Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s20.1

c7.s20.1

A. — The Śāradā script,¹ which is easily recognised as a descendant of the western Gupta alphabet, appears since about A. D. 800 in Kashmīr and in the north-eastern Pañjāb (Kāngra and Chambā). The oldest known Śāradā inscriptions are the two Baijnāth Praśastis from Kīragrāma (Kāngra), dated A. D. 804; see plate V, col. I. Not much later are the coins of the Varma dynasty of Kashmīr, where the Śāradā forms are likewise fully developed.² And it is not improbable that the Bakhshālī MS., found in the Yusufzai district (plate VI, col. VIII), belongs to the same or even a somewhat earlier period.³ The third specimen of the Śāradā in plate VI, col. IX, which ultimately is derived from BURKHARD’S plate I. in his edition of the Kashmīrian Śākuntala,⁴ dates perhaps only from the 16th or 17th century; it has been given merely because at present no reproductions of more ancient MSS. are accessible.⁵ In consequence of the frequent emigrations of the travel-loving Kashmīrian Pandits, Śāradā MSS. are found in many towns of North-Western India and further east in Benares, and marginal glosses in Śāradā characters are found even in ancient Nāgarī MSS. from Western India.⁶ A [57] modern cursive variety of the Śāradā is the so-called Ṭakkarī or Ṭākarī⁷ of the Dogrās in Jammū and the neighbourhood, which of late has been imported also into Kashmīr.