________________
314
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1895.
Mr. E. Thomas. He has recognised that the palatal na consists of two dental na, joined together, and it may be added that in the Asoka Edicts sometimes the right half and sometimes the left half is only rudimentary, as shewn by the two specimens given in the Table. He has also asserted that the anusvira is nothing but a subscript small ma, which proposition is perfectly evident in the form given in the table, less apparent, but not less true in other cases, for which I must refer to Plate I. of my Grundriss der indischen Paleographie.
(4) As regards, finally, the Kharðshthi vowal system and the compound consonants (not given in the accompanying table), I can only agree with Mr. E. Thomas, Prof. A. Weber and Sir A. Cunningham, that they have been elaborated with the help of the Brahma Alphabet. Among the vowel signs the medial ones have been framed first and afterwards only the initial I, U, E, O (No. 1, Col. IV. a.d). They consist merely of straight strokes, which (1) in the case of i go across the left side of the upper or uppermost lines of the consonant, C) in the case of u slant away from the left side of the foot, (3) in the case of e stand, slanting from the right to the left, on the top line of the consonant (mostly on the left side), and (4) in the case of o stand below the top line (compare tho, No. 20, Col. IV. d) or slant away from the upper half of the vertical as in 0. The position of the four medial vowels thus closely agrees with that of the corresponding signs of the Brahma Alphabet, where i, e and o stand at the top of the consonants and at the foot. This circumstance alone is sufficient to raise the suspicion that there is a direct connexion between the two systems of vowel-notation. And the suspicion becomes stronger, if some further facts are taken into consideration. In the Brahma Alphabet of the Asoka Edicts the medial e and u are mostly expressed by straight strokes. The medial o, too, consists in several casos, e. g., in Delhi Sivalik Pillar Edict, VII. 2, 1. 2 nigohání) of a straight bar across the top of the consonant, and has the same form frequently in the Bhattiprolu inscriptions as well as in somewhat later documents. Again the medial i of the Girnar version is expressed by a shallow curve, which in many instances is not distinguishable from the straight lino of the medial a. Thus even the oldest Brahma documents furnish instances, in which all the four vowels, expressed in the Kharôshthi by straight strokes, have exactly the same form, and it is very probable that in the ordinary writing of every day life these cursive forms were in the case of o and i much more frequent than tho Edicts shew, as well as that they go back to earlier times than the third century B. C. If, finally, the fact is added, that the Kharôshthi, like the Brahmi considers tlie short a to be inherent in all consonants and does not express it by any sign, it becomes difficult to avoid the inference, drawn already by Prof. Weber, that the Kharoshthi system of medial vowels has been borrowed from the older alphabet.
The marking of the initial I, U, E, O (No. 1, Col. IV., a-d) by A plus the corresponding medial vowel-sign is, of course, an independent invention of the framer or framers of the Kharðshthi, and probably due to a desire to simplify the more cumbersome system of the Brahmi, which first developed the initial vowels, next nsed them in combination with the consonants and finally reduced their shapes in such combinations to simple strokes and curves.23 Similar attempts have been repeatedly made on Indian ground. The modern Devanagari has its and since the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the modern Gujarati has its e, ai, o and au, and the Tibetan alphabet, framed out of the letters of the Vartu seventh century A. D., expresses even I and U by A plus i and 4. These examples show that the idea at all events came naturally to the Hindus and that it is unnecessary to look for a foreign source of its origin.
(5) The rules for the treatment of the compound consonants again agree so fully with those of the Brahmi, especially with those adopted in the Girnar version, that they can only be considered as copies of the latter.
(i) Double consonants like leka, tla, and groups of unaspirated consonants like klha, ttha, etc. are expressed by the second element alone, except in the case of two nasals of the same
23 See Indian Studies, No. III. p. 75ff
