Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c4.36

c4.36

As regards the first possibility, it seems altogether inconsistent with the evidence regarding the scanty use of writing in the fourth century B. C. already given; for, as Phœnician communications direct with India must have ceased full five-hundred years, if not more, before that date, it is almost incredible that the art should not have arrived at perfection as applied to the Indian languages in that time, and have been in common use; but this is (as has been already shown) far from being the case. Again it is difficult to understand how the forms of the letters could be retained with so little modification for such a long period as this view would require; for, from the date of the inscriptions of Açoka (250 B. C.), documents with undisputed dates show that changes were marked rapid, and the progress of adaptation no less so[^4).