Alphabet Letters
Brahmi Ma 𑀫
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
Ma is the labial nasal, the last of the five nasals and the last letter of the five by five table of stops. A nasal standing at the end of a word before a pause is realised at the lips, and in the writing of Sanskrit that final nasal is marked with a dot rather than with this letter, though the sound is the same. With ma the classed consonants close, and the order continues with the four semivowels, which the grammarians treat as the consonantal counterparts of four of the vowels. The letter is among the most frequent in the script, since the endings of many Sanskrit and Prakrit nouns carry the sound. Its shape is one of the simpler forms in Brahmi and can be followed with little change into several of the descendant alphabets, which makes it useful to palaeographers comparing one hand with another.
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 SoundLabial nasal, made at the lips, and the last of the five nasals; a nasal at the end of a word before a pause is realised at this place 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 labial nasal; twenty-fifth 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 PositionTwenty-fifth consonant of the Brahmi order, the nasal that closes the labial class and the last letter of the five by five table 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
Ma at the End of Almost Everything
The commonest single ending in Sanskrit is the accusative singular of the largest class of nouns, and it consists of a short vowel and this consonant. Every direct object of every transitive verb in the language carries it, along with the whole of the neuter nominative and accusative of the same class, so a Sanskrit sentence is dense with the sound in a way that few other consonants match. The first person singular of a large class of verbs ends in it too, and so does a substantial family of nominal suffixes.
A nasal at the end of a word before a pause is made at the lips, and in the writing of Sanskrit that final nasal is normally marked with the anusvara, a dot placed above the line, rather than with this letter. The sound is the same; the sign is different. So the letter is written less often than the sound occurs, and a count of the letter in a text would badly understate how much work it does.
The letter is also frequent inside words, in ordinary vocabulary and in the roots meaning to measure, to think and to die, and it is among the most often cut signs in any Brahmi inscription. Its shape is one of the simpler forms in the script and can be followed with little change into several of the descendant alphabets.
The Dot That Stands for a Nasal
The anusvara is one of two marks Brahmi has that stand outside the letters proper, the other being the visarga. It is a dot, written above the line, and it says that a nasal is present without saying which one, leaving the following consonant to determine that. Before a stop of any of the five classes the nasal is the one made at the same place, so a reader who knows the rule reads the correct nasal without needing it written; at the end of a word before a pause the value is the labial nasal.
That is an economical solution to a real problem, and it explains why the five class nasals are written far less often than their place in the order suggests. It also means the alphabet has to decide what to do with the two marks when it counts itself, which is the source of the varying totals given for the Sanskrit alphabet in different books. Counted with the anusvara and the visarga among the vowels there are sixteen vowels; counted without them, fourteen.
Every script descended from Brahmi inherited both marks, and the traditional figure of fifty letters for the Sanskrit alphabet depends on a particular set of choices about them. A reader meeting two different counts of the same alphabet has found a boundary dispute about what a letter is, not an error.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived from This
Devanagari Ma 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 Mamma continues the sign Brahmi Ma 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 Ma continues the sign Brahmi Ma 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 ma continues the Brahmi ma, 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
The nasal of the labial class. Both are voiced and both are made with a closure of the two lips, the nasal differing in that the closure is released through the nose.
The nasal of the labial class, and the letter that closes the group in the recited order before the table moves on to the next point of articulation.
The nasal of the labial class, made at the same point as this stop, with a closure of the two lips and the breath let out through the nose. Every class in the table closes with its own nasal.
The nasal of the labial class, made at the same point as this stop, with a closure of the two lips. Every class in the table closes with its own nasal, standing after the stop that opens the class.
The nasal of the labial class. The five nasals were arrived at by asking where each was made rather than by hearing one sound with variants.
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