Indian Epigraphy c17.10

c17.10

Sometime ago, a stone bowl bearing a small Kharoṣṭhī inscription was secured by the Bhārat Kalā Bhavan, attached to the Hindu University, Varanasi.² The writing is a palpable forgery since the persons responsible for it had apparently very insufficient knowledge about the forms of Kharoṣṭhī letters and the language expected in a Kharoṣṭhī document. With the partition of India in 1947, the zone where Kharoṣṭhī writing was prevalent now forms a part of West Pakistan. Kharoṣṭhī epigraphs have therefore a special demand in the Indian museums, and it is not very difficult here to pass spurious articles as genuine. Thus commercial motive lies at the root of the forgery of the said document.