sambhota had introduced from Magadha, and which he had shaped partly after the form of some of the Wartu characters of Magadha'.
As we now know, the Tibetan characters were directly derived from Indian Gupta. And this fact was already recognised by Csoma de Körös, the Neator of Tibetan studies. He says on p. 204 of his grammar: "The Tibetan alphabet itself, as has been noticed in other places. is stated to have been formed from the Dovanagari prevalent in Central India in tbe seventh century. On comparing the forms of its letters with those of various ancient Sanskrit inscrip tions, particularly that at tiaya, translated by Mr. (now Sir Charles) Wilkins, and that on the column at Allabalad, translated by Capt. Trover and Dr. Mill, & striking similitude will be observed." When Csoma wrote this, the term of Gupta had not yet been coined for that particular kind of script. Otherwise he would bave used the term.
The dext student of Tibetan, who told me the same thing, was Dr. F. W. Thomas of the India Office Library. In his opinion, this fact was so apparent and firmly established, that he did not think it necessary to write a line about it. And in his letter of the 7th June, 1906, he sent me a list of Gupta characters from Indore, of the year 465 A.D., which agree very closely with the Tibetan characters.
The same view has been expressed more recently by Col. Waddell, in his article on ancient Tibetan inscriptions from Lhasa (J. R. A. S., 1910).
With regard to the date of the introduction of the Tibetan alphabet, and the place of its provenenoo, Dr. Vogel has favoured me with the following note -
Relation of Tibetan to Indian scripts. “Besides the ordinary Tibetan character, the lamas have the so-called Lantsha which is enclusively used for Sanskrit formulas. The local tradition of Central Tibet) holde, that the
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