Four Sanskrit Alphabets

A paper on languages and alphabets in India.

People’s Linguistic Survey of India, Volume 36, 2021

Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 2017

This is the first volume in the series of Indo-European short grammars announced by the Publishing house Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, "Kurzgrammatiken indogermanischer Sprachen und Sprachstufen", or KiSS for short. This collection of grammars aims to provide basic information about the grammatical system and textual documentation of Indo-European languages in condensed form, that can be used for advanced study of the corresponding languages and for beginners alike. This new series will thus compete with another collection of Indo-European short grammars of similar format (though more diachronically oriented), Brill Introductions to Indo-European Languages, started in 2014 with the concise Avestan grammar by Michiel de Vaan and Javier Martínez (a review will appear in one of the coming issues of this journal). As the author Sabine Ziegler, Professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, explains in preface (p. 1), this grammar is based on her long-term experience of teaching Sanskrit to the students of Indo-European and Indology. The book consists of thirteen chapters. Chapter 1, "Einleitung" (pp. 3-8), opens with a very short, two-page, overview of the differences between Classical and Vedic Sanskrit. It is followed by a survey of Old Indian literature, from the earliest Vedic texts, R̥ gveda, onwards up to Classical Sanskrit literature, poetry (Mahākāvya) and narrative literature (collections of tales). Chapter 2, "Phonemsystem und Schrift" (pp. 9-23), presents the Sanskrit phonological system and writing system, Devanāgarī. The next short Chapter 3, "Betonung und Silbenstruktur" (pp. 24-25), explains the rules of accentuation of Classical Sanskrit forms, which are basically identical with those known from Latin (accent on the penultimate syllable unless this is short; in this latter case, the accent is on the antepenultimate). I am not sure this marginal issue (of little value for Sanskrit grammar proper, let alone Indo-European linguistics in general) deserves a separate, even short, chapter; moreover, the notation of the type bhárati, bharánti, illustrating this rule, appears quite confusing, being at odds with Vedic accentuation. A compromise notation might use underlining without accent marks (bharati, bharanti).

International Journal of Advanced Research (IJAR), 2018

The idea of this paper is to identify the oldness of the Sanskrit language,commonness or resemblances among a group of languages of South India such as Kannada and others in terms of letterset and numbers, spread of the Kannada language as a speaking language in the world, resemblances in the number systems after comparing the shapes of the numbers.

Sanskrit and Prakrits are derivatives of the Indo-Aryan family of languages, however their exact relationship is debated. The brahmin s, who followed the Vedas used Sanskrit as the language of their rites and rituals, and preferred keeping both Sanskrit and sacred and knowledge restricted to privileged caste groups. One way of ensuring this was strict oral transmission and the active discouragement of writing. By comparison, the sramanas such as Jains and Buddhists, who rejected the authority of the Vedas, preferred passing on religious insights and various forms of knowledge to the masses––Jain mythology puts great emphasis on essential equality of all people, and in one view, of all beings––and for this purpose they preferred Prakrits, since those languages were commonly understood. They also pioneered writing, and Prakrits are closely linked to the script called Brahmi. In India, sramanas , especially Jains, also helped in formalizing scripts for regional languages. Brahmi-derived scripts have been used for languages derived from Prakrit-Sanskrit and also have been adapted for languages with other origins, including the Dravidian, Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, and various South East Asian groups of languages. Thus, sramanas have had an impact on most extant writing systems in South and South East Asia in direct or indirect ways.

