Indian Palaeography c18.s3.1

c18.s3.1

The very fact that Kharoṣṭhī was written from right to left led to the easy recognition of its relationship³ with the Aramaic script, which was the main branch of the North Semitic alphabet.⁴ This relationship was strengthened by the identity of letters such as *na*, *ba*, *ra*, and *va*, and the close similarity of a few other features, the most important being the employment of one basic form for the initial vowels in Kharoṣṭhī, as is also the case in Aramaic. Isaac Taylor⁵ explained the circumstances under the Achaemenians, which helped in the origin of Kharoṣṭhī and its evolution as seen in the Aśokan inscriptions. But Cunningham⁶ rightly pointed out that the expansion of the alphabet ‘took place after its contact with the more fully developed system of the Indian alphabet’. It seems that Cunningham did not agree with Taylor when the latter proposed a gradual evolution of the Kharoṣṭhī letters from the Aramaic alone or through its influence. However, the confusion could not be removed, mainly because no distinction was made between the script and the alphabet. Bühler accepted the proposal of Taylor and argued for the original and derivative signs and further added: ‘with respect to the origin of the mark of aspiration I can agree with Dr. Taylor, who explains it as a cursive form of *Ha*.’⁷ Bühler further develops the idea of Taylor and explains the circumstances of the origin of Kharoṣṭhī. He calls it a popular script, and remarks: ‘If thus the Kharoṣṭhī appears to be an alphabet, framed with particular regard to the wants of clerks, that agrees with and confirms the assumption, put forward above, according to which it arose out of the official intercourse between the scribes of the Satraps and those of the native chiefs or other authorities.’¹ Though Bühler’s definition of the character of the Kharoshṭhī script has been modified by us in the previous paragraph on the evidence of the documents from Chinese Turkestan, it is nevertheless true that Kharoshṭhī was originally adopted to write the local language spoken by the common people. This necessity must have been felt by the foreign conquerors who desired to establish relations with their subjects—relations demanded by administrative necessity. The local language had to be adopted for dealings with them, but the problem was to find a vehicle through which this language could be written in such a way that it was intelligible to the local people as well as convenient to learn by the administrative staff who were familiar with Aramaic. It was this necessity which created Kharoshṭhī from Aramaic, and it is mainly in the records of foreign rulers that this script was used. The script was carried as far as Mathura by the Śaka Kshatrapas and Gujarat by the Western Kshatrapas. It survived for as long as the foreign rulers were able to maintain their individuality against the growing Indianizing influences.