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290
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1895.
long vertical out of the short central stroke, as well as mutilations of some other signs. And it would seem that the nversion against appendages at the foot is probably due to the desire to keep the lower ends of the matrikis free for the addition of the medial 16, the anuscára and the ra-strokes, which are ordinarily added here ; while the aversion against pendants from the top-lines and heads with many lines rising upwards was caused by the connexion of the medial vowels i, e and o with the tops of the consonants. Some other changes, such as turnings from the right to the left, have been made in order to avoid collisions with other signs, wbile again other modifications are parely cursive or due to considerations of couvenience in writing.
As regards the details, I have to offer the following remarks regarding the Borrowed Signs.
No. 1.- The identity of A with Aleph is evident enough (Thomas, Taylor, Halévy). The long stretched shape of the Kbaroshthi letter, which leans to the right, makes it in my opinion more probable that it is a simplification of sign like that from the Saqqara inscription in Col. I. a, than that it should be connected with the diminutive letters in Col. I. b and in Col. II.. which are iuclined the other way.
No. 2.- Bu is, of course, a slightly modified form of the Beth in Col. I. a-b (compare Thomas, Taylor and Halévy). The mpward bolge next to the vertical has been introduced in order to make the letter with one stroke of the pen, and the bent line at the foot is represented hy a prolongation of the vertical in accordance with the principle stated above. The Beth of the Papyri (when cursive forns are used as in Col. II. b-c and in Prof. Euting's Col. 15 b-c, 16 b-d) is more advanced than the Klarôshtlii ba.
No. 3. -Tho identity of ga (Col. III.) with Gimel (Cols. I. and II.) has been recognised by Dr. Taylor alone. The loop on the right has been caused by the desire to make the letter with one stroke of the pon. It inay be pointed out, as an annlogy, that in the late Kharðshthi of the first and second centuries A. D. cursive loops are cominon in ligatures with ra and ya and that there is a looped ja, exactly resembling a ga, on the Bimaran vase in the word Muunjavata. The Aramaic prototype mny possibly have been set up straighter than the forms given in Cols. I. and II., and it may be noted that such forms occur already on the Mesa stone and in other old insoriptions, 900 Euting, Cols. 1 and 3.
No. 4. - Da (Col. III.) comes, as has been asserted by all my predecessors, from a Daleth like that in Col. I. &, which is found, as Prof. Euting informs me, already on an Assyrian Weight of circiter 600 BC. The cursive simplification of this letter was therefore ancient in. Mesopotamia. It re-occurs in the Papyri, with a slight modification, compare especially Euting, Col. 14 b. The hook at the foot of the da Col. III. b, which occurs twice in the Aścka Hdicts and survives in the later inseriptious seenis to have been added in order to distinguish the letter froin na (No. 13, III. a).
No. 5. - The identity of ha (Col. III.) with He has not been recognised hitherto. But it seems to me derived from a round Hc, like the Teimn form in Col. J. a, with the cursive. transposition of the central vertical to the lower right end of the curve, which is particularly clear in the letter, given in Col. III. b, a not uncommon form in the Asóka Edicts. Similar transpositions of inconvenient pendants, which would have been in the way of the signs for the vowols, i, e and o, are not unusual : compare, e.g., below the remarks on Nos. 12 and 17. The He of the Papyri, though not rarely round at the top, shews vearly always a continuation of the central bar on the outside of the top-line, and hence is less suitable for comparison.
No. 6. - Va has preserved, as all previous writers have acknowledged, exactly the form of the Waw in the Teima inscription, which re-occurs on various later documents as the Ostraka from Elephantine and the Cilician Sntrap coins, and which is foreshadowed by the letter of the ancient Assyrian Weights, Euting, Col. 6. The Papyri again offer a more advanced ronnd form, which is common in the Kharêshtbi inscriptions, incised during the first and second centuries of our era.
