Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s5: § 10. — The varieties of the Kharoṣṭhī of Plate I
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s5
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§ 10. — The varieties of the Kharoṣṭhī of Plate I
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¹ Preparation of Plate I: — 1—37, cols. I—V, and 38, 39, cols. I—XIII, traced by Dr. Dedekind from Dr. Burgess' impressions of the Aśoka edicts of Shāhbāzgarhī and Mansehra, and reduced by photography. 1—37, cols. VI, VII, and 38, 39, col. XIV, drawn by Dr. W. Cartellieri from P. Gardner's autotypes of Indo-Grecian coins. 1—37, cols. VIII, IX, and 22—25, col. XIII, traced from Dr. Burgess' impressions of the Mathurā lion capital and the photograph of the Taxila copper-plate of which a collotype has since then been published in *EI.* 4, 55 (10 and 14, col. VIII, and 25, col. XIII). 1—37, cols. X—XII, and 31—37, col. XIII, traced or drawn according to Dr. Hoernle's facsimile of the Suë Bihār inscription, supplemented by some signs from the Manikāla stone and gelatine copies of the Wardak and Bimāran vases by Dr. S. von Oldenburg. 23—30, col. XIII, drawn according to P. Gardner's autotypes of the older Kuṣana coins. 1—20, cols. XIII, XIV, numerals drawn according to the impressions and facsimiles of the Aśoka edicts and later inscriptions. Older tables of the Kharoṣṭhī alphabet, in P.*IA.* 2, 166, pl. 11; W.*AA.* 262; C.*IA*(CII. 1), pl. 27: P. Gardner, *Cat. I. C. Br. Mus.* p. LXX. f. ; Von Sallet, *Nachfolger Alex. d. Gr.* (end); G. H. Ozha, *The Ind. Pal.* pl. 26.
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According to plate I, the Kharoṣṭhī shows four chief varieties, *viz.*: — (1) the archaic one of the fourth and third centuries B. C., found in the Aśoka edicts of Shāhbāzgarhī (photolithograph of edict VII. in *ZDMG.* 43, 151, and of edict XII. in *EI.* 1, 16) and of Mansehra (photolithograph of edicts I—VIII. in *JA.* 1888, 2, 330, = Senart, *Notes d'Épigraphie Indienne*, 1), with which the signature in the Aśoka edicts of Siddāpura (photolithographs in *EI.* 3, 138—140), the legends on the oldest coins (autotypes in C.*CAI.* pl. 3, Nos. 9, 12, 13) and the syllables on the Persian *sigloi* (autotypes in *J.RAS.* 1895, 865) fully agree.
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(2) The variety of the second and first centuries B. C. on the coins of the Indo-Grecian kings, which is imitated by some later foreign kings (autotypes in P. Gardner's *Catalogue of Indian Coins in the British Museum*, pl. 4—21).
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(3) The variety of the Saka period, first century B. C. to first century A. D. (?), on the Taxila copper-plate of Patika (lithograph in J.RAS. 1863, 222, pl. 3, and collotype in EI. 4, 56), and on the lion-capital of the satrap Soḍāsa or Suḍasa from Mathurā, which occurs also on some sculptures from Gandhāra (autotype in J.ASB. 58, 144, pl. 10; Anzeig. phil. hist. Cl. WA. 1896), on the Kaldawa stone (WZKM. 10, 55, 327) and on the coins of several Śaka and Kuṣana kings (autotypes, P. GARDNER, op. cit., pl. 22—25).
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(4) The strongly cursive script of the first and second centuries A. D. (?), which begins with the Takht-i-Bahi inscription of Gondopherres (autotype in JA. 1890, I, = S.NEI. 3, pl. 1, No. 1) and is fully developed in the inscriptions of the later Kuṣana kings Kaniṣka and Huviṣka (autotype of the Zeda inscription in JA. 1890, I, = S.NEI. 3, pl. 1, No. 3, of the Manikyāla stone, JA. 1896, I, = S.NEI. 6, pl. 1, 2, of the Suē Bihār inscription, IA. 10, 324, lithograph of the Wardak vase, J.RAS. 1863, 256, pl. 10),¹ and occurs also in the MS. of the Dhammapada from Khotan; see above, § 7.
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¹ Other facsimiles of Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions: — (1) Aśoka edicts in J.RAS. 1850, 153; C.IA(CII. 1), pl. 1, 2; C.ASR. 5, pl. 5; S.IP. 1 (end); IA. 10, 107; — (2) later inscriptions in P.IA. 1, 96 (pl. 6), 144 (pl. 9), 162 (pl. 10); W.AA. 54 (pl. 2), 252; C.ASR. 2, 124 (pl. 59), 160 (pl. 63); 5, pl. 16, 28; J.RAS. 1863, 222 (pl. 3), 238 (pl. 4), 250 (pl. 9), 256 (pl. 10), and 1877, 144; J.ASB. 23, 57; 31, 176, 532; 39, 65; IA. 18, 257; S.NEI. Nos. 3 (JA. 1890, I, pl. 1, No. 2) and 5 (JA. 1894, II, pl. 5, Nos. 34, 36): all useless except the last three.