Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c11.s2.5

c11.s2.5

The state of Kharoṣṭhī studies at the same period is attested by Rājendralāla Mitra's new edition, published in 1861,¹¹⁰ of the important Wardak inscription. While still far from completely correct, this was the most mature treatment of a non-Aśokan Kharoṣṭhī inscription to date. Further progress was demonstrated soon afterward by J. Dowson's important article "On a Newly Discovered Bactrian Pali Inscription; and on Other Inscriptions in the Bactrian Pali Character" in 1863.¹¹¹ Here Dowson reviewed all the Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions known at the time; and although his versions are less close to definitive than was Bhau Daji's edition of the Junāgaḍh inscription, this reflects the overall lagging of Kharoṣṭhī studies behind Brāhmī rather than any shortcoming in Dowson's scholarship. Dowson's article represents a major advance in the study of Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions, attributable to the greater number of inscriptions that had become available as well as to his scholarly and cautious approach to them. It also contained (228–47) the first good explanation of the numerical system of Kharoṣṭhī (see 2.4.2), correcting the errors of Cunningham, who had incorrectly assumed that the numbers followed a decimal/place-value system. Hence the principal credit for determining the values of Kharoṣṭhī numerals goes to Dowson.