Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c6.s3.3

c6.s3.3

Reading and writing (*vācanam, lekhanam*) were commonly known. As we saw just a while before, numerous are the references to the various and widespread uses of writing in the *Jātakas*, to the writing of epistles,¹ to the forging of letters,² to inscriptions on gold plates,³ to inscription over a hermitage,⁴ inscription in letters (*akkharāni*) of vermilion upon a wall,⁵ to letters of the alphabet engraved on gold necklets,⁶ to inscriptions upon garments and accoutrements,⁷ to the scratching of a message on an arrow,⁸ and to the scratching of a writing on a leaf (*panna*).⁹