Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s1.t2.21

c7.s1.t2.21

In conclusion, both the literary and the epigraphic evidence for the antiquity of historical writing in India are disappointingly inconclusive, since virtually all of the testimony is in one way or another vague or ambiguous. Probably the most cogent single piece of literary evidence for writing before the Mauryan period is Pāṇini's reference to script (*lipi*), although the uncertainties as to his date partially vitiate the value of this testimony. Moreover, although it seems clear that this proves the existence of some form of writing in Pāṇini's home region of northwestern South Asia in or before the mid-fourth century B.C., there is no explicit indication as to what type of script²² he is referring to. Although, as noted earlier, Falk and von Hinüber have recently suggested that may have been Aramaic, there is actually no cogent reason to rule out Kharoṣṭhī, which therefore may well date back to the mid-fourth century B.C. or quite possibly even earlier (see 2.3.2 and 2.3.6). But even if this is so, there is no direct evidence for the use of Brāhmī before the time of Aśoka. Thus, the trend of recent writings such as BS²³ and SAI has been to emphasize an empirical interpretation of the actual surviving data, which leads to the conclusion that at least Brāhmī, and probably Kharoṣṭhī as well, did not exist before the Mauryan period, and hence that (leaving aside the protohistoric Indus script) writing originated in India no earlier than the late fourth century B.C. However, the recent discovery, mentioned above, of apparently pre-Mauryan graffiti in Sri Lanka has cast some doubt upon this point of view.