________________
400
THE ALPHABET "CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM," Vol. III. Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings and their Successors, Part I, No. 18). I do not think that the modern Saurashtran script, which since 1880 is also used in print, is directly connected with the Mandasor inscription. The origin of the Saurashtran character is still an open problem. According to my opinion, it is a more or less recent invention, being employed for an isolated language, completely surrounded by languages belonging to a totally different linguistic family. According to Mr. Master, the script may have descended from a very ancient writing, which was probably employed in the IndoAryan country of origin of the Saurashtrans, but in the course of its development, it became influenced by the scripts of the Indo-Aryan countries, through which the Saurashtrans passed in their migration before having reached their new homeland. My doubt as to this theory is this: that the script appears as a uniform system, based on sound foundations, and not as an outcome of a long development.
