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108
The Häthigumpha Inscription and the Bhabru Edict
valley during third ceutury BC to fourth century AD. To the east of the Sutlej it was brought to Mathura on the western bank of the R.Yamuna by the Saka Satraps who preceded the Kuşānas, in the first century Bc. The Sakas, however, did not carry it to Saurāṣtra and Ujjayini where they used the Brāhmi in vogue there. It has only short vowels and short medials, and lesser number of letters as compared to the Brāhmi. Its currency in India to the west of the Sutlej also ceased by the fourth century AD and traces of any developmental sequence as in the case of the Brāhmi, are also not available.
The decipherment of the Brāhmi and Kharosti characters was a long and arduous task. It took nearly a century to complete the job. Contributions of James Prinsep, George Bühler and Alexander Cunningham are significant. Nomenclature was made easy by the Fa-Wan-Shu-Lin, the Chinese Encyclopaedia composed in AD 668. It records that the invention of writing was made by three divine powers: the first of these was Fan (Brahmā), who invented the Brāhmi script, which runs from the left to the right; the second divine power was Kia-lu (Kharosta) who invented Kharosti, which runs from the right to the left; and the third and the least important was Tsam-ki, the script invented by whom runs from the up to the down. It also informs that the first two divine powers were born in India and the third in China.1
The Edicts of Asoka in both Brāhmi and Kharosti scripts provide positive evidence that both these scripts were in use in the third century BC. Rare manuscripts of the Dhammapada and other Buddhist works have been found in Khotan beyond the Karakoram in Central Asia which show that though the Kharosti script was forgotten in the land of its birth, it continued to be in use beyond its borders through the missionaries of Buddhism and could claim a place of honour in the Chinese Encyclopaedia in the seventh century AD.
Babylonian and Oriental Records, I. 59; Pandey, R.B., Indian Palaeography, p. 25.
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