Alphabet Letters
Brahmi Ka 𑀓
Brahmi Letters
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Origin Mature Brahmi is securely attested in the edicts of Ashoka in the middle of the third century BCE, and the script could be read again only after James Prinsep worked out its values in 1837
Ka is the first consonant of the Brahmi order and the head of the velar class, the first of the five groups of five stops around which the Indian phonetic tradition organised its table. It is a voiceless unaspirated stop, made by closing the back of the tongue against the soft palate. Like every consonant sign in the script it carries the inherent short a, so the letter alone spells the syllable ka and not the single sound k. The five classes run from the back of the mouth forwards, which is why the velars stand first, and the consonant order of every script descended from Brahmi keeps that arrangement to this day. Its earliest shape is a simple cross of two strokes, and it is among the letters whose descent into the later scripts is easiest to follow.
Facts
Disputed
Origin PeriodMany epigraphists derive Brahmi from a Semitic prototype, most often Aramaic, adapted in the centuries before the Mauryan empire 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Brahmi's ancestry is disputed among epigraphists. Richard Salomon's Indian Epigraphy (Oxford University Press, 1998) surveys two live positions on the origin of the script attested in the Ashokan inscriptions: one derives Brahmi from a Semitic prototype, most often Aramaic, adapted in the centuries before the Mauryan empire; the other holds that it developed inside India itself. The dispute turns on the corpus, since Brahmi is securely attested only from Ashoka's edicts in the middle of the third century BCE onward, first read again by James Prinsep in 1837, and no earlier specimen on either side is securely dated. Both camps compare Brahmi's letterforms against Aramaic and other Semitic scripts using the same paleographic method, and without an intermediate dated example bridging the gap between any proposed ancestor and the Mauryan era script, neither derivation has been shown to fit the evidence better than the other. Origin PeriodOthers argue for a development inside India, and with no securely dated specimen earlier than the edicts the question stays open 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Brahmi's ancestry is disputed among epigraphists. Richard Salomon's Indian Epigraphy (Oxford University Press, 1998) surveys two live positions on the origin of the script attested in the Ashokan inscriptions: one derives Brahmi from a Semitic prototype, most often Aramaic, adapted in the centuries before the Mauryan empire; the other holds that it developed inside India itself. The dispute turns on the corpus, since Brahmi is securely attested only from Ashoka's edicts in the middle of the third century BCE onward, first read again by James Prinsep in 1837, and no earlier specimen on either side is securely dated. Both camps compare Brahmi's letterforms against Aramaic and other Semitic scripts using the same paleographic method, and without an intermediate dated example bridging the gap between any proposed ancestor and the Mauryan era script, neither derivation has been shown to fit the evidence better than the other. Attributions
Associated SoundVoiceless unaspirated velar stop, made by closing the back of the tongue against the soft palate, and read with the inherent short a 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Origins
Origin PeriodMature Brahmi is securely attested in the edicts of Ashoka in the middle of the third century BCE, and the script could be read again only after James Prinsep worked out its values in 1837 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Place of OriginThe Indian subcontinent. The Ashokan edicts carry the script from the Gangetic plain across the Deccan to the far south, while the northwest of the same empire wrote in Kharosthi instead 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Origin of the NameThe letter has no traditional name of its own. It is called by its own sound plus the inherent short a, and the form used here is the name the Unicode Standard gives the character 3Tradition: Modern scholarly naming of the Brahmi letters Sense of the Namethe voiceless unaspirated velar; first consonant of the Brahmi order 3Tradition: Modern scholarly naming of the Brahmi letters Identity
Script TypeAn abugida: every consonant sign carries an inherent short a, which a vowel mark alters and the virama cancels, so the unit written is the syllable rather than the single sound 1Tradition: Comparative writing systems PositionFirst consonant of the Brahmi order and head of the velar class, the first of the five classes of stops 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy How the Letter JoinsConsonants that meet with no vowel between them are written as a conjunct, the second stacked beneath or ligatured to the first, rather than as two separate signs 1Tradition: Comparative writing systems Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceThe letter belongs to the received Brahmi order, and the corresponding sign in the scripts descended from Brahmi across South and Southeast Asia goes back to it 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Transmission
Manuscript TraditionAttested from the Asokan rock and pillar edicts of the third century BCE, the earliest substantial Brahmi corpus. 2 Learn More
Ka, and the Words That Ask
Every interrogative in Sanskrit is built on this consonant. Who, what, which, where, when, how and why are all forms of a single stem beginning with ka, declined and compounded in the ordinary way, so a question in the language announces itself by its first sound. The same stem supplies the indefinite pronouns when a particle is added to it, so someone, something and anyone are the interrogatives with a tag on the end. A reader working through an inscription learns to notice the letter for that reason before learning much else about it, and the Vedic hymns that ask which god an offering should be made to turn on exactly this word.
