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76
INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
[$ 33.
Perhaps it may be assumed that the "round-hand" arose already before the 7th century, but was modified in the course of time by the further development of the Tamil and the Grantha scripts. Owing to the small [78] number of the accessible inscriptions, this conjecture is however by no means certain.
The transformation of the Vatteluttu ka (plate VIII, 11-14, XXI, XXII), which seems to be derived from a looped form, is analogous to that of the figure 4 in the decimal system of numeral notation (compare plate IX, B, 4, V-VII, and IX). The curious ta (plate VIII, 2528, XXI, XXII) has been developed by the change of the loop of the Tamil letter (compare cols. XVII, XVIII) into a notch and the prolongation of the tail up to the head. The still more extraordinary na (plate VIII, 29, XXI) may be explained as a cursive derivative of the later Tamil na with the stroke hanging down from the top.
VI. NUMERAL NOTATION.
38. -Tho numerals of the Kharosthi; Plato 1.1 In the Kharoşthi inscriptions of the Sakas, of Gondopherres, and of the Kuşanas, from the 1st century B. C. and the 1st and 2nd centuries A. D., as well as in other probably later documents, we find a system of numeral notation (plate I, col. XIV) which Dowson first explained with the help of the Taxila copper-plate.”
Its fundamental signs are:- (a) One, two and three vertical strokes for 1, 2, 3. (b) An inclined cross for 4. (c) A sign, similar to the Kharosthi A, for 10. (d) A double curve, looking like a cursive combination of two 10 (BAYLEY), for 20. () A sign, resembling a Brāhmi ta or tra, for 100, to the right of which stands a vertical stroke, whereby the whole becomes equivalent to IC.
The numbers lying between these elements are expressed by groups, in which the additional ones invariably are placed on the left. Thus, for 5 we have 4 (+) 1; for 6, 4 (+) 2; for 8, + (+) 4; for 50, 20 (+) 20 (+) 10.; for 60, 20 (+).20 (+) 20; for 70, 20 (+) 20 (+) 20 (+) 10. Groups formed of the signs for 10 (+)1 to 10 (+) 9, and 20 (+)1 to 20 (+) 9, and so forth, are used to express the numerals 11 to 19, and 21 to 29, &c.
The bigher numerals beyond 100 are expressed according to the same principle; thus, 103 is 100 (+) 3 or IC III. The sign for 200 consists of 100, preceded on the right by two vertical strokes. And the highest known number is IIC XX XX XX X IV, which means 274.
The few numeral signs in the Aboka edicts of Shahbāzgarhi and Mansehra (plate I. col. XIII)' show that in the 3rd century B. C. the Kharosthi system of numeral notation differed from the later one at least in one important point. Both in Shāhbāzgarhi, where the signs for 1, 2, 4, 5 occur, and in Mansehra, which offers 1, 2, 5, the inclined cross for 4 is absent, and 4 is expressed by four parallel vertical strokes, and '5 by five. It is as yet not ascertainable, how the other signs looked in the 3rd century B. C.
BURNELL and others have stated long ago that the Kharosthi numerals are of Semitic origin. And it may now be added that probably they have been borrowed from the Aramaeans.
1 Compare E. C. BATLEY, the Genealogy of the Modern Numerals, J.RAS, N.S., 14, 335 tf.: 15,1 ff.
? The signs of ool. XIV, have been drawn according to S.NEI, 3, pl. 1 (JA, 1890, I, pl. 15); J.ASB. 58, pl. 10: FLEET's photograph of the Taxila copper-plate (EI. 4, 56); and a gelatine copy of the Wardak vase, kindly presented by S. VON OLDUNBURG,
• J.RAS, 20, 228.
• Thus CUNNINGHAM. SENART, op. cit., 17, reads 84, doubting the existence of 200 (which however is plain in the autotype of J.ASB. 58, pl. 10), while BARTH reads 284. There is at least one unpublished inscription with 200, and, according to a communication from BLOCH, also one with 300.
. Drawn according to BURAX8'impression of Shahbäsgarhi edicts I-III, XIII. • B.ESIP. 64; J.ASB. 32, 150.
