Indian Palaeography c12.s2.11

c12.s2.11

The inscriptions suggest that knowledge of writing travelled along the imperial routes, and that the imperial scribes were the carriers of Aśokan Brāhmī to the distant parts of the empire. Otherwise it is difficult to explain how the same type of the script is to be found in the far-flung areas of north, south, east, and west. Since in the north-west Aśoka used Kharoshṭhī, Aramaic, and Greek¹ scripts, it is very unlikely that he would not have used regional scripts in other parts of his empire, if such had existed. Aśokan Brāhmī does not tend to show regional variations, but the Aśokan inscriptions mark the process of cultural infiltration into the distant parts of this subcontinent.