The letter also serves as one of the commonest suffixes in the language, added to a stem to form a diminutive, an adjective or simply a variant of the noun with no change of meaning, and it is the ending of an enormous number of ordinary words as a result. When it meets another consonant with no vowel between them, the two are written as a single conjunct rather than as two signs in sequence, and the conjuncts this letter forms are among the most frequent in any Sanskrit text. In the writing of a cluster the second consonant is stacked below or ligatured to the first, so a cluster of three occupies the vertical space that a script writing left to right in a single band would have no room for.
The Letter That Was Read First
Brahmi was unreadable for something like a thousand years. The script fell out of use as its descendants replaced it, nobody in India was taught it, and the Ashokan edicts stood in the open for centuries as visible writing that no one could interpret. It was read again in 1837, when James Prinsep, then secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, published the values of the letters. His way in was not the edicts but the short donative records cut into the railings at Sanchi, dozens of them, each naming a donor and ending in the same word for gift. A formula that repeats with only the names changing gives a decipherer exactly what is needed, and the recurring ending fixed enough values for the rest to follow.
What came out of that work was the whole epigraphic history of early India, and the shape of this letter is one of the reasons the reading holds. Its earliest form is a plain cross of two strokes, simple enough to be cut consistently by masons of very different skill, and stable enough that its descent into the later scripts can be followed step by step through the Kushana and Gupta hands into the northern and southern branches alike. Comparing a single common letter across dated inscriptions is how an undated one is placed, and a letter that is both frequent and simple is the palaeographer's best instrument.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived from This
Devanagari Ka descends from the Brahmi sign of the same value, through the Gupta and Nagari hands of northern India. The two alphabets align letter for letter because both are laid out in the varnamala order, the arrangement the Sanskrit phoneticians fixed by place of articulation.
The Gurmukhi letter Kakka continues the sign Brahmi Ka writes in the same place of the inherited series. The descent is not direct: it runs through the Sharada script of the northwest and then the Landa hands of the Punjab, and it is stated from position in the order rather than from shape.
Ranjana Ka continues the sign Brahmi Ka writes in the same place of the inherited varnamala. The descent is not direct: it runs through the Gupta and Siddhamatrka stages of the northern Brahmi line and then the scripts of Nepal, and it is stated from position in the order rather than from shape.
Siddham continues the Brahmi order letter for letter. The descent runs through the late Brahmi of the Gupta period and the Siddhamatrka hand that grows out of it, so this is a lineage rather than a direct copy of the older shape.
Tibetan ka continues the Brahmi ka, keeping its value and its place in the inherited order. The descent of the Tibetan script from the Brahmi family is not disputed; which Indic script of that family served as the immediate model in the seventh century is, and this link names the ancestor the atlas holds rather than choosing among the candidates.
Related To
Voicing partners in the velar class. Both are unaspirated stops made with the back of the tongue against the soft palate, and the vocal folds vibrate through the closure of the second.
Opposite corners of the velar class, the first of the five groups of five. One is voiceless and unaspirated, the other voiced and aspirated, and the class holds all four combinations of the two features.
Aspiration partners in the velar class. The two are the same voiceless stop, and only the breath that follows the release separates them.
The nasal of the velar class, made at the same point as this stop, with the back of the tongue against the soft palate and the breath let out through the nose. Every class in the table closes with its own nasal.
The nasal of the velar class, made at the same point as this stop, with the back of the tongue against the soft palate. Every class in the table closes with its own nasal, standing after the stop that opens the class.
Ka answers to Brahmi Ka, the same voiceless unaspirated velar stop opening the same line of the shared Indic scheme; Tibetan's own origin-period fact states the script was modeled on an Indian Brahmi-derived script.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.