Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t2.9

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together with others in the Kuchean language datable to the seventh century.¹³⁸ But since these documents are still unpublished their significance remains uncertain, and there is still no firm evidence that Kharoṣṭhī survived much longer than the third century.