is not older than 300 B.C., and bas consequently undergone alterations for about fourteen centuries after its formation and perhaps ten centuries after the formation of the Phoenician alphabet we cannot expect much. Even the Phoenician symbols dating 1000 B. c. fail in this respect, Still the shape of some of the Bráhmí letters represents the objects remarkably well. The attached table gives the names of the Phoenician letters, with their meanings. It also gives their shape and the corresponding letters of the Bráhmí alphabet.

It will be seen that the Bráhmí symbols to represent the sounds of Bet (b) and Resh (r) have exactly the shape of a house and a hair respectively. The symbols for y and k (Phoenician yod and kap) also represent the hand to a certain extent and that for "m" a waterpot. The symbol for a can represent a head with two horns if the vertical line at the end is shifted a little to the right, as in the Phoenician letter. The Phoenician symbols for the sounds z and k q) not found in Bráhmí, and for the sound of letter Teth, which was perhaps different from the ordinary t represented by the Phoenician Tav, were, it appears, adopted from the aspirates of the letters j, k and t. Here again we find the Bráhmí aspirate letters kh and th show exactly the shape of a cage and a cake respectively. In jh also it is not difficult to imagine the shape of a weapon. More letters of the Phoenician alphabet would, I am sure, have found representation of their objects in Bráhmí if the Bráhmí characters of an earlier date had been discovered. In the next chapter the principle on which the Bráhmí letters appear to have been designed will be discussed and an idea of their probable original shape obtained. The plate at the end shows these shapes, and it will be found that they bear a greater resemblance to the objects represented by the Phoenician letters. k and Ꭹ each show five lines, a better representation of a hand (kap and yod meaning hand). The symbol for g can also be taken, although distantly, to be a camel, and that for n may be likened to a fish. The symbol for 1 is very nearly like the Indian goad for elephants, and if the Phoenician ox-goad was similar, the

reason for the name "lámed" being given to the letter can be understood.

Let us now examine the other peculiarity of the Phoenician alphabet, viz., its arrangement which not being fixed on any principle appears to be an almost blind copy of some other alphabet. Of the Indian alphabet we know only two arrangements at present, (1) the original arrangement based on the gradual change of sounds and part of the mouth they emanate from, and (2) the one adopted from the same by the author of Śiva Sútras for the purposes of his grammar, and subsequently taken by Pánini. Pánini mentions several grammarians who preceded him, but it is not known at this distant age if they altered the arrangement of the letters to suit their own grammars. It is probable they did, for otherwise the alphabet adopted by Pánini would not have particularly beer mentioned as taken from Śiva Sútras. But we do not possess any altered arrangement of the letters. Let us therefore take the Śiva Sútra or Pánini's alphabet for comparison.

To make a comparison between two alphabets it is necessary to remove from each the letters representing, sounds not found in the other and take only the sounds common to both. Thus zain (z) and koph (q or k) will go away from the Phoenician alphabet, and its arrangement remains as follows. I give certain serial numbers for an easy reference later on. (1) a, (2) b, g or j, d, (3) h, v, (4) ch, t, y, k, (5) 1, m, n, (6) s, a, (7) p, s, r, sh, (8) t.

Treating Pánini's alphabet similarly its arrangement comes to the following:

(1) a, (2) h, y, v, (3) r, (4) 1, m, n, (5) b, g, d, or j, b, d,

(6) ch, t, k, (7) p, ś, ș, (8) s, h.

Now by a comparison of the two, the similarity of the two alphabets is at once apparent. Serials 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the Phoenician are the same as serials 1, 5, 2, 6, 4, 8 and 7 respectively in Pápini's alphabet excepting for the position of y and r which is not very material.

This leaves no doubt that the Phoenician alphabet was derived from the Indian alphabet, rearranged for the purposes