This monograph posits that Brāhmī is a syllabic script and is NOT derived from logo-graphic catalogue system of Indus Script. However, the following excerpts from a monograph by Subhash Kak are presented to present a contra view. Subhash Kak claims to have identified the 'signs' used in Indus Script Corpora to signify the numerals 5 and 10 and also to have identified parallels in orthography between Brāhmī 'syllabary' for consonants and 10 Indus 'signs'. Surprisingly some of the glyphs, like the fish, looked similar in Brāhmī and in Indus Script. Such striking similarity is noticed in about 5 glyphs. "Kak also sees a particular Prakrit feature in the Indus script which is not found in Elamite and Dravidian. This particular feature — the gentive case marker — is used to specify ownership which could mean that the seals were used for trading purposes. Frequency analysis of the Indus script found that one of the signs is a representation of the numeral 5. The Nagari script, used since 8 CE, also uses the same sign; in Brāhmī, this sign means ‘pa’ – the first letter of ‘pancha’. Brāhmī.inscriptions found in Sohagaura on copper plates and caskets in Batthiprolu shows various compound signs, like in the Indus." http://varnam.nationalinterest.in/2009/11/the-indus-script-decipherments/ Further suggestions from Kak's studies (see Sources listed at the end) are that the Indus Script is based on underlying Indo-Aryan language (since Brāhmī. syllabary was used to write Indo-Aryan language) and that Brāhmī writing system is derived from the Indus Writing System. Excerpts: After Table 3. Kak (1988)Ten most common consonants in decreasing frequency Hunter, G.R.1934. The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and Its Connection with Other Scripts, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. • • Witney, W.D. 1888. Sanskrit Grammar, Reprint, 1983, New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. • "Since our objective, in this study, is to determine what letters the most likely Indus signs could represent, and then validate this on morphological grounds, we only indicate the most likely 10 consonants in decreasing frequency: t, r, v, n, m, y, s, d, p, k The frequency of each one of these consonants is greater than 1.99 percent. The next most frequent sounds are s (palatal sh) and s (lingual sh) with frequencies of 1.57 and 1.45 respectively. It is conceivable that like Prakrit, early Indo-Aryan could have often substituted s for s and s. If this were to have been the case the total frequency of s could be close to that of t... • Numerals. Consider numerals now. Frequency considerations suggest that should be the symbol for the number 5. This is seen in Figure 3b which shows that there is large probability that will appear together with symbols for 2, 3, and 4. The frequency of with 1 is 7 and with itself is 10 which do not, therefore, show up in Figure 3b. Presumably, the lower frequency for is because 6 is also written as six vertical strokes. It also appears that 10 is represented both as as well as one of the other signs. The identification of as 5 means that Mitchiner’s assumption that it might stand for 100 is invalid. considerations suggest that should be the symbol for the number 5. This is seen in Figure 3b which shows that there is large probability that will appear together with symbols for 2, 3, and 4. The frequency of with 1 is 7 and with itself is 10 which do not, therefore, show up in Figure 3b. Presumably, the lower frequency for is because 6 is also written as six vertical strokes. It also appears that 10 is represented both as as well as one of the other signs. The identification of as 5 means that Mitchiner’s assumption that it might stand for 100 is invalid. It is noteworthy that the later Nagari sign for 5 is this with a stylized tail added to it. Also Brāhmī pa is , which looks very close to this sign. Note further that the symbol for 5 in Brāhmī comes from the first syllable of panca. The fact that the same symbol was used by the Harappans indicates that their word for 5 started with pa as well. This is further evidence against the theory of Dravidian origin of the Indus language since 5 in Tamil is aindu, in Telugu aidu. It reinforces our identification of the Indus language as being Indo-Aryan. Conclusions. The frequency analysis of the most common Brāhmī and Indus signs confirms the hypothesis that the two scripts are related. The case-ending evidence suggests that the language of the inscriptions is Indo-Aryan. The inference that the language is Indo- Aryan is strengthened by the observation that the words that follow the formulae “ “ , which Hunter has argued should be proper names, indeed