Alphabet Letters
Brahmi Va 𑀯
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
Va is the labial semivowel and the last of the four, the consonantal counterpart of the vowel u. Its realisation runs between a lip-and-teeth v and a two-lipped w by region and by period, a distinction neither Brahmi nor the classical descriptions make, so the one letter covers both. In many Middle Indo-Aryan dialects va and ba fell together, and inscriptions can spell the same word either way, which is one of the reasons a Brahmi text has to be read with the language in mind rather than from the letters alone. Editors of inscriptions record the spelling they find rather than the one Sanskrit would require, and the alternation between va and ba is among the commonest notes in an epigraphic apparatus.
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 labial semivowel; twenty-ninth consonant 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 PositionTwenty-ninth consonant of the Brahmi order and the last of the four semivowels 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 SoundLabial semivowel, the consonantal counterpart of the vowel u; realised between a lip-and-teeth v and a two-lipped w by region, a distinction the script does not make 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
Va, and the Word for Or
This letter with its inherent vowel, lengthened, is the ordinary Sanskrit word for or. Like the word for and it is an enclitic, placed after the item it governs rather than between the alternatives, so a Sanskrit choice runs item, item, or rather than item or item. The two particles behave alike and are learned together, and both are among the commonest words in the language and among the first a reader of inscriptions comes to recognise.
The letter is the semivowel that the vowel u turns into whenever a dissimilar vowel follows, which is the back-series counterpart of the rule that turns i into ya, so it appears constantly at the seams between words as well as inside them. It also opens a substantial family of ordinary vocabulary, including the roots meaning to speak, to blow and to dwell.
Its actual pronunciation runs between a lip-and-teeth sound and a two-lipped one depending on region and period, and neither Brahmi nor the classical phonetic descriptions draw the distinction, so the single letter covers both. That is one of several places where the script is less specific than a modern reader would like, and it is the ordinary economy of a writing system used by people who already knew the language.
The Merger That Fills the Apparatus
In many Middle Indo-Aryan dialects this letter and the voiced labial stop fell together, so an inscription may write either where the Sanskrit form has only one. The alternation is among the commonest notes in any epigraphic apparatus, and it is a real feature of the spoken language rather than a scribal failing. Editions of the Ashokan edicts and of the donative records print the spelling actually cut and give the Sanskrit equivalent separately, and the apparatus recording such variants is often longer than the text it accompanies.
That practice is the settled discipline of Indian epigraphy and it exists for a reason. The earliest Brahmi material is the earliest substantial written evidence for any Indian language, and the variations in it are close to the whole of what is known about how the spoken language differed from place to place in the third century BCE. Normalising the spellings to Sanskrit would destroy exactly the evidence the inscriptions uniquely carry.
The merger also has a practical effect on reading. A word looked up under one letter may be cut with the other, and an index of an epigraphic corpus has to cross-reference the two. A reader working from Sanskrit habits will miss occurrences until the habit is unlearned.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived from This
Devanagari Va 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 Va continues the sign Brahmi Va 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.
Why this is disputed. Tibetan Wa is read as the labial approximant counterpart of Brahmi Va in the standard account that Tibetan script descends from Indian Brahmi-derived writing, traditionally through King Songtsen Gampo's seventh century minister Thonmi Sambhota, an attribution modern scholarship treats with caution. Wa itself sits awkwardly in that account: some grammars read it as a subjoined form promoted to full letterhood rather than an original member of the borrowed inventory, and Brahmi had already produced numerous descendant scripts by the seventh century, so which specific Brahmi-derived script actually supplied Tibetan's model remains an open question.
The Gurmukhi letter Vava continues the sign Brahmi Va 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.
Related To
Both belong to the four semivowels, standing third and fourth in a group that follows the classed stops as a block.
Both belong to the four semivowels, which the order arranges to match the sequence of the vowels they answer to.
The vowel this semivowel answers to. A u turns into va before a dissimilar vowel, the back-series counterpart of the rule that turns i into ya.
The first and the last of the four semivowels, answering to the vowels i and u, which are the first and the last of the simple vowels that have semivowel counterparts.
Wa answers to Brahmi Va, the same labial approximant, though Wa's own description notes some grammars treat it as a subjoined form promoted to letterhood rather than an original member of the thirty.
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