Indian Palaeography c12.2

c12.2

THE Indian alphabetic¹ system, as developed fully by the Sanskrit grammarians, is not at present known from actual specimens of writing till a very late period. This system, so far as it was needed by the popular language of the inscriptions, found expression at the same time in two scripts, the Brāhmī and the Kharoshṭhī. These were used in the inscriptions issued by a king who bore the title of Devānaṁpiya Piyadasi, belonged to Magadha (South Bihar), had his capital at Pāṭaliputra (modern Patna), and whose name, as given in two of the records, was Aśoka. He has long been identified with the Mauryan king of the same name, reigning between *c.* 272 and 231 B.C. The country over which he ruled was called Jambudvīpa, its limits being defined by the places where the inscriptions have been found as well as by the names of the bordering kingdoms of the Choḍas, Pāḍas, Satiyaputas, and Keralaputas in the south and those of the Yona (Greek) kings in the north-west. It covered almost the whole of the subcontinent of India and Pakistan north of the Kaveri Valley. Throughout this vast empire the inscriptions, called (*dhamma-*) *lipi*, *libi*, or *dipi*, were written in these two scripts—the Kharoshṭhī used in the Indus Valley zone, and the Brāhmī in the remaining parts. The Brāhmī script of these inscriptions is termed here ‘Aśokan Brāhmī’, as it is well defined in age, language, content, and common character.