On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c7.s3.52

c7.s3.52

The Southern Bauddhas and the Jainas give expression to this feeling by asserting that their sacred books were written only many centuries after their composition. But it may be doubted, whether their dates are always quite correct. The occurrence of a *peṭaki* (literally “a Piṭaka-possessor”) a monk who knows one or more Piṭakas (see above p. 18), certainly proves that the Buddhist scriptures were written, when the Bharahut Stūpa was built. *Piṭaka* is only ‘a basket’ or ‘a box’ and corresponds to the modern *ḍābaḍo* of cardboard or wood in which the Jainas usually keep the MSS. of their parish libraries. As soon as the Buddhists divided their scriptures into Piṭakas,¹ they must of course have been written. If, as I believe, the inscription of the *peṭaki*, which shows the same characters as the Edicts, belongs approximately to the same time as the latter, the traditional date of the Ceylonese Buddhists, who say that their Canon was first committed to writing about 88 B. C., must be considerably wrong. The oldest MSS., actually found, are probably the birch bark leaves, inscribed with Kharoṣṭhī letters, from the topes of the Panjab.³ Next comes the Bower MSS. with the characters of the oldest Gupta inscriptions, then follow the Horiuzi palmleaf, the Bakhshālī MS., the Cambridge Collection from Nepal and the Bombay Collections of Jaina MSS. Older documents than are accessible at present, both on birchbark or palmleaves and on stone or metal, will no doubt be found, as soon as the old historical sites of India are excavated in a thorough and rational manner.