The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c7.12

c7.12

*Means of Identification.* — At first sight the problem seems to be susceptible of the most simple solution. In fact one sees almost everywhere *graffiti*, deeply incised in the ancient Indian alphabet, which, like ours, reads from left to right; it seems then that we have only to come close and decipher them. But, in proportion as we advance in this task, our hope of finding the kind of information which we are seeking diminishes. All that we can learn from each of the *circa* 375 inscriptions cut in the railing and in the gates (¹) is that a certain individual or a certain guild made a gift of such and such an upright or cross-bar, in short, of the piece on which, precisely in order that no one might be ignorant of the fact, they have taken care to have their names inscribed. As a type we may take the one displayed right in the middle of the façade of the left jamb of the eastern gate; it tells us simply :