sign in sign up
<<
Home , Aramaic alphabet, Ba (Indic), Brahmi script, E (Indic), Ga (Indic), Ha (Indic)

Component- () – Personal details:

Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.

Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. & Dr. . Muniratnam Director i/, Epigraphy, ASI, Mysore

Dr. Sayantani Pal Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta.

Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.

Component-I () – Description of module:

Subject Name Indian Culture

Paper Name Indian Epigraphy

Module Name/Title

Module Id IC / IEP / 15

Pre requisites

Kharosthi Script – Characteristics – Origin – Objectives Different Theories – Distribution and its End

Keywords

E-text (Quadrant-I) :

1. Introduction

Kharosthi was one of the major scripts of the Indian subcontinent in the early period. In the list of 64 scripts occurring in the Lalitavistara (3rd century CE), a text in Buddhist Hybrid , Kharosthi comes second after Brahmi. Thus both of them were considered to be two major scripts of the Indian subcontinent. Both Kharosthi and Brahmi are first encountered in the edicts of Asoka in the 3rd century BCE.

2. Discovery of the script and its

The script was first discovered on one side of a large number of coins bearing Greek legends on the other side from the north western part of the Indian subcontinent in the first quarter of the 19th century. Later in 1830 to 1834 two full inscriptions of the time of bearing the same script were found at Manikiyala in . After this discovery James named the script as ‘Bactrian Pehelevi’ since it occurred on a number of so called ‘Bactrian’ coins. To the characters first looked similar to Pahlavi (Semitic) characters. Later realised that the script occurring on one side of the Indo-Greek, Scytho- Parthian and Kushana coins are similar. Moreover this script was also found in the Shahbazgarhi version of the Major Rock edicts of Asoka. So he named the script ‘Arian ’ to distinguish it from ‘Indian Pali’ which later came to be known as the . Ariana is the term used in the Classical sources for the territories of Paropanisadai, Arachosia and Gedrosia (Kabul, and Baluchistan). Since the content of the Greek legend on the obverse of the coins was likely to have occurred in the reverse side in the ‘Bactrian Pehelevi’ characters, Prinsep was able to read a number of letters by comparing them to the Greek letters, .., if the Greek legend was Basileos Soteros Apollodotou, the reverse legend could be read as Maharajasa tratarasa Apaladatasa. Prinsep thus recognised 11/12 letters. The rest were deciphered by C. Lassen, A. Cunningham and E. Norris by the middle of the nineteenth century. Kharosthi as the name of the script was first suggested by T.de Lacouperie in 1886-87, on the basis of its mention in the Lalitavistara and the Chinese encyclopaedia Fa yuan chu lin (668 C.E). Thus in the last decade of the nineteenth century ‘Arian Pali’ was identified as ‘Kharosthi’ scripts.

3. Geographical Distribution of the script

The principal area of the use of the Kharosthi script was the territory along and around the Indus, Swat and Kabul river valleys forming parts of the ancient kingdom and nearby areas. The western/ northwestern limit is Wardak or Khawat, about 30 miles west of

Kabul. At a later period Kharosthi inscriptions were discovered in Qunduz in north and also in several places of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Graffiti in Kharosthi have been found at various sites around along the upper Indus. Stray finds of Kharosthi inscriptions in Kumrahar (Patna) and (a famous site in ) are believed to have been either import from the north west or written by people coming from the north west. In the Minor Rock Edicts I and II of Asoka engraved on a rock at Jatinga-Rameswara in Karnataka, the name of the scribe Chapada has been written in Kharosthi script at the end. This indicates that the scribe hailed from the North west.

Apart from the inscriptions and coins Kharosthi was also used for epigraphic and literary purposes in some kingdoms of like the Shan-shan kingdom on the , in the birch-bark manuscript of in Khotan etc. Kharosthi inscriptions have been found in also. Patronage to by Kushana rulers was an important factor for the spread of Kharosthi outside its core area in Gandhara. The Gandhari speaking monks probably used this script in the monasteries of such areas.

4. Period

The earliest specimens of the Kharosthi script are found in the Shahbazgarhi and Manshera versions of the Major rock edicts of Asoka. All the major powers in the Northwest like the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Parthians, Scytho-Parthians, Kushanas used Kharosthi script in between the first century BCE to the third century CE . In the western coastal region the script was used by early western Ksatrapa kings like and Castana. In their tri-scriptual coins Kharosthi is a script along with Greek and Brahmi. Again some of the tribes like Audumbaras, Kunindas and others who settled in Punjab issued coins in Kharosthi script. When they moved eastwards to present Haryana or southwards to , they issued coins in Brahmi script. Kharosthi documents from Niya and Tarim basin in Central Asia are approximately datable to the third and early fourth centuries. The use of Kharosthi declined around third century A.D. when after the downfall of the Kushanas, the political centre shifted to north and north eastern . The limited area of its use helped Kharosthi to maintain its unitary style of . There was little scope of its branching of into any provincial school like the Brahmi script.

