Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t5: 2.3.5 The name of the script

Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s3.t5

Language
English

2.3.5 The name of the script

c7.s3.t5.1

The script which is nowadays generally known as Kharoṣṭhī (or Kharoṣṭī, Kharoṣṭrī, etc.) was until the end of the nineteenth century referred to by various names such as "Bactrian," "Indo-Bactrian," "Kabulian," "Bactro-Pali," "Ariano-Pali," and so on.¹⁴⁸ It was T with the entire intermediate region between China and India, and endorsed the spelling *kharoṣṭrī* on the grounds that it could be connected with the “donkeys and camels” (Sanskrit *kharoṣṭra*) which are characteristic of the region in question.

c7.s3.t5.2

None of these explanations being particularly convincing, several other suggestions of a non-Indic origin for the name Kharoṣṭ(h)ī have been offered. Albert Ludwig¹⁵⁶ proposed a derivation from an unattested Aramaic **ḥarūttā* predicted on the basis of the root *ḤRŠ* (Hebrew)/ *ḤRT* (Aramaic) ‘engrave’, and Bühler (OIBA 114 n. 1) seemed willing to accept this as an alternative to the traditional etymology. Others have looked for Iranian or semi-Iranian etymologies, most persuasive among which is Jean Przyluski’s suggestion¹⁵⁷ connecting the name with that of *Kharaposta*, given in the *Mahāmāyūrī* as one of the *yakṣas* of northwestern India and rendered into Chinese as ‘hide of donkey’ (<*khara* ‘donkey’ + Iranian *post* ‘hide’). *Kharoṣṭha*/*Kharoṣṭhī*, and so on, would evidently result from an incorrect Sanskritization of the Prakrit form of the word in question. According to Przyluski, the application of the name to the script can be attributed to the practice (actually attested in some of the central Asian Kharoṣṭhī documents) of writing on the hides of donkeys and other animals.¹⁵⁸ He also suggested a connection of the name Kharaposta with that of king Kharaosta, known from coins and from the Mathurā lion capital inscriptions. This suggestion was taken up by H. Humbach,¹⁵⁹ who proposed that the script was named directly after King Kharaosta, with whom its importation into India proper may have been associated. Humbach’s explanation is endorsed by Falk (SAI 90). More recently, H. W. Bailey¹⁶⁰ has proposed several possible Iranian etymologies for *Kharoṣṭhī*, of which the most compelling is **xšaθra-pištra* ‘royal writing’.

c7.s3.t5.3

¹⁵⁶ “Über den Namen der alten linksläufigen Schrift der Inder,” in *Gurupūjākaumudī: Festgabe zum fünfzigjährigen Doctorjubiläum Albrecht Weber* (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1896), 68–71.

c7.s3.t5.4

¹⁵⁷ “Le nom de l’écriture kharoṣṭhī,” *JRAS* 1930, 43–5 = “The Name of the Kharoṣṭhî Script,” *IA* 60, 1931, 150–1.

c7.s3.t5.5

¹⁵⁸ Compare Skt. *pustaka* ‘book’ from the same Iranian *post*.

c7.s3.t5.6

¹⁵⁹ Review of DIP, *Orientalistische Literaturzeitung* 63, 1968, 489–91.

c7.s3.t5.7

¹⁶⁰ “Kharoṣtrī,” in *Indo-Scythian Studies Being Khotanese Texts*. Vol. 7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 46–9; see also *JRAS* 1978, 4.

c7.s3.t5.8

All in all, the question of the origin and meaning of the name Kharoṣṭhī remains problematic, but it appears that the connections noted by Przyluski et al. with the well-attested proper names Kharaposta and Kharaosta lie at the heart of the matter. In all probability *Kharoṣṭ(h)ī* is a Sanskritization of an original Iranian name whose etymology is uncertain. The connection with *khara* ‘donkey’ is probably nothing more than folk etymology, and the original term was most likely connected with Old Iranian **xšaθra* ‘sovereignty’, as noted by Bailey and others,¹⁶¹ though the second part of the word remains unclear, as does the process by which the name in question became associated with the script.

c7.s3.t5.9

¹⁶¹ For example, F. W. Thomas, *EI* 9, 1907–8, 139.

Linked texts (3)