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24
INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
($ 10.
of the other consonant, whether it may have to be pronounced before or after it. Double [26] consonants, except nasals, are expressed by single ones, and non-aspirates and aspirates by the aspirates alone. Nasals immediately preceding other consonants, are always expressed by the Anusvära, which, in the Asoka edicts, is attached to the preceding mâtska.
The non-expression of a, and the rules regarding the formation of the ligatures, no doubt, have been taken over from the Brāhmi, only minor modifications being introduced. And it seems probable that the use of straight strokes for i, u, e ando comes from the same source. For, already in the Brāhmi of all the Asoka edicte, u, e and o are either regularly or occasionally expressed by simple strokes, and in Girnār i is represented by a shallow curve, often hardly distinguishable from a strright stroke; moreover, i, e and a stand in Brāhmi, jast as in the Kharoşthi, at the top of the consonants, and at the foot. A connection of the two systems of medial vowel-signs is therefore undeniable, and that of the Brāhmi must be regarded as the original one, since its signs, as has been shown above, $ 4, C, 1, evidently have been derived from the initial vowels.
The notation of I, U, E and O by combinations of A with the n cdial vowel-signs is peculiar to the Kharoephi, and is attributable to a desire to simplify the alphabet. Among the later Indian alphabets, the modern Devanāgari offers an analogy with its sit and it, and the Gujarāti with its - E, 41, 0, and I AU, Several among the foreign alphabets derived from the Brāhmi, as e. g. the Tibetan, show the principle of the Kharoshi fully developed.
The Angsvāra, which is ased, as in the Brāhmi, for all vowelless nasals, is derived from ma (E. THOMAS). In mam, No. 12, col. IV, it still has the full form of ma, but usually it undergoes cursive alterations; see below, $ 11, B, 5.
10. The varieties of the Kharoşthi of Plate 1.1 According to plate I, the Kharosthi shows four chief varieties, viz. :-(1) the archaic one of the fourth and third centuries B. C., found in the Asoka edicts of Shāhbăzgarhi (photolithograph of edict VII. in ZDMG. 43, 151, and of edict XIL in El. 1, 16) and of Mansehra (photolithograph of edicts I–VIII. in JA. 1888, 2, 330,= SENART, Notes d'Épigraphie Indienne, 1), with which the signature in the Asuka edicts of Siddāpura (photolithographs in EL. 3, 138—140), the legends on the oldest coins (autotypes in C.CAL. pl. 3, Nos. 9, 12, 13) and the syllables on the Persian sigloi (antotypes in J.RAS. 1895, 865) fully agree.
(2) The variety of the second and first centuries B.C. on the coins of the Indo-Grecian kings, which is imitated by some later foreign kings (autotypes in P. GABDNER'S Catalogue of Indian Coins in the British Museum, pl. 4 21).
Preparation of PLATE I:
1-87, ools. 1-V, and 38, 39, cols. I-XIII, traced by DE. DEDEKIND from DR. BURGE&s' impressions of the Adoka sdiots of Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra, and reduced by photography.
1-37, ools. VI, VII, and 88, 89, L. XIV, drawn by Dr. W. CARTELLIERI from P. GARDNER'S autotypes of Indo-Grecian coins.
1-37, cola. VIII, IX, and 22-25, ool. XIII, traced from Dr. Burenes impressions of the Mathura lion capital and the pbotograph of the Taxila copper-plate of which a collotype has since then boon published in EI. 4, 53 (10 and 14, vol. VIII, and 25, col. XIII),
1-87, oole. X-XII, and 31-37, col. XII, traood or drawn according to Dr. HOXRx's facsimile of the Suë Bibär insoription, supplemented by some signs from the Manikyala stone and gelutine copies of the Wardak and Bimāran Vases by Dr. S. VON OLDENBURG.
28--90, Col. XIII, drawn according to P. GARDNER's autotypes of the older Kugana soins,
1--20, sols. XIII, XIV, numerals drawn socording to the impressions and facsimiles of the Aboka edists and later inscriptions.
Older tables of the Kharopthi alphabet, in P.IA. 2, 166, pl. 11; W.AA. 262; C.IA(CII. 1), pl. 37: P. GARDNR, Cat. I. O. Br. Mus. p. LXX. 1.; Vox BALLET, Nachfolger Alex. d. Gr. (ond): G. H. OSEA, The Ind. Pal. pl. 26.