5. Nature of Kharosthi Documents

There are almost hundreds of inscriptions in Kharosthi script engraved on stone & metal. Asoka used Kharosthi script on rocks to engrave his Edicts. Apart from this the majority of them are Buddhist donations or record foundation of structures. Kharosthi also occur on coin legends of foreign and indigenous rulers, normally with other scripts. In Central Asia it occurs in the administrative documents from Niya; in the Dharmapada manuscripts and in Chinese Buddhist texts.

6. The

Kharosthi script was used to write the north western language which was also known as the Gandhari Prakrit. It is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect. The vocabulary of the language consists mostly of Indian words with a few numbers of Greek and Iranian words. Gandhari is a distinctly separate language from the other members of the Middle Indo-Aryan family. That is why a separate script was required to write it.

7. The Meaning of the name of the script

The name of the script appears in different spellings in various sources like Kharoṣṭī, Khaloṣṭī etc. in the Lalitavistara, Kharostī and Kharāstrī in the Mahavastu etc. In the Chinese encyclopedia Fa yuan Chu Lin the name is K’(i)a-lu-she-t’. B.N. Mukherjee thinks that the term occurring in the Lalitavistara should be read as Kharoṣtī and not Kharoṣṭhī. Richard Salomon observes that since the name is not Indic, variation in spelling could have been

resulted from different Sanskritizations of the name. As regards its meaning, Sylvain Levi first suggested that Kharoṣṭra might be a toponym for the Kasgarh area. In the Chinese encyclopedia Fa yuan Chu Lin the name K’(i)a-lu-she-t’o means ass-lip and it is the name of a sage. Levi later modified his view and said that the Kharoṣṭra country refers to the entire region between China and India. Donkeys and camels that frequent the region can be connected to the term Kharoṣṭrī (Sanskrit Kharoṣṭra).

An important suggestion came from Jean Przyluski who said that Kharaposta is a yakṣa of the northwest mentioned in the text Mahamayuri and it has been rendered into Chinese as ‘hide of donkey’ (

8. Origin-Different Theories

The origin of the Kharosthi script is a much debated issue. The direction of the Kharosthi script in Indian- subcontinent is right to left. The very fact that the Kharosthi is written from left to right establishes its connection with the Semitic (West Asiatic) scripts. Its particular connection with the script was first noted by Isaac Taylor. Buhler suggested that the territory of Kharosthi corresponds very closely with the extent of the portion of Indian subcontinent, presumably held by the Persians. Since Aramaic served as the of the Achaemenid (Persian) empire the Aramaic could be adapted to the Gandhari language. Richard Salomon points to the Asokan edicts in Aramaic that included Prakrit words written in Aramaic script and provided with glosses in the Aramaic language. It confirms the close connection of the Aramaic with the Indic and scripts in the Achaemenid period and afterwards.

Kharosthi letters like na can be identified with Aramaic , with Aramaic . In several cases there are alterations from Aramaic prototypes, as for instance, the Aramaic letter lamed was inverted to form Kharosthi . In case of Aramaic an extra stroke was added to form the letter in Kharosthi. Besides, the diacritically modified syllabic system of Kharosthi has been explained in historical terms as a refinement of the Semitic - syllabic system. lengths are not differentiated in the Kharosthi script. It has been regarded as an intermediate stage of development between the consonant-syllabic Semitic prototype and the fully vocalized Indic system as found in the Brahmi script.

Apart from the Aramaic script historical connection between the Brahmi and the Kharosthi script has also been recognised. Letters , and la are quite similar in the earliest forms of Brahmi and Kharosthi. They can be attributed to a common Aramaic or other Semitic prototype. However majority of the basic characters in Kharosthi and Brahmi are dissimilar. It points to the independent development of the two scripts from their Semitic prototypes.

Buhler calls it a popular script and admits that Kharosthi is an alphabet framed with particular regard to the needs of clerks. It arose out of official intercourse between the scribes of the Persian emperor and those of the native chiefs and other authorities. A.. Dani also admits that Kharosthi was originally adopted to write the local language spoken by common people. The foreign conquerors wanted to establish relation with their subjects for the sake of administration. Local language was adopted but the problem was to find a vehicle through which this language could be written in such a way that it was intelligible to local people as well as convenient to learn by the administrative staff who were familiar with Aramaic. Thus it was created from Aramaic and appears mainly in the records of foreign rulers.

B. N. Mukherjee holds the same view with Buhler that Kharosthi was created by the Achaemenids in the Indian provinces of their empire in the 5th – 4th century B.C. He explains that their official script was Aramaic while their subjects in the Indian provinces used Brahmi to write the Gandhari Prakrit. The script was created because the Aramaic- knowing administrators wanted to write Prakrit in a script that was based on Aramaic and would also be understood, with a little effort, by the Prakrit-knowing and Brahmi-using subjects. Thus it was ‘empire-put’ or ‘empire-placed’, i.e., ‘put in the service of the empire’ [Khara (

9. Writing Technique

Kharosthi is a pen style of writing, in which one type of pen remained in use throughout. In Asokan inscriptions it leaves behind a foot-mark in the form of an upward slant at the lower end of the verticals on the left. This foot-mark is to be attributed to the style of the writer. In the Kushana inscriptions the verticals gradually thin out into curves as is natural to a pen. The medial assumes the form of a loop. In stone engravings this loop becomes a triangle. In coins and medals many other superfluous lines or dots are seen in the forms of , , , rarely in , da, na and sa. Percy Gardner while studying the coins of the Greek and Scythic kings of and India in the took these lines and dots for lengthened and hence read māhārāja for mahārāja and menadrāsa for menadrasa.