read as plausible Indo-Aryan names at several places. But an analysis of the case-endings alone has its limitations. It cannot, by itself, establish conclusively that the language is Indo-Aryan. That will have to await a full decipherment of the Indus texts. In any event, the demonstration that Brāhmī is derived from Indus, and the indubitable relationship between Brāhmī and the Phoenician script indicates that the theories of the rise of early writing systems require a complete revision." After Table 2. Frequencies of various sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet (Source : Whitney [9]). Sources: Subhash Kak, 1988, A FREQUENCY ANALYSIS OF THE INDUS SCRIPT • July 1988 • Cryptologia 12(3):129-143 Mirrored at Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233116026 Two related papers of Subhash Kak are: Subhash C. Kak, “INDUS – AND – BRAHMI – FURTHER – CONNECTIONS” Cryptologia 14, no. 2 (1990): 169. Subhash C. Kak, “AN – INDUS-SARASVATI SIGNBOARD,” Cryptologia 20, no. 3 (1996): 275. Kharosthi The Kharosthi, or Kharoṣṭhī, script was invented sometime during the 3rd century BCE and was possibly derived from the Aramaic script. It was used in Gandhara, an ancient kingdom in what is now the northwest of Pakistan, and the Jalalabad district of Afghanistan. Kharosthi texts have also been found along the Silk Road in Bactria, Kushan, Sogdia, and in parts of China. By the 4th century AD the script was no longer used in Gandhara, but may have been used until the 7th centuries in places such as Khotan / Hotan (和田), in what is now Xinjiang in the northeast of China. Unlike the Brāhmī script, which was invented at around the same time and spawned many of the modern scripts of India and South East Asia, Kharosthi had no descendants. Kharoshti was deciphered during the 19th century by James Prinsep, Christian Lassen, C.L. Grotefend and Edwin Norris. Bilingual inscriptions in Gandhari and Greek on coins helped with the decipherment. Since then further material has been found and the script is now better understood. Notable features • Type of writing system: syllabic alphabet or abugida - each letter has an inherent vowel /a/. Other vowels are indicated using diacritics. • Direction of writing: right to left in horizontal lines. Kharoṣṭhī a syllabic writing system used to write Gandhari, of Gāndhārī, a Prakrit language used in inscriptions in the Kharoṣṭhī script between the 3rd century BCE and the 4th century CE, and possibly until the 7th century CE. Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्), a classical language of India, which is still used as a religious and ceremonial language, and as a spoken language to some extent. Pali (पालि), the classical language of Theravada Buddhism that was first used in Sri Lanka during the 1st century BCE. I tried to see if the following ten consonants identified by Subhash Kak had cognates in Kharoṣṭhī t, r, v, n, m, y, s, d, p, k The 'signs' of Kharoṣṭhī for ten consonants are listed below. Ten Kharoṣṭhī consonants for ten frequent consonants of Indo-Aryan languages identified by Subhash Kak: I do NOT find any parallel between Kharoṣṭhī consonant glyphs and Brāhmī. I do NOT find any hieroglyphs of Indus Script which parallel the ten Kharoṣṭhī consonants. I have not attempted to compare the consonants of Kharoṣṭhī with Aramaic or other scripts of the Ancient Near East. ta ra va na ma ya śa da pa ka 10 ba ṣa za I have no comments to offer on the underlying assumption of Subhash Kak that the writing system is a syllabic system comparable to Brāhmī. My conjecture is that kharoṣṭhī writing system was necessitated by the imperative of syllabic representation of syllables in names of people and in writing down words related to philosophical topics such as Samghāta Sutra which is a compilation cognate with the words: samgraha, samgaha ‘catalogue’. This conjecture may explain the reality of early cast coins which bore both Indus Script hieroglyphs and also kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī syllables to signify ‘names’. Based on clusteranalyses of 'signs' and 'pictorial motifs', the writing system is seen to be logo-graphic and each hieroglyph component is read as a word in Meluhha to compile catalogues of metalwork accounting ledgers. Meluhha of Bhāratīya sprachbund (speech union) links Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Munda streams of speech forms to signify the Harosheth (smithy) cognate Kharoṣṭhī which has been explained as an expression to signify: 'blacksmith speech'. See: Harosheth Hagoyim: Lady on the chariot lynchpin is Meluhha, Indus Script hypertext kharoṣṭhī goya, 'blacksmith speech community' https://tinyurl.com/yc3zndc6

