Jain Journal 1980 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 18

JAIN JOURNAL
(ii)
Practice of recording specific eras actually started at much later date.
(iii) The word "caturāsiti” is perhaps used to indicate certain geo
graphical limits.
(iv)
The inscription belongs to Sunga period and pertains to the reign of King Bhagavata.
(v) No genuine epigraph anterior to Asoka is known from any part
of India. Therefore, it seems that the origin of the Brahmi script took place in the early period of the Mauryan Kingdom.5
In this way the date of Badali inscription comes at much later date than ascribed by Ojha.
The moot point about this inscription pertains to the reading of its first letter. G. H. Ojha takes it as "vi"6 and suggests that the medial sign attached to this letter is a style of long medial ";", which was according to him prevalent in pre-Asokan era. K.P. Jayasawal also takes the letter as "vakāra” but denied the mark as a sign for long medial";”. According to him the loop on the top of “va” is evidently a vowel mark and has much affiliation with similar marks in the Kalsi inscription. Thus according to him it is "yi" and not “ył”. D.C. Sircar on the other hand takes this letter with its upper vertical stroke as a compound letter "dva” or “dvam”8 which according to him is a shortened form of the siddham. The suggestions of D.C. Sircar were categorically rejected by several scholars like Dani, T.P. Varma, C.S. Upasaka, etc. They all unanimously maintained that the form of "da" opening on the right is not seen in the early period. However Dani and T. P. Varma could not suggest any definite reading. 9 C.S. Upasaka had other view. He says that the medial sign of "i” seems to have been attached wrongly as no such use is seen in other records. He thus considers the long medial “i” attached with the letter "va" as a scribal mistake.10 But this view cannot be accepted. This inscription
* S.R.Goyal's paper "Brahmi--An Invention of Early Maurya Period” published in the
Origin of Brahmi Script, edited by S.P.Gupta and K.S.Ramachandran (Delhi 1979),
pp. 1-49. • G.H.Ojha, op.cit. p.2 fn. ? K.P.Jayasawal, op.cit., p.67. : D.C.Sircar, op.cit, p.240/ Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol.
XXXVIII, pp. 34-38. • Thakur Prasad Varma, The Palaeography of Brahmi Script (Varanasi 1970), p.76. 10 Chandrika Singh Upasaka, The History and Palaeography of Mauryan Brahmi
Script (Nalanda, 1960), p.186.