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NOVEMBER, 1906.]
THE ORIGIN OF THE DEVANAGARI ALPHABET.
311
A THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE DEVANAGARI ALPHABET.
BY R. SHAMASASTRY, B.A. (Continued from p. 290.)
CHAPTER V. The Derivatives.
Plate IX. Thus are the Devanagari letters a, i, u, e, o, ka, kha, gha, cha, ta, da, dha, na, pa, ma, ya, ra, la, va, ša, sha, sa, ha, the visarga and the nasal sound to be identified with the Tantric hieroglyphics by a far smaller stretch of imagination than that involved in Prof. Bühler's latest theory of the Semitic origin of the Devanagari Alphabet. The question that now arises is, how the rest of the forty-eight or forty-nine letters have been contrived P For evidently, there were no hieroglyphics from which the rest could be as easily selected as the twenty-two or twenty-three letters described. With regard to this question, the very words of Prof. Bühler can be repeated, only replacing the words 'borrowed sign' by indigenous bieroglyphic." . The contrivances by which the derivative signs, both primary and secondary, for consonants and initial vowels have been formed, are:
(1) The transposition of one of the elements of a phonetically cognate indigenous bieroglyphic. (2) The mutilation of a hieroglyphic or of another derivative sign of a similar phonetic value.
(8) The addition of straight lines, crves or hooks to original or derivative symbols.
The complete elaboration of the Brahmi Alphabet by the process of differentiation of the original hieroglyphics or of their derivatives, is not only indicated by the similarity of cognate alphabetic letters to one another, but is also distinctly referred to in the Vdtuldgama :
अकारं च इकारं च उकारं च कारकम् । लकारं चैव एकारं तथैवीकारमेव च ।। एसे सप्त स्वराः प्रोक्ताः प्रकृतिस्तु समीरिताः। शेषास्तु विकृतिः प्रोक्ताः तेषामुडवमुच्यते॥ अकाराचोड़वाकारामिकारेवीसमुनवः ।।
P. 28, Vatuldgama. "The seven vowels a, i, u, fi, li, e and o are declared to be primary letters. The rest of the vowels are the modifications of the primary ones. The formation of the modified letters is thus described : from a originated the long &, and from i the long 1.'
Indeed the formation of the letters ri and li from primary hieroglyphics, as alluded to in the above verses, is somewhat doubtful; still there is no reason to doubt the complete manipulation of the Devanagari by differentiation of the primary letters or symbols. Even Prof. Biihler, who went 80 far as to seek a Semitic source for the Devanagari, admits the ability of the Brâhman pandit or pandits in the arrangement of the letters. In The Origin of the Brahma Alphabet (p. 86) be says:
"One of the undeniable results of the preceding inquiry is that the Brahma Alphabet must be considered the work of Brahmans, acquainted with phonetic and grammatical theories. The pandit's band is clearly visible in the arrangement of the letters used by Asoka's masons at Mahabodhi Gaya, according to their organic value as vowels, diphthongs, naselised vowel, vowel with the spirant, gutturals, palatals and linguals. And it is also visible at a much earlier stage in the very formation of the alphabet. Nobody but a grammarian or phoneticist would have thought of deriving five nasals, one of each class of the Indian consonants from the two Semitic prototypes, and of inventing in addition sign to denote the natalization of vowels, the anus vara or of forming two spirants ha and
