Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s1.t2.8

c7.s1.t2.8

The testimony of Greek and Latin authors on writing in early India has been studied by many scholars¹³ but remains somewhat inconclusive. For example, Nearchos, who visited northwestern India around 325 B.C., explicitly mentions that Indians wrote letters (ἐπιστολὰς) on cotton cloth. This observation is usually assumed to refer to the Kharoṣṭhī script, but it has recently been suggested¹⁴ that Nearchos may actually have been referring to writing in Aramaic. Megasthenes, who lived in northeastern India some two decades after Nearchos, stated that the Indians "did not know written characters" (οὐδὲ γὰρ γράμματα εἰδέναι αὐτούς), but it is not entirely certain whether this is a blanket statement¹⁵ or refers only to the immediate context of legal procedures in which the comment was made. The confusion on this issue among the classical historians seems to be reflected in Strabo's comment, with reference to Nearchos' report, that "others opine that they did not make use of written characters."