Alphabet Letters
Brahmi I 𑀇
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
I is the short palatal vowel, formed with the body of the tongue raised towards the hard palate and the lips spread. It stands third in the Brahmi order, after the two a vowels and before its own long counterpart, in a sequence that runs through the vowels by pairs before it reaches the consonants. Written as an independent letter only where a word opens with the vowel, it appears everywhere else as a mark on the consonant it follows, replacing the inherent a of that sign. The vowel also has a consonantal counterpart, the semivowel ya, and the grammatical tradition treats the two as one sound in two roles, the vowel turning into the semivowel whenever a dissimilar vowel follows it.
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. 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 the vowel it writes, 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 short i vowel; third letter of the Brahmi order 3Tradition: Modern scholarly naming of the Brahmi letters Transmission
Manuscript TraditionAttested from the Asokan rock and pillar edicts of the third century BCE, the earliest substantial Brahmi corpus. 2 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 PositionThird letter of the Brahmi order and third of the vowels 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy How the Letter JoinsAn independent vowel letter takes no attachment. After a consonant the same vowel is written not with this letter but as a mark added to the consonant sign 1Tradition: Comparative writing systems Attributions
Associated SoundShort i, palatal, formed with the body of the tongue raised towards the hard palate and the lips spread 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy 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 Learn More
I, and the Rule That Turns It into a Consonant
The most consequential thing about this vowel in Sanskrit is that it does not stay a vowel. When a dissimilar vowel follows it directly, i becomes the semivowel ya, and the whole sequence is rewritten. The grammarians state that once and let it apply everywhere, which is why the sandhi rules of the language are short enough to memorise: instead of listing the outcomes of every vowel meeting every other vowel, they name the semivowel each vowel answers to and give one rule of substitution. The same rule turns u into va and the syllabic r into ra, and the pairing of vowel with semivowel that the rule depends on is written into the order of the letters themselves.
The vowel is also the marker of a large class of nominal stems and the vehicle of the two strengthening grades. Raised one step it becomes e and raised a second it becomes ai, and a great many Sanskrit words are the same root at different points on that ladder. A reader who knows the ladder can often see the relation between two words that look unlike on the page, which is precisely what the tradition built it to do. In the Prakrit of the Ashokan edicts the vowel is if anything more frequent than in Sanskrit, because several older sounds fell together into it as the language changed.
The Sign Above the Line
Brahmi writes this vowel in two entirely different ways depending on where it stands. At the head of a word it has an independent letter of its own; anywhere else it is a mark attached to the consonant it follows, replacing that consonant's inherent a. The two forms are not variants of one shape and a learner has to acquire both, which is true of every vowel in the script and is one of the things that makes an abugida harder to teach than it looks. The mark sits above the line of writing, in the band the script reserves for the front vowels, and the descendants of Brahmi keep it there.
Where the descendants diverge is in how far the mark travels. In several of the northern scripts the corresponding sign eventually detached itself and came to be written before the consonant it is pronounced after, so a reader has to hold the mark in mind until the consonant arrives. Brahmi itself does not do this, and the change is one of the clearer markers of the distance between the parent script and its later children. The Prakrit of the third century BCE gave scribes no shortage of occasions to write it, so the mark is well attested from the earliest surviving material onwards, which is not true of every sign in the vowel series.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived from This
Devanagari I 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 Iri continues the sign Brahmi I writes, through the Sharada script of the northwest and the Landa hands of the Punjab. The parent wrote an independent vowel letter here; Gurmukhi reduced it to a silent bearer that holds a vowel sign, which is a departure of its own.
Ranjana I continues the sign Brahmi I 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 gi gu continues the Brahmi i, 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
Second strengthening grade. Where guna raises i to e, vrddhi raises it one step further to ai, and the two grades together account for most of the vowel changes in Sanskrit derivation.
First strengthening grade. The Indian grammarians describe e as the guna of i, the step the vowel takes when a suffix calls for a stronger form of the root, and the rule is worked constantly in Sanskrit word building.
Quantity partners. Both are made with the tongue raised towards the hard palate, and the difference between them is duration alone.
Quantity partners. Both are made with the tongue raised towards the hard palate; Ii is the long counterpart of I.
The vowel this semivowel answers to. Sandhi treats the two as one sound in two roles: an i turns into ya whenever a dissimilar vowel follows it, and the rule is stated once rather than as a list of exceptions.
Gi gu, the vowel sign for i, answers to Brahmi I, the independent vowel letter for the same sound in the ancestor 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.