Indian Epigraphy c14.s1.4

c14.s1.4

But, before the 6th century A.D., the use of Kharoṣṭhī died not only out of the north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent but also out of Afghanistan. The latest Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions in India are two small Taxila records of about the 5th century A.D., though we have a Brāhmī inscription of about the 3rd century A. D. from the same area.² The Gardez (Afghanistan) Vināyaka image inscription in Sanskrit, now in the Dargah Pir Ratan Nath at Kabul, may be mentioned in this connection. It is written in the Late Brāhmī alphabet of the 6th century A.D. and is stated to have been installed by the Śāhī king Khiṅgāla in the 8th year of his reign.³ A late medieval inscription in Nāgarī characters is noticed on the left side of the Central Mihrab of the rock-cut chamber near Chahil Zina (literally ‘forty steps’) in the vicinity of old Kandahar.⁴