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THE ALPHABET of the script, the vowels being indicated by small circles, dashes, modifications of strokes, and so forth (Fig. 140), which in appearance transforms the script into a syllabic writing; (2) the addition of signs for sounds (such as bh, gh, dh) which do not exist in Aramaic; and (3) the direction of writing in the later stage of Kharoshthi. BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Buchler, Indische Paleographie, Strasbourg, 1896 (published in English in 1904 by J. F. Fleet, as an Appendix of "INDIAN ANTIQUARY").
E. Senart, MS. Dutreuil de Rhines, "JOURNAL ASIATIQUE," 1898; L'inscription du vise de Wardak, the same journal, 1914.
S. Levi, in "BULLET, DE L'ÉCOLE FRANC, D'EXTREME-ORIENT," 1902, 1904, etc.
E. J. Rapson, in "JOURN. OF THE Roy. ASIAT. Soc.," 1904; Specimens Kharoshthi Inscriptions, London, 1905.
A. M. Boyer, Inscriptions de Takht-i-Bahi, etc, "JOURNAL ASIATIQUE" 1904, 1911, and so forth.
S. Konow, Indoskythische Beiträge, "SITZUNGS. D. PREUSS. AKAD. DER WISSENSCH.," 1916; in "DEUTSCHE LITERATUR-ZEITUNG," 1924; Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. II, Part I, Kharoshthi Inseriptions, 1929.
Kharoshthi Inscriptions Discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in Chinese Turkestan, etc., 1901, 1906-7, 1913-11, edited by A. M. Boyer, E. J. Rapson, E. Senart and P. S. Noble, 3 vols., Oxford, 1920, 1927 and 1929.
T. Burrow, The Language of the Kharoshthi Documents from Chinese Turkestan, Cambridge, 1937; 4 Translation of the Kharoshthi Documents from Chinese Turkestan, London, 1940.
E.J
Truscripts Inscript
PERSIAN OR IRANIAN SCRIPTS General Sketch
When the Seleucid empire fell to pieces, the Greek dominion of its castern portion ceased for ever, and a North Iran dynasty became the overlords of these lands. Arsaces (ca. 248 B.C.) was the founder of the new dynasty, whom we know as Parthian; the indigenous name is unknown, the Persians called this population Parthava. They seem to have spoken a North Iranian dialect akin to Sogdian (see below), and lived in the mountainous country south-east of the Caspian Sea. Mithridates I (ca. 170-138 B.C.), occupying Media and Babylonia, became the real founder of the strong Parthian empire, which fought long wars with the Romans. The latter never had dominion over the Parthians; the defeat of Crassus in 53 D.e. marks the end of the period when Europeans were rulers of Mesopotamia, until the World War, 1914-1918.
About the year A.D. 220, the Parthian rule itself, that is the Arsacid dynasty, came to an end, "but their successors were not the Romans but the Sasanians, a still more definitely Persian and Oriental dynasty, which lasted till the coming of Islam." The new monarchy was strongly Persian, representing a revival of the Persian nationality and the Zoroustrian religion, and the new King of Kings began to dream of restoring the dominion of Darius and Xerxes over Syria and Asia Minor." (Burkitt).
Pahlavi Cuneiform was the Persian writing of the Achæmenid Empire (see Part 1, Chapter XI), during which the Aramaic speech spread more and
