Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s2.3

c7.s2.3

⁵ B.IS. III², loc. cit.; the question of the lower limit of the use of the Kharoṣṭhī is difficult on account of the uncertainty regarding the dates of Kaniṣka and his two successors, all of whom S. LÉVI now places in the first cent. A. D.(JA. 1897, 1, 1 ff.). The limit given above is based on the assumption that Kaniṣka’s dates refer to the Saka era or to the fourth cent. of the Seleucidan era. I still make use of it, not because I consider it to be unassailable, but for the reasons stated in WZKM. 1, 169. The letters in the inscriptions of Saṁvat 200 and 276 or 286 (Hashtnagar image) look more ancient than those of the Kuṣana inscriptions. According to a communication from Dr. Th. Bloch, Prof. Hoernle has read dates of the fourth cent. of the same unknown Saṁvat on recently found Gandhāra sculptures.