In my view, Sarasvati script has virtually no influence on orthography of symbols used on Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī scripts. The possible reasons are: 1. Sarasvati (Indus) script is logographic and provides hieroglyph multiplex texts read (in mlecchita vikalpa or meluhha cipher) as catalogues related to metalwork. The thesis is that Indus Script Corpora is catalogus catalogorum of metalwork of Bronze Age. 2. There are no orthographic comparators to suggest link of the first syllables of metalwork words with the syllabic symbols of Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī scripts. 3. Though the ligaturing principle followed on Sarasvati (Indus) Script is followed in Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī syllabic symbols (i.e. by modifying basic consonants with vowel a endings by diacritical ligatures to connote other vowel endings: A, i, I, u, U, e, ai), the basic orthography of the symbols used in the two scripts of Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī bear only hazy resemblance to any of the hieroglyphs deployed on Sarasvati (Indus) script. 4. Unfortunately, the Vikramkhol inscription which seems to contain Sarasvati (Indus) script hieroglyphs of both a pictorial motif (animal) and sign (bellows) the letterings are not legible, because of eroded stone engravings, though the animal + bellows hieroglyphs identified by KP Jayaswal are indicative of record of metalwork. The available evidence thus seems to indicate that the prototypes for Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī scripts are likely to be alphabetic scripts such as Aramaic, Phoenician -- adapted with ligatures to signify Meluhha (mleccha) syllables. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/07/indus-script-hieroglyphs-have-virtually.html Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/nefomgf Contra arguments are gleaned from Subhash Kak and BV Subbarayappa which are presented on this note. Further reviewing their arguments, I see no reason to revise my earlier hypothesis that Sarasvati (Indus) script has virtually no influence on Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī scripts including representation of numerals in these two syllabic scripts. In Subhash Kak's view, "primary Brāhmī signs look closes to the Sarasvati signs. many of the Brahmi signs are the first syllables of familiar objects: thus, g, ch, m, s', h appear to have been derived from the representations of giri (hill), chatra (umbrella), matsya (fish), s'ara (arrow), and hasta (hand)...Unfortunately, the phonetic values for the most frequent Sarasvati signs do not help us in reading most of the seals and other texts. The reason for this is that the short lengths of these texts disallows unambiguous readings." (p.379, 382) Subhash Kak compares Sarasvati sign (hieroglyph 'fish') to syllable m in Brāhmī: He further argues: "The Brāhmī 10 before the advent of zero was written as a fish sign, or the sign for m, lying sideways. In later forms it was also written with a single curving stroke, or with vertical stroke attached to a circle. It appears thatthe shape of zero was determined by the oval related to the fish sign of the Brāhmī 10. In such a representation, the zero sign clearly had the null (s'Unya) value which explains its name." (P.384) Contrasted with this are the sets of numeral symbols of Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī, none of which bear any resemblance to 'fish' symbol variants recorded in Brāhmī: Brahmi numerals There is, however, a possibility that numerals were acrophonic and based on the Kharosthi alphabet. "For instance, chatur 4 early on took a Y shape much like the Kharoṣṭhī letter ch, panca 5 looks remarkably like Kharoṣṭhī p; and so on through shat 6, sapta 7, and nav 9 (Kharoṣṭhī sh, s, n). However, there are problems of timing and lack of records. The full set of numerals is not attested until the 1st-2nd century CE...Both suggestions, that the numerals derive from tallies or that they're alphabetic, are purely speculative at this point, with little evidence to decide between them." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_numerals See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/indus-writing-and-numeration-dr-bv.html. Presented herein are three extraordinarily insightful articles which should lead to further evaluation of the evidence provided by the Indus writing corpora. Dr. Subbarayappa presents fresh perspectives on the continuity in the use of numerals in early inscriptions of Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭī with parallels in Indus writing. He also discusses the parallels between proto-Elamite and Rigvedic cultures. Dr. Subhash Kak presents fresh perspectives on the continuity of glyphs used in Brāhmī script as an evolution from Indus writing. He also discusses the development of the zero sign from ancient India. (Kak, Subhash, 1994, Evolutio of writing in India, Indian Journal of History of Science, 29(3), 1994, pp.375-388.) My comment is that these insights are hypotheses which should be validated by reading the inscriptions in Indus writing; the corpora now exceed over 5000 inscriptions not only in sites such as Mohenjodaro and Harappa but in newly excavated sites such as Bhirrana and Kanmer and also in ancient Near East including Persian Gulf settlements. The number of inscriptions will increase to over 10,000 if continued use of Sarasvati (Indus) symbols (frequently, together with Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī script) on punchmarked and cast coins are taken into reckoning. A good example is the following silver coin with writings in Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī AND ALSO Sarasvati (Indus) script: Silver coin of the Kuninda Kingdom, c. 1st century BCE. Obv: Deer standing right, crowned by two cobras, attended by Lakshmi holding a lotusflower. Legend in Prakrit (Brāhmī script, from left to right): Rajnah Kunindasya Amoghabhutisya maharajasya ("Great KingAmoghabhuti, of the Kunindas"). Rev: Stupa surmounted by the Buddhistsymbol triratna, and surrounded by aswastika, a "Y" symbol, and a tree in railing. Legend in Kharoṣṭhī script, from righ to left:Rana Kunidasa Amoghabhutisa Maharajasa, ("Great King Amoghabhuti, of the Kunindas"). In this example from a Kuninda mint, the coin shows metalwork catalog in Sarasvati (Indus) script -- hieroglyph multiplex text -- while recording the name and title of Amoghabhuti of Kuninda in Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī syllabic scripts.