Alphabet Letters
Brahmi Sha 𑀰
Brahmi Letters
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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
Sha is the palatal sibilant, the first of the three sibilants that follow the semivowels in the order. Old Indo-Aryan distinguishes three of them and Middle Indo-Aryan reduced the set, so the Prakrit of most of the Ashokan edicts writes one sibilant where Sanskrit would write three. The distinction the three letters make therefore belongs more to the Brahmi later adapted for Sanskrit than to the language of the earliest inscriptions, and which sibilant an edict uses is itself a clue to the dialect in which it was cut. Which sibilants a dialect kept is one of the standard tests used to group the Prakrits, and the edicts, cut in several dialects across the empire, are the earliest evidence there is for that grouping.
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 SoundPalatal sibilant, the first of the three sibilants; the Prakrit of most of the Ashokan edicts writes a single sibilant where Sanskrit would distinguish three 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 palatal sibilant; thirtieth 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 PositionThirtieth consonant of the Brahmi order and first of the three sibilants 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 SourceOld Indo-Aryan distinguishes three sibilants and Middle Indo-Aryan reduced them, so the three-way distinction belongs more to the Sanskrit-writing Brahmi than to the Prakrit of the earliest inscriptions 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
The Sibilant of the Great Names
A remarkable share of the central vocabulary of Indian religion begins with this letter. The name of one of the two great deities of classical Hinduism, the word for the divine power personified as a goddess, the term for what is heard and therefore for revealed scripture, the word for peace that closes so many recited formulas, and the honorific prefixed to names, titles and texts across the subcontinent all open with it. So does the term for a corpse and the term for a hundred, which is a reminder that the letter is an ordinary sound and not a sacred one.
In the grammar it participates in a regular substitution. The dental sibilant becomes this palatal one before a palatal consonant, which is one of the routine rules of junction, so a word ending in the dental sibilant followed by a word beginning with a palatal shows this letter at the seam. Reading a continuous text in the script therefore means undoing the substitution to find the underlying forms.
The transliteration used in European scholarship writes it with an s carrying a diacritic, and the popular romanisation writes sh, which collides with the retroflex sibilant that is also written sh. Two distinct Sanskrit sounds therefore reach a general reader as one spelling, and the confusion runs deep enough that many familiar words are habitually pronounced with the wrong sibilant outside South Asia.
Three Sibilants, and Then One
Old Indo-Aryan holds three sibilants apart and Middle Indo-Aryan reduced the set, so the Prakrit of most of the Ashokan edicts writes a single sibilant where Sanskrit writes three. The distinction the three letters make therefore belongs more to the Brahmi that was later adapted for Sanskrit than to the language of the earliest inscriptions, and a reader of the edicts meets far fewer sibilant contrasts than a reader of a classical text.
Which sibilants a dialect kept, and which one the reduced set collapsed onto, is one of the standard tests by which the Prakrits are grouped, and the edicts supply the earliest evidence for it. Because the same proclamations were cut at sites across an empire in several different dialects, the corpus offers direct comparisons: the same word in the same formula, spelled differently in two places, differing in exactly this feature.
The letter is well attested in the northwestern material and thinly attested elsewhere in the third century BCE, which makes it one of the harder signs for a palaeographer to date. Where a letter is rare in the earliest period, its later shapes have to be placed by inference from the letters beside it, and the resulting sequence is less firm than it is for the common consonants. That unevenness in the evidence is worth keeping in mind whenever a date is offered for a hand.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived from This
Devanagari Sha 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.
Ranjana Sha continues the sign Brahmi Sha 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 sha continues the Brahmi sha, 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
Both belong to the group the phoneticians call ushman, the sounds made with audible friction rather than a full closure of the tract.
Two of the three sibilants, arranged in the order back to front like the five classes of stops before them.
Two of the three sibilants Old Indo-Aryan holds apart. Middle Indo-Aryan reduced the set, so most of the Ashokan edicts write one sibilant where Sanskrit writes three.
Sha answers to Brahmi Sha, the same voiceless palato-alveolar fricative.
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