Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s14.t2.1

c7.s14.t2.1

The next step in the development of the Brāhmī of Northern India is illustrated by the inscriptions from the time of the Kuṣana kings Kaniṣka, Huviṣka and Vāsuṣka or Vāsudeva (plate III, cols. III—V), the first among whom made an end of the rule of the older Śakas in the eastern and southern Pañjāb. The inscriptions with the names of these kings, which run from the year 4 to the year 98 (according to the usually accepted opinions, of the Śaka era of A. D. 77-78, or of the 4th century of the Seleucid era),⁸ are very numerous in Mathurā and its neighbourhood, and are found also in eastern Rājputāna and in the Central Indian Agency (Sāñci).⁹ In spite of great variations in the single letters, which occasionally exhibit the more modern forms in the older inscriptions and the earlier forms of the Northern Kṣatrapa type in the later documents, the alphabet possesses a very characteristic appearance, and nobody who once has seen the squat and broad letters of the Kuṣana period will ever make a mistake by assigning them to other times.