Alphabet Letters
Brahmi Pa 𑀧
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
Pa is the voiceless unaspirated labial stop and the head of the fifth and last class of stops, made by closing the lips. The grammarians call the class oshthya, from the word for lip, and they place the vowels u and long u in the same family because those too are made with the lips rounded. With the labials the run from the back of the mouth to the front is complete, and the order turns to the semivowels, the sibilants and the aspirate that make up the rest of the consonant section of the Brahmi alphabet. The letter is common in the inscriptions, and its Brahmi shape is a simple open form that the later scripts elaborated rather than replaced. Like every consonant sign it is read with the inherent short a.
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 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 labial; twenty-first consonant of the Brahmi order 3Tradition: Modern scholarly naming of the Brahmi letters 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 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-first consonant of the Brahmi order and head of the labial class, the last of the five classes 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 Attributions
Associated SoundVoiceless unaspirated labial stop, made by closing the lips; the grammarians call the class oshthya and put the u vowels in the same family 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 Prefixes That Begin With Pa
A large share of the Sanskrit verbal prefixes begin with this letter, and they are among the busiest elements in the language. One turns a verb forward or outward and forms an immense class of derived stems; another means around or on all sides and produces the vocabulary of completeness and encirclement; a third means back or against and gives the words for reply, reflection and opposition. A Sanskrit dictionary devotes a very large number of its pages to verbs with these prefixes attached, and the same elements are productive in the Prakrit of the inscriptions.
The letter also stands at the head of a family of words meaning protector, lord and guardian, which recur constantly in royal titles and in the naming of deities, so it is frequent in exactly the material that survives in stone. Titles are one of the most durable parts of an epigraphic corpus, because a proclamation names its author and a donative record names its donor.
Because it is common and because its Brahmi shape is a simple open form, the letter is a good one for a palaeographer to work with. It appears in every period and in every regional hand, and the later scripts elaborated its form rather than replacing it, so the ancestor is still visible in a number of modern Indic alphabets to a reader who has been shown where to look.
The Turn at the Lips
The labial class is the last of the five, and reaching it completes the movement the consonant order is built on: a run from the back of the mouth to the front, class by class, from the soft palate to the lips. That single organising idea is what makes the Indian consonant order different in kind from the alphabets of western Asia, whose sequences preserve an inherited order with no phonetic logic behind it at all.
The grammarians name this class from the word for lip, and they place the two u vowels in the same family, since those too are made with the lips rounded. That cross-reference between the vowel table and the consonant table is deliberate. The four semivowels are likewise paired with four of the vowels, so the two halves of the order are tied together by the analysis rather than merely placed one after the other.
After the labials the order turns to the semivowels, the sibilants and the aspirate, and the arrangement changes principle: those groups are ordered by manner rather than by place. The join is visible in the table and it is one of the few places where the Indian scheme has to compromise, because a sound like the aspirate has no point of articulation in the mouth to be filed under. The tradition put it last, on the reasoning that there is nowhere further back to go.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived from This
Devanagari Pa 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 Pappa continues the sign Brahmi Pa 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 Pa continues the sign Brahmi Pa 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 pa continues the Brahmi pa, 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 labial class. Both are unaspirated stops made with a closure of the two lips, and the vocal folds vibrate through the closure of the second.
Opposite corners of the labial class, the fifth 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.
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.
Aspiration partners in the labial class. The two are the same voiceless stop, and only the breath that follows the release separates them.
Pa answers to Brahmi Pa, the same voiceless unaspirated labial stop opening the labial line.
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