Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s5.17

c6.s5.17

As, according to the results of the preceding enquiry, the elaboration of the Brāhmī was completed about B. C. 500, or perhaps even earlier, the *terminus a quo*, about B. C. 800, may be considered as the actual date of the introduction of the Semitic alphabet into India. This estimate is, however, [19] merely a provisional one, which may be modified by the discovery of new epigraphic documents in India or in the Semitic countries. If such a modification should become necessary, the results of the recent finds induce me to believe that the date of the introduction will prove to fall earlier, and that it will have to be fixed perhaps in the tenth century B. C., or even before that.