Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 72

THE VIKRAMKHOL INSCRIPTION
[MARCH, 1933
17. The Y-shaped letter has a Kharoşthi look; and so have a few more forms. But, on the whole, the theory of a proto-Kharoşthi script is excluded, unlese we assume that Brahmi and Kharoşthi had a common parentage.
18. I regret that I have not got sufficient time at my disposal at present to dive deeply into the matter and propose any reading. I present the problem for the consideration of scholars engaged in this field of study.
19. It seems that the theory I put forward in 1920 (JBORS., vol. VI, p. 188 ff.), that Brâhmi is an indigenous Indian writing, receives confirmation from this find, for its letters are nearer Brâhmî than any other script. In that paper I also pointed out a very probable connection between Brahmi and the writing on the Harappa seals. 1
The Vikramkhol inscription supplies a link between the passage of letter-forms from the Mohenjodaro script to Brâhmî. The Vikramkhol record, however, need not necessarily be an Aryan piece of writing.
Age of the Inseription, 20. Now, what would be the approximate age of the Vikramkhol inscription? The writing is certainly earlier than the earliest specimen of Brahmi known so far; and Brahmi was completed before 1500 B.0.3 We would be within the range of a fair approximation in dating it about 1500 B.C.
1 "There is the Cairn writing in the South but in the North there is a vast gap between 1500 B.C. and the sixth century B.c. to be filled up by positive evidence. A link seems to be found in the Harappa seals, one of which was published by Cunningham, who maintained that it contained the origin of Brahmi. Two more seals in the same characters were published by the late Dr. Fleet (JRAS., 1912). The readings of two of these seal legends have been suggested by Cunningham and Floot (JRAS., p. 699), and of the third one by me (14., 1913, p. 203). It seems to me that it is possible to solve them in the near future, especially with our increasing knowledge of pro-Mauryan letters and with an increased number of Harappa seals. Sir John Marshall has got a few more of those seals which he has kindly promised to lend me for study. Letters from the photograph of two of them are reproduced in the chart with the permission of Sir John. Three things are certain about these seals. One of the legends (0') of Fleet shows that it was intended to be road from left to right as the legend does not cover the whole space, and its beginning and end are distinguishable. The script has the Hindu system of using abbreviated forms of letters, for one letter which appears in full in one seal('A' of Fleet) appears as abbreviated, either & indtrd or As & conjoint consonant, in two places (in 'A' and 'B'). Then there is a ligature where v is joined to y or some other letter. That the characters are not & syllabary is soon by the addition on the head of one letter (in C') which appears without it in another place ('A'). The addition is evidently & mdird, probably an a in a stage when it is fully represented; it is separate from the letter on the top of which it is placed. The characteristics therefore seem to be those of the Brahmi, but the letters are so old that they are not yet fully recognized. In the new seals we have a letter which is almost unmistakably a, and the form is such that the oldest Semitic and Brahmi forms for a are dorivable from it the whole legend I tentatively read as Abhayah....)."-JBORS., VI (1920), pp. 199-200.
The locality, according to the Puranic race-history, would suggest the record to be a pre-Dravidian • Räknasa, record. Raksasa is the generic name for the race dispossessed by the Aryans. They extended up to the Indian Archipelago. [Naga was probably & sub-division of theirs.) The Gonds are their rempante.
3 I have set forth in some detail my reasons for coming to this conclusion in JBORS., vol. VI (1920), p. 198, to which reference is invited.