Thus it can be understood that the letters forms have not gradually evolved from original Aramaic to Kharosthi. But the whole system follows the pattern of Aramaic. Difference in the grammar and phonology of the local languages stood in the way of adopting Aramaic forms wholesale.

10. General Characteristics

Kharosthi follows the principles of Brahmi as far as language demands. While Brahmi has three basic forms of vowels a, i and u, Kharosti has only one, the forms of the remaining vowels being obtained by adding strokes. Aramaic does not need to express medial vowels but Kharosti does. The original letter forms of Kharosthi were based on Aramaic as far as the Indian alphabet could allow. The remaining letters were evolved by the addition of diacritic marks.

The cursive ductus has resulted in the naming of Kharosthi as a ‘clerk’s script’. Besides the script is top-oriented as the distinguishing characteristic of each letter is seen on their upper part. There are no clear local variants of the script except the Central Asian variety. It is more cursive as it was written with pen & ink.

11. Test letters of Kharosthi

The letters dental sa, da, and palatal sa have been regarded as test letters of Kharosthi script since it is the easiest way to determine the period of the inscription with the help of these letters. Among them again the dental sa is the most reliable. It is fully closed-mouthed in the Asokan edicts where from it gradually opens its mouth through the following centuries. In the inscriptions of the Kushanas that encompasses the latest development of the script the letter is fully open-mouthed. However, often the three types of dental sa, i.e., closed- mouthed, slightly open-mouthed and fully open-mouthed overlap in inscriptions. In such cases the oldest form needs to be recognized to determine the period of the inscription.

12. Later discoveries

For long it was believed that kharosthi is essentially associated with the north-west. But in 1989 B.N.Mukherjee recognised some kharosthi on a terracotta plaque from Tamluk and on two clay pots from . Since then large number of such antiquities from lower West , mainly Chandraketugarh have been deciphered by him. They are

inscribed pots, plaques, seals etc. Some are in Kharosthi (which can be taken as imports from the north-west) while some bear Kharosthi and Brahmi inscriptions. Seals are stamped with Brahmi legends with the help of matrices and Kharosthi inscriptions are incised outside the stamped area or on the reverse. Thus Kharosthi was employed in a regular Brahmi using zone in lower West Bengal. This Kharosthi has been termed as the eastern Kharosthi.

The objects are personal badges, seals, traders’ identification tickets, transport documents or sale licenses, seals of business communities, religious tokens, charms, items of fine arts showing pictures etc. Aramaic letters like sin and ’ also occur on some inscriptions. Sometimes a Brahmi and Kharosthi letter together forms a compound.

The forms of Kharosthi letters have been assigned to 3 classes – Normal / Formal, Slanting and Cursive. Sometimes legends include two or all three different types.

The most important letter for dating Kharosti inscriptions here is da. In latest form it looks like a straight line written vertically or slantingly. It is seen in Takht I Bahi record (45-46 CE). Thus in lower west Bengal Kharosti was not introduced before late first or second century. It continued upto the fifth century. Gradually the use of Brahmi increases in such objects that have been taken as an attempt to create a hybrid or mixed script. B.N. Mukherjee further opined that this script could be identified with the vimisrita lipi of Lalitavistara. The language is Prakrit which is, in some ways different to the North western or Gandhari Prakrit.

Regarding the occurrence of Kharosthi in lower West Bengal B.N. Mukherjee suggested that more than one community could have migrated here from the Northwest in early centuries of the Christian Era. The Immigrants were mainly agriculturists and traders and could have come here in connection with the horse trade. He points to the maritime trade contacts between Vanga (Lower Gangetic ) with South East Asia, China and Srilanka.

From Vanga Eastern Kharosthi and Kharosthi-Brahmi were exported to South-East Asia probably by traders. They were used in parts of , and Bali. B.N. Mukherjee assigned them to c.2nd and 3rd centuries CE. In the kingdom of Dvaravati in Thailand Kharosthi-Brahmi legends occur on coins as late as the 7th century.

13. Summary

In this way the Kharosthi script served the purpose of a specific time and situation. It was invented for administrative requirements, as for instance, construction of cistern by a ruler or to record religious activities like deposition of relics. Kharosthi is associated with a particular geographical space that is Gandhara. Its spread in other areas like Central Asia or parts of India, like Western and eastern India and even south East Asia was essentially associated with the movement of the people from the Northwest to those areas. In the long run it could not survive due to the decline of the central Asian empire of the Kushanas after the 3rd century CE. The political centre by this time shifted to eastern India where the Brahmi script was widespread and thus began to branch off in new forms and in new areas. The importance and scope of the studies on the Kharosthi script, however, have widened due to the new discoveries since 1989 in West Bengal as has already been discussed.