Chapter IV., § 80. The gh is older than the Kutila in so far as it is open at the top, whereas the Kutila is closed. This letter has retained its form more exactly than any other. From Asoka's time downwards it has the form of an English capital E lying on its back, 𑀖. This ancient form is retained by the Panjabi and Kashmiri alone.[1] The Devanagari घ follows the Kutila in being closed at the top, but has deviated from it in making two of the strokes horizontal instead of vertical. The Panjabi form for ङ is omitted from Prinsep's table. It resembles the Kutila, but has added a loop at the foot.
The च and छ are both older than the Kutila, and closely approach the Gupta and Vallabhi types. The earliest form of this letter was a vertical stroke with a loop at the bottom on the left for ch, and two loops one on each side for chh.
The j is more Kutila than anything, though it has become simpler than its prototype. The Kutila itself bears very little resemblance to the more ancient form, which is that of the English E, and is retained in Tibetan ཇ.
Jh is not found in Kutila, nor is palatal n. The Panjabi forms for these sounds bear no resemblance to anything in the ancient alphabets, and are probably local inventions or combinations.
Panjabi ḍ is the Gupta letter with a curl to it, and does not at all approach the Kutila.
Panjabi t, like the Bengali ত, has the form appropriated in the other languages to u. This arises from the older form being 𑀢. In writing this and other letters, the variations of form depend upon the course followed by the pen in making the letter. If you begin at the top, and go down the left limb, and then bringing the pen back up the same limb go down the
- ↑ The Kashmiri character is very similar to the Panjabi, though in several instances its forms are even more archaic still.
