The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.s1.17

v1.c15.s1.17

Kharoshṭhī is derived from the Aramaic script, which was introduced into India in the sixth century B.C., when the North-West was under Persian rule, and when Aramaic was used as a common means of communication for the purposes of government throughout the Persian empire. That originally the Aramaic language and alphabet pure and simple were thus imported into Gandhāra, as Bühler conjectured in 1895 (*W.Z.K.M.*, IX, p. 49), has been proved recently by Sir John Marshall's discovery of an Aramaic inscription at Taxila¹. When the first Kharoshṭhī inscriptions appear in the third century B.C., the alphabet has been adapted to express the additional sounds required by an Indian language; but, unlike Brāhmī which has been more highly elaborated, it still bears evident traces of its Semitic origin both in its direction from right to left and in its imperfect representation of the vowels. In the third century A.D. Kharoshṭhī appears more fully developed in Chinese Turkestān where its existence must be attributed to the Kushāṇa empire. In this region, as in India, it was eventually superseded by Brāhmī.