History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c16.s3.81

c16.s3.81

The selective nature of most of these defacements indicates that they were carried out by the religious rivals of the Ājīvikas, who made use of the caves after them, and did not wish to be reminded of the former occupants. The evidence of later inscriptions, and of the other remains in the vicinity, shows that, after the Ājīvikas, the caves were occupied by Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim in turn. Of these, it is improbable that the Muslims were responsible for the defacement of the inscriptions, for it appears that, by the time of the Muslim invasion, the Brahmī alphabet was illegible even to the most learned Brāhmaṇas.²