Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t2: 2.3.2 Chronological range
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t2
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2.3.2 Chronological range
c7.s3.t2.1
The Kharoṣṭhī script first appears in inscriptions in the Shāhbāzgaṛhī and Mānsehrā rock edicts of Aśoka, datable to the middle of the third century B.C. In these early records the script appears as a more or less fully developed system, which may be taken to indicate a significant prehistory. But it is difficult to estimate how long such a presumed developmental period might have taken, though it is likely on historical and paleographic grounds (see 2.3.6) that Kharoṣṭhī originated sometime during the Achaemenian era.¹³² Bühler (OKA 50 = OIBA 98) was inclined on paleographic grounds to date the origin of Kharoṣṭhī to the earlier phase of this period, that is, around the beginning of the fifth century B.C., but in view of uncertainties about the details of his proposed Aramaic derivation (see 2.3.6), Bühler's early dating can be accepted only provisionally at best. On the other hand, late dates such as ca. 330 B.C. proposed by Halévy¹³³ or after 325 B.C. suggested by Falk¹³⁴ are problematic, especially if, as seems most likely, the *lipi* referred to by Pāṇini is Kharoṣṭhī (2.1.2). In short, there is no clear evidence to allow us to specify the date of the origin of Kharoṣṭhī with any more precision than sometime in the fourth, or possibly the fifth, century B.C.
c7.s3.t2.2
¹³² E. J. Rapson ("Counter-marks on early Persian and Indian Coins," *JRAS* 1895, 865–77) thought that some silver *sigloi* of the Achaemenian kings of Iran, dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., bore countermarks consisting of *akṣaras* in Kharoṣṭhī (and Brāhmī; cf. 2.1.2 n. 20) scripts. However, Rapson's identification of these countermarks as syllables of the Indian alphabets was called into question by G. F. Hill ("Notes on the Imperial Persian Coinage," *Journal of Hellenic Studies* 39, 1919, 116–29) and is no longer generally accepted, so that they cannot be taken as specimens of pre-Mauryan Kharoṣṭhī.
c7.s3.t2.3
¹³³ *JA*, ser. 8, vol. 6, 1885, 267; *Revue Sémitique* 3, 1895, 378–80. (For full references see 2.3.6.)
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¹³⁴ *SAI* 104.
c7.s3.t2.5
Kharoṣṭhī continued to be the principal script of the northwest in the following centuries, flourishing during the so-called foreign period of the reigns of the Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian, and Kuṣāṇa kings from the first century B.C. to the second century A.D. But the script appears to have fallen out of general use in South Asia itself by sometime in the third century A.D. or shortly thereafter. The latest datable inscription in Kharoṣṭhī is probably Skārah Ḍherī (CII 2.1, 124–7), apparently dated in the year 399 of an unspecified era, usually presumed to be the "Old Śaka" era, which would put the date of the inscription around the middle of the third century A.D.¹³⁵ Two other Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions from Jamālgaṛhī and Hashtnagar (CII 2.1, 110–3 and 117–9) are dated in the years 359 and 384, presumably of the same era, confirming that the script was still in use around the period in question.
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¹³⁵ See section 5.5.1.2. Konow, following W. E. van Wijk, places the epoch of the era in question in 84 B.C., so that the date of the inscription would correspond to A.D. 315.
c7.s3.t2.7
A series of Kharoṣṭhī image inscriptions from Jauliāñ (CII 2.1, 92–7) were attributed by John Marshall¹³⁶ on archaeological grounds to a date as late as the second half of the fifth century a.d., and taken as evidence that “Kharoshṭhī was still the ordinary script of the townspeople of Taxila” at this period. But Konow suspected that these inscriptions may have been copies of older ones, and thus do not constitute evidence that Kharoṣṭhī was still in active use at this late date. It is thus safest to conclude that Kharoṣṭhī probably fell out of general use in South Asia in or around the third century a.d., but it may have been used occasionally for another century or more.
c7.s3.t2.8
¹³⁶ *Excavations at Taxila: The Stupas and Monasteries at Jauliāñ* (MASI 7, 1921), 10.
c7.s3.t2.9
This conclusion is supported by the material from central Asia, where the Kharoṣṭhī documents from Niya and other sites on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin (4.3.7.12) are also approximately datable to the third and early fourth centuries, mainly on the grounds of their co-occurrence with a Chinese document dated a.d. 269.¹³⁷ It is possible, however, that Kharoṣṭhī continued to be used in the cities of the northern rim of the Tarim Basin well after this time; documents in this script were reported to have been found there together with others in the Kuchean language datable to the seventh century.¹³⁸ But since these documents are still unpublished their significance remains uncertain, and there is still no firm evidence that Kharoṣṭhī survived much longer than the third century.
c7.s3.t2.10
The decline of Kharoṣṭhī around the third century a.d. can presumably be attributed to historical developments of this time. With the decline and fall of the Kuṣāṇa empire, the center of political power in South Asia began to shift from the northwest toward northern and northeastern India. This development presumably reduced the importance of Kharoṣṭhī as the regional script of the former area, with the eventual result that it was supplanted entirely by the pan-Indian Brāhmī.