Sambodhi 2005 Vol 29

Author(s): J B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 81

Vol-1, XXIX
THE INDIAN SCRIPTS
of the inscriptions on the Bharahut stūpa, in Gaya, Sanci and Parkham, on the patna seals, on the Sohgaura (Gorakhpur Dist.) copper-plate and on the Ghosundi inscription (Chittorgadh Dist.) and prevailed at least in the later of the 4th and the 3rd cent. B.C. The later Mauryan alphabet of Dasaratha's Nagarjuni cave (Bihar) inscription closely related to the characters of about B.C. 200 to B.C. 180. The Sunga alphabet of the Torana of Bharahut belongs to 2nd-1st cent. B.C. The older Kalinga alphabet of Hāthīgumphā caves belongs to about 150 B.C. The archaic alphabet in the Nānāghāt inscription is related to the time from 150 B.C. to the 1st cent. A.D. (See II). Kushan alphabet of the reigns of Kaniska, Huviska and Vāsudeva refers to the 1st and 2nd cent. A.D. The alphabet of the Western Ksatrapas belongs to the 2nd cent. A.D. The highly ornamental variety of the eastern Dekhan from Jaggayyapeta- 3rd cent. A.D. and the ancient cursive alphabet of the Prakrit grant of Sivaskandavarma belongs to the 4th cent. A.D.
The older Maurya alphabet was used over the whole of India and it seems to have been used in Ceylon at the latest about B.C. 250. For the two oldest Ceylonese inscriptions from the time of the king Abhaya Grāmani (end of the 2nd cent. B.C. or the beginning of the 1st cent. B.C.) show the characters which appear to have been developed from those of the Ashok edicts.16
Dr. A.H. Dani has seen changes and development in the Brāhmi script from 200 B.C. to 50 A.D. and classified according to the regions into four categories.17
1. Eastern India with the old centre in Magadha, 2. North-West India with its centres at Taxila, Mathura and a number of places in the Malwa plateau, 3. North-West Deccan which is a continuation of the culture from the Malwa plateau and 4. South India with which has been included Eastern, Deccan, Amaravati etc.
The northern alphabets from about A.D. 350 comprise several varieties; such as 1. the epigraphic North-Indian alphabet of the 4th and 5th centuries commonly called the Gupta alphabet which has an eastern and a western variety. 2. the Nāgarī with its long drawn tailed letters and long top-strokes the first certain traces of which occur in the 7th cent., 3. The Sāradā alphabet, a northern variety of the Western Gupta type was first found about A.D. 800.
From the 7th cent. onwards the inscriptions in northern characters are found from the west (from Valabhi - Saurashtra). The ancient Manuscripts found in Kashgar, Japan and Nepal, The oldest of which probably were written in the 4th