Art. XIII.—The Semitic Origin of the Indian Alphabet

Abstract

In my note on the above subject which appeared in the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal for 1895 (Vol. XXVII, pp. 895–898), I brought to notice the existence in Ceylon of several ancient inscriptions in Southern Maurya characters (Brāhmī lipi), which read from right to left. I stated further that “this oft repeated peculiarity of so many inscriptions certainly cannot be merely accidental or due to the ignorance of the inscribers; the more so, because of the important fact that the anomaly is to be met with only in the most ancient inscriptions in the Southern Aśoka character.” I hope before long to obtain ink ‘estampages’ of some of these from the indefatigable Archæological Commissioner in Ceylon, Mr. H. C. P. Bell, to whom should be given the credit of first suggesting a reading of one of them from right to left. Facsimiles will, in due course, be included in the forthcoming “Epigraphia Zeylanica.”