Origin of Brahmi Script

Earliest written records of India in the historical period, Asokan inscriptions hold the key to the story of riting in this country. These epigraphs have been written in Greek, Aramaic, Kharosthi, and Brahmi. Among these the origins of the first three scripts are not disputed but the beginnings of Brahmi elude the grasp of historians. Majority of western scholars derive Brahmi's origin from one of these scripts – Hieratic, cuneiform, Phoenician, Aramaic and Kharosthi. A few foreign scholars and most of the Indian scholars believe in its indigenous origin. The author of the present work has critically reviewed and scrutinized the existing views and shown convincingly a correlation between the pre-existing geometrical forms and later signs of the Brahmi script. He has illustrated with charts that most of the letters of Brahmi alphabet betray very close resemblance with geometrical forms such as semi-circle, circle, ellipse, cycloid, triangle, angle and quadrangle etc. Each letter of the Brahmi script has been discussed here in greater detail than ever before and its origin from geometrical signs clearly demonstrated. Besides, the author has brought out for the first time numerous new forms of Asokan letters originating from geometrical signs, which were hitherto unknown or unnoticed. The work on the whole is marked out for originality, clarity, sound scholarship and critical acumen of the author. The book is bound to benefit the general readers as well as researchers in the field.