634 Lassen on the History traced [No. 103. 



But now I perceive, that an erudite person whose views must 

 be of great weight with all those that have occupied themselves 

 with his writings, draws from the newest inquiries into Indian 

 coins, the conclusion, that the Indian alphabet is derived from 

 the Grecian. 



Mr. Prinsep in decyphering these Indian characters, written 

 in a peculiar manner on the coins of Saurashtra, asserted, that 

 the more ancient the Nagari, the more similar become the cha- 

 racters to the Grecian ones. Upon this he had grounded the 

 conclusion,* that the most ancient Greek characters are but the 

 Indian turned upside down. 



Mr. Mueller, who did not of course require proof of the inva- 

 lidity of this view, takes the converse of the assertion. f ^^ If,'' 

 says he, ^^ the relation of the ancient Nagari to the Greek alphabet 

 is closer than can be explained by the common derivation of both 

 from Phoenician language, we are forced into the conclusion, 

 that the Greeks introduced this alphabet to the Indians, and that 

 in consequence, the heaven-born alphabet of the Brahmins is not 

 older than Alexander." 



Now this is no casual remark, such as sometimes occurs in 

 a journal, and which we may put aside without notice, but 

 it is, if not a view deliberately considered, still an opinion 

 positively pronounced and hopefully cherished. He says (p. 

 249,) ^^ We must, however, confess that our hopes as to the 

 historical connexion between Indian and Grecian civilization, 

 go far beyond this fact,'^ (that the Indians have borrowed 

 their shapes of coins from the Indo- Scythians) ^^ and extend 

 over the whole history of art and letters.'^ 



It is therefore a favourite opinion of this celebrated scholar, 

 the correctness or incorrectness of which must be of vital im- 

 portance in Indian antiquities. For if the Indians had no alpha- 

 bet before Alexander, all the writings that we have hitherto 

 considered the subject matter of as genuine sources for the 

 knowledge of India from the most ancient days, were penned 

 after Alexander's time, or more correctly speaking, after the 



* As. Trans. VI. p. 390. 

 t Goett. Gel. Anz. at other places, p. 252. 



