Indian Epigraphy c14.s1.1

c14.s1.1

Aśoka’s inscriptions discovered in the Peshawar and Hazara Districts of West Pakistan are written in the Prakrit language and Kharoṣṭhī alphabet, the latter being an Indian modification of the Aramaic script introduced in the region during the Achaemenian occupation. But an important inscription of the Maurya king discovered in Afghanistan is the Kandahar bilingual epigraph which is in two versions, one in Greek and the other in Aramaic.² Among later records from the Afghanistan area written in Prakrit and Kharoṣṭhī, mention may be made of the inscriptions of the times of Menander and Vijayamitra found in the Bajaur tribal territory and the vase inscription of Huviṣka’s time from Khawat (Wardak) about 30 miles to the west of Kabul.¹