The lingual la in the northern Brahmi script

In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (1911), pp. 1081-1089

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Abstract

It is generally supposed that the lingual la is a very rare letter in the inscriptions north of the Narmada before the time of the Guptas. From the Sanchi inscriptions Bühler quotes one instance only: Valivahanikaya in B, 344 (EI., ii , 378, No. 199): the li is reproduced in Bühler's Indische Palaeographie, table ii, 41, xviii: the form of the letter is practically the same as that appearing in the Allahabad Prasasti. The second instance is furnished by the word Alikayam in the inscription B, 43 (JBBRAS., xx, 269 f.), the find-place of which is unknown, but which must come from Northern India: there is no reproduction of this inscription. A third la is found in kalavalasa in the archaic Mathura inscription B, 94 (EI., i, 396, To. 33).