Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t2.7

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.