Indian Antiquary Vol 34

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 33

REBRUARY, 1905.]
THE MODI OHARAOTER.
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in all Iranian dialects, but oshtha only under the form aoshtra, which is given in Jamaspji-Haug, An old Zand-Pahlavi Glossary, p. 8, and should probably be read aoshta. Elsewhere in Iranian, lap, lap, lop and similar forms are used for “lip" (Gray, Indo-Iranian Phonology, $358), while in Indian dialects oshtha prevails (Gray, ut sup. $ 458, 835), which is also found in Bashgali under the form of yūsht (Davidson, Notes on the Bashgali (Kafir) Language (Calcutta, 1902), p. 107, No. 809). The sta in Kharaosta however points to the districts where the writing from right to left, in which also the Avesta is written, is common, and here its inventor must have lived. Kharoshtha is thus Sanskrit for Kharaosta, and the Chinese tradition proves correct
As Franke has showa above, the T'ang Annals state that Su-lé, s. e. Kashgar, is also called Ka-sha. Now we find in the enumeration of the forms of writing in the Lalitavistara a Khāsyalipi or, as Lefmann has it, Khāshyalipi. Khoshyao and Khasyao are variæ lectiones. We have successively Daradalipi, Khashyalipi, Chinalipi, and, in similar order, the Jainas have under the Mlecchas, China, Lhasija, Khasa, Khāsija (Indische Studien, Bd. XVI. pp. 332, 897 ; Verzeichnis, II. ii. 510). Not only the name Khashyalipi, but the order, which is strictly geographical, makes it probable that the writing of Kashgar is meant. In the Lalitavistars also, immediately after Brahmt, Kharoshti, Pushkarasürt, come the writings of Aiga, Vanga, Magadha. Not only are these peoples constantly connected in Sanskrit literature (Böhtlingk-Roth, s.vv.), but the Jainas too place them at the top of the Khéttåriya (Indische Studien, Bd. XVI. p. 397; Verzeichnis, II. ii. 562) berause geographically they are neighbours. If the Kharoshthi had been the writing of Kashgar, we should have expected to find it between Daradalipi and Chinalipi. But Khāsbyalipi, which both by its name and by the Chinese tradition is proved to be the writing of Kashgar, stands there. Compared with this, what Ktesias tells us of the Kalvot proe need not be taken into consideration. The description of this people is such, that, even if the mythical stories are set aside, no one would credit them with the use of a written language.
Since the brilliant discoveries of Stein, of which he has given an account in his Preliminary Report on a Journey of Archeological and Topographical Exploration in Chinese Turkistan (London (196) 1901), the Kharoshthi has become of the utmost importance to Sanskritists. As the collections brought back by Dr. Stein are of great extent and the materials are of a very difficult nature, it will require much time and the combined efforts of many scholars to classify and decipher them successfully. Above all it is to be hoped that the Indian Government will afford Dr. Stein himself leisure to draw the results of his investigations and collections; a great service would be done thereby to learning.
(To be concluded.)
THE MODI CHARACTER.
BY B. A. GUPTE, Personal Assistant to the Director of Ethnography for India. In the Gwalior Census Report for 1902, it is said (para. 17) that, among the written characters used for the languages of that State, a "totally distinot character called Mori” is used for hand-writing, which corresponds to the Shikasta of Persian, Mr. Bains, the author of the Census Report, 1891, thought that Mori was & British soldier's version of Moors, the old 17th and 18th Century Anglo-Indian name for Persian cursive writing. The correct orthography of the word is, however, Modi, derived from mod, which means "modification" or . "manipulation." Mort is a foreigner's pronunciation of Modi, like gköpá for ghoda (horse), gari