Indian Palaeography c18.s2.6

c18.s2.6

The earliest² inscriptions in Kharoṣṭhī are those of Aśoka (middle of the third century B.C.) found at Mansehra and Shahbazgarhi, and the latest are those known in the inscriptions of the later Kushāṇas (third to fourth century A.D.). A few private records may have been written slightly later, but already Brāhmī was adopted by the Indianized rulers in this region. In Chinese Turkestan Kharoshṭhī was kept up by the local people for some time more. But in India, when the Hūṇas appear in the fifth century A.D., no trace of Kharoshṭhī is seen.