An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s4.t1.7

v1.c25.s4.t1.7

The script was used from the middle of the 3rd century B.C. (Aśoka) to the 3rd-4th century A.D. (later Kushan) but survived for some time more in Chinese Turkestan. However the forms of the letters do not indicate any evolution. The otherwise uniform script shows variations on account of two factors: the nature of the material on which it was written—stone, metal plate or vase, coin, cameos, birch-bark, wood, leather or paper—and the need to communicate new sounds in other languages by inventing diacritic strokes. Besides these there is no clear palaeographical indication for framing a chronological chart for the script.