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OCTOBER, 1895.)
ORIGIN OF THE KHAROSHTHI ALPHABET.
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the conscience of the ultra-sceptical. If we admit then either of these two names, we alridye the interval respectively to six or three years - periods too gliort to disturb in the least our belief in the uninterrupted succession of the sovereigns the records have served to bring to light.
Before quitting this inscription, I would call attention to two or three striking features in the social economy of the times. Besides the village associations already noticed, Vêņad, it would appear, had for the whole state an important public body under the name of “the Six Hundred," to supervise, for one thing, the working of temples and charities connected therewith. What other powers and privileges this remarkable corporation of "the Six IIundred " was in possession of, futuro investigation can alone determine. But a number so large, nearly as large as the British House of Commons, could not have been meant, in so small a state as Vêņad was in the 12th century, for the single function of temple supervision. There is an allusion again in this record to the “valanjiyars of tho eighteen districts." ** The eighteen districts" were, no doubt, eighteen administrative divisions of Venad. Some of the names of these districts wo may come across some day. But who the "raļunjiyars of the districts" were is a more pazzling qnestion. So far as I can make out, the word reads only as valanjiyar; but neither in Tamil nor in Malayalam am I aware of any current term of that description. It is an obvious derivative from the Tamil word valam, and the leading meaning of that term is greatness, dignity or honour. If I am right in my reading, we may reasonably presume that the eighteen valahjiyars were eighteen local magnates, or feudal barons of the realm. They were, as far as I can see, not men in the royal service, who are always described as those who carry ont pani, meaning work,' or káryan, meaning 'business. Both these latter descriptions occur in this document. But whatever was the difference in rank, emolument, and position, between those who carried out the work of the state, and those who attended to its business,' the valanjiyars of the land would appear to have been above them both. It looks probable that the "loyal chieftains," wbom we have now met so frequently transacting business in the name of the king and forming as it were his government or cabinet ministry, came from this class of valañiyars or feudal barons. That there were slaves attached to the land, and that there were two important kinds of land tenure, úra! or úranmai, subject to the village associations, and kúránmai or freeholds, directly under the state, are other interesting itens of information we may glean from this record, though they may not be equally novel.
(To be continued.)
THE ORIGIN OF THE KHAROSHTHI ALPHABET.1
BY GEORGE BÜHLER, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E. THOUGH the origin of the Kharoshthi Alphabet is much easier to explain than the derivation of the Brahmi and though the general lines for the enquiry have already been settled by others, yet & somewhat fuller review of the whole question, than the narrow compass of my Grundriss der indischen Palæographie permits, will perhaps not be superfluous. The very considerable progress, which has been achieved, is chiefly due to the discussions of the Kharðshthi by Mr. E. Thomas in his edition of Prinsep's Essays, Vol. II. p. 147ff., by Dr. Isaac Taylor in The Alphabet, Vol. II. p. 256ff., and by Sir A. Cunningham, who has also settled the value of many of its signs, in his book ou The Coins of Ancient India, p. 318.
Sir A. Cunningham's remarks refer to the first point which requires consideration in all anestions of this kind, viz., the true character of the script, the origin of which is to be deter. mined. He has emphatically recalled to the memory of the palæographists that the Kharoshthi is an Indian alphabet, and by an ingenious utilisation of his finds of ancient coins in the ruins
* Reprinted from the Tienna Oriental Juurnal, Vol. IX.
