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Education, Literature and Sciences
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period when these lists were compiled. Out of these, only two, the Brāhmi and Kharoshthi seem to have been current in the sixth or fifth century B.C. The Brāhmi was written from left to right and it was popular in eastern India. G. BUHLER' has adopted the designation Brāhmi for the characters in which the majority of the Aśoka edicts were written. He and his followers like W. JONES," A WEBER, and ISAAC TAYLOR3 advocated that Brāhmí originated from a Semitic alphabet. The theory of the indigenous origin of Brāhmi has been propounded by many modern scholars, mostly Indians. Some of them like R.B. PANDEY4 and D.C. SIRCAR5 even think that Brāhmi alphabet seems to have been derived from the pre-historic Indus Valley scripts.
The Kharoshthi script was written from right to left. It was introduced in the extreme north-west of India in about the sixth or fifth century B.C. and was used locally in Gandhāra. G. BUHLER6 suggested that it originated from the Aramic alphabet because there is resemblance of letters in these two scripts. During the Achaemenian rule, Aramic script was used for official and other purposes in India and adjacent countries. Kharoshțh; alphabet was the result of the intercourse between the offices or the Satraps and the natives. The Indians probably used at first the pure Aramic characters, and they introduced in the course of time the modifications observable in the Kharoshthi alphabet. On the other hand, R.B. PANDEY’ does not agree with the theory of Aramic origin of the Kharoshthi and has proved that it was invented by Indian genius.
LANGUAGE
The most remarkable feature of this age is that Sanskrit lost its position as the medium of expression and its place was soon taken by the Prakrits (Vernaculars) which also grew 1. BURLER : Indian Palacography, pp. 9-11. 2. TAYLOR ; The Alphabet, Vol. II, p. 304. 3. Ibid, Vol. I. pp. 335-316, 4: R. B. PANDEY: Indian Palacography, p. 50. 5. D. C. SIRCAR : Inscriptions of Asola, p. 25. 6. BUHLER : Indian Palacography, pp. 19-20. 7. R. B. PaxdY : Indian Palacography, pp. 57-59.
