Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 34

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ MARCE, 1919
capital mistake which has vitiated all his conclusions. For anyone who looks at the inscription on the statue without the head ca..not fail to recognise the familiar squat Kushan etters y, th and n. To reinore all coubta, the first, second and sixth letters may be compared with the figures represented in Bühler's palæugraphie chart Taffel III, Iv-31, 111-8, TIL-25Mr. Javaswal seems to have failed to notice this, and instead of trying to read the letters by the similarity they possess with the characters of the Knshan period, he has been guided by the preconceived principle, laid down by himself, that they represent earlierforms from which the Asokan characters have been derived. The result is, that he has been faced with archaism where there is really none, and assigned value to "new forms " in consideration of their being imaginary prototypes of certain Asokan characters, whereas they are really well know forins of characters of a later period. Let me ake a characteristic example, viz., the first letter in the inscription No. 1. Mr. Jayaswal remarks :-" The first letter is taken to be bh. The upward projection of the top line as it appears in Asokan bh is not present here. That is a later evolution." (p. 91.) Thus he imagines it to be a prototype of Asokan bh although no such form has ever been known. The defect of such argument is obvious. For one might similarly suggest that the letter is a prototype of Asokan b, the base line being a later evolution. As a matter of fact there is no need to indulge in these speculations, for the letter may very well be taken as an angular g of a later period.
No useful purpose will be served by criticising in this manner the value of each letter ascertained by Mr. Jayaswal on his proto-Mauryan theory. It rests on the assumption that "the characters of the insuription do not fully tally with those of any period yet known to Indian Epigraphy" and must stand or fall along with it. I shall, therefore, next attempt to show that the characters really belong to the second or third century of the Christian era, and if I succeed in doing this, no further argument will be needed to prove that Mr. Jayaswal's position is an untenable one.
The statues which contain the inscriptions were, as already observed, tonnd at Patna, and it may be fairly presumed that they originally belonged to that place or its immediate neighbourhood. The locality of the inscriptions, thus ascertained, is an important factor, for while, generally speaking, the Kushan inscriptions represent the alphabet of Northern India in the second or third century of the Christian era, we must not lose sight of the fact that, inore correctly speaking, they merely represent its western variety. The existence of an eastern variety is conclusively proved by the Allahabad Inscription of Samudra Gupta; for if one compare its letters with those of a later date but belonging to the western parte, e.g., the Indore copperplate of Skandagupta, the latter will be seen to possess greater affinity with the Kushan letters. Trke, for iristance, the letters g and l. Theg of the Indore plate is a curve like that of the Kushan inscriptions, but in Allahabad inscription wo already ineet with the complete angıtlar form. The l of the Indore plate also closely resembles the Kushan character, but that in the Allahabad inscription is quite different, inasmuch as the base line is entirely omitted and the left hook is attached directly to the right vertical line. These peculiarities must therefore be ascribed to an eastern variety and if we meet with them in our inscriptions it will be readily explained by their locality. It would further follow, that the letters in a Patna inscription of the second or third century A.D.. while retaining general resemblance with Kushan aharacters, may also exhibit those peculiarities or tendencies which we meet with in the Allahabad inscription.
1 Zor a full account of the discovery see Mr. Jayaswal's peper.