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INDIAN BRANCH
343 The period of the Sungas and the Kanvas-the latter dynasty lasting 45 yearswas the age of Sanskrit revival in Hindustan, Parallel with the employment of the Prakrits, that is the vernaculars, Sanskrit which was originally a refined form of the language of the "Madhyadesa" (the Indian homeland), developed into an artificial, literary language. Sanskrit represents the language of the Brahman civilization, while the Prakrits, particularly the form known as Pali, became the language of Buddhist and Jain literature.
Sanskrit evidently owed its development to the efforts of early grammarians, the most important of whom was Panini, who lived in the fifth or fourth century B.c. Paranjali, another important grammarian, is generally believed to have been a contemporary of the founder of the Sunga dynasty; he probably contributed much to the revival of Sanskrit. Indeed, traces of this influence are already apparent in the second century B.C.
According to some scholars, the first Sanskrit inscription dates from 33 B.C. (on a Brahman sacrificial post at Isapur), while others maintain that the earliest inscription in good literary Sanskrit is that of Rudradaman I, at Girnar in Kathiawar, attributed to the middle of the second century A.D. However, in spite of the efforts of grammarians, it is clear from epigraphical evidence that Sanskrit was not in common use before the second century A.D. At that period, Sanskrit began to supersede Prakrit in north-western India, but it was only from the time of the great king Samudragupta (A.D. 340-375) that Sanskrit became almost the only inscriptional language of northern India.
The development of the Sunga type of the Brahmi script took place in the schools of the Brahman priests, and was connected with the revival of literary activity under the Sunga dynasty. The script is represented by the inscription of Dhanabhuti Vacchiputa, "son of a princess of Vatsa (Kausambi)" on the torana of the Bharhut stupa (or sepulchral monument), in the Nagad State of Central India, the Pabhosa (probably the ancient kingdom of Kausambi) cave inscriptions, and the oldest dedications from Mathura (Muttra), on the upper Jumna. Buehler sees in the Sunga character close connections with the late Maurya type on the one hand, and with the early Kalinga character (see above) on the other.
(7) Prototypes of North Indian Sub-division
Out of the Brahmi scripts mentioned under (2), (5) and (6), there developed in the last century B.C. and the first centuries A.D., various scripts which became the prototypes of the North Indian sub-division (Fig. 153, columns 2, 3 and 5).
Dr. Buehler mentioned the following two main groups:
(a) Closely connected with the latest form of the Sunga type is the script of the northern Kshatrapas, as shown in the inscriptions of Rajuvala (Ranjubula) and of his son Sodasa (late first century B.c.) and in some votive inscriptions from Mathura.
(6) More important in the development of Indian writing were the inscriptions of the Kushana kings Kanishka, Huviska and Vasudeva.
