Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-18T14:58:41.828Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Kharosthi Alphabet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

Kharoṣṭhī or Kharoṣṭrī is the name of a particular script used in Afghanistan, the Punjab, and portions of Central Asia from the fourth or fifth centuries before Christ to the third or fourth centuries of the Christian era. In the third or fourth centuries a.d. it gradually went out of use, the place being taken by one or more forms of the mediaeval Brāhmī. In the eighteenth century the earlier generation of epigraphists and archæologists used to call this script “Bactrian”, “Indo-Bactrian”, “Bactro-Pali”, “Ariano-Pali”, etc. Then it was identified with the Kharoṣṭhī or Kharoṭṭhī lipi, on the evidence of the Fa-wan-shu-lin. The Chinese work describes the “ass-lip” (Kham-oṣṭha in Sanskrit) script, invented by one Kharoṣṭha, in which the writing ran from the right to left. This identification, proposed by George Bühler, has since met with general acceptance.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1920

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 193 note 1 Babylonian and Oriental Record, vol. i, p. 59.Google Scholar

page 193 note 2 Vienna Oriental Journal, vol. ix, p. 66.Google Scholar

page 193 note 3 Indian Studies, iii, p. 113.Google Scholar

page 193 note 4 Prinsep, 's Indian Antiquities, edited by Thomas, vol. ii, pp. 144 ff.Google Scholar

page 194 note 1 The Alphabet, vol. ii, p. 261.Google Scholar

page 194 note 2 Coins of Ancient India, p. 33.Google Scholar

page 194 note 3 JRAS. 1915, pp. 191 ff.Google Scholar

page 194 note 4 Ibid. 1895, pp. 865 ff.

page 195 note 1 Bühler, 's Indische Palaeographie, Eng. trans, by Dr. Fleet, pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

page 195 note 2 JRAS. 1910, p. 976.Google Scholar

page 195 note 3 Ibid., p. 975.

page 196 note 1 JRAS. 1910, p. 975.Google Scholar

page 197 note 1 JRAS. 1910, pp. 973–6.Google Scholar

page 197 note 2 Ibid., p. 976.

page 197 note 3 Ibid. 1914, p. 973, and 1915, p. 191.

page 197 note 4 Epigraphia Indica, vol. iv, pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar

page 197 note 5 Indian Antiquary, 1908, p. 51.Google Scholar

page 198 note 1 Ep. Ind., vol. xi, p. 210.Google Scholar

page 198 note 2 Ibid., vol. ix, pp. 135–47.

page 198 note 3 Ind. Ant., vol. xxxvii, 1908, pp. 58, 64–6.Google Scholar

page 199 note 1 Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of India, 1909–10, pp. 135–41.

page 199 note 2 JRAS. 1914, p. 973, and 1915, p. 191.Google Scholar

page 200 note 1 Ep. Ind., vol. ii, pp. 1620.Google Scholar

page 200 note 2 Ibid., vol. ix, pls. xvii–xx.

page 200 note 3 Ep. Ind., vol. xi, p. 210.Google Scholar

page 200 note 4 Journal Asiatique, 8me série, tome xv, 1890, pt. i, p. 130.Google Scholar

page 200 note 5 Ind. Ant. 1908, p. 64.Google Scholar

page 200 note 6 Journal Asiatique, 9me série, tome iv, 1894, pt. ii, p. 514, pl. v, 35.Google Scholar

page 201 note 1 Ind. Ant. 1908, pp. 64–5.Google Scholar

page 201 note 2 Journal Asiatique, 8me série, tome xv, 1890, pt. i, p. 136.Google Scholar

page 201 note 3 Ibid., 9me série, tome vii, p. 1.

page 201 note 4 Ind. Ant. 1908, p. 66, pl. i.Google Scholar

page 201 note 5 Ibid., p. 58, pl. i.

page 201 note 6 Ind. Ant. 1913, pp. 132 ff.Google Scholar

page 201 note 7 Smith, 's Catalogue of Coins in the Indian Museum, vol. i, p. 87Google Scholar; Journ. & Proc. As. Soc. Beng., vol. iii, pp. 83–4, pl. iv, 5.

page 201 note 8 Ind. Ant. 1908, p. 58.Google Scholar

page 202 note 1 Early History of India, 3rd ed., p. 270.Google Scholar

page 203 note 1 Journal Asiatique, 8me série, tome xv, pl. i, 1.Google Scholar

page 203 note 2 Ind. Ant. 1908, p. 66.Google Scholar

page 203 note 3 Annual Report of the Arohœological Survey of India, 19031904, p. 255, pls. lxix, lxx, No. 9.Google Scholar

page 203 note 4 Journal Asiatique, 9me série, tome iv, pt. ii, p 510, pl. v, No. 34.Google Scholar

page 203 note 5 Ind. Ant., vol. xx, p. 394.Google Scholar

page 203 note 6 Ann. Rep. Arch. Surv. Ind., 1903–4, pp. 251–3, pl. lxx, 4.

page 203 note 7 Ep. Ind., vol. iv, pp. 54 f.Google Scholar

page 203 note 8 Ind. Ant., vol. x, p. 324.Google Scholar

page 203 note 9 Ann. Rep. Arch. Surv. Ind., 1909–10, pls. lii–liii.

page 204 note 1 Ep. Ind., vol. xi, pp. 202–19.Google Scholar

page 204 note 2 Ibid., vol. ix, pl. iv (pi. xx).

page 206 note 1 Bühler, 's Indische Palaeographie, Eng. trans, by Dr. J. F. Fleet, p. 25.Google Scholar

page 206 note 2 JRAS. 1913, p. 633.Google Scholar

page 206 note 3 Ibid., p. 975.

page 207 note 1 Indische Palaeographie, Eng. ed., p. 25.Google Scholar

page 210 note 1 Cunningham, A.S.R., vol. v, p. 61, pl. xvi, No. 4.

page 211 note 1 Indian Palæography, Eng. ed., p. 27.Google Scholar

page 212 note 1 JASB. 1898, pt. i, p. 277.Google Scholar

page 212 note 2 Ep. Ind., vol. viii, p. 173.Google Scholar

page 213 note 1 Ep. Ind., p. 180.Google Scholar

page 214 note 1 JRAS. 1909, p. 648.Google Scholar

page 214 note 2 JRAS. 1913, p. 106.Google Scholar

page 215 note 1 JRAS. 1913, p. 636.Google Scholar

page 215 note 2 Early History of India, 3rd ed., p. 230.Google Scholar

page 215 note 3 Ibid., p. 234, n. 1.

page 215 note 4 JRAS. 1913, p. 1003.Google Scholar

page 215 note 5 Ind. Ant. 1908, pp. 47, 62.Google Scholar

page 217 note 1 Fleet, 's Gupta Inscriptions, p. 46, pl. via.Google Scholar

page 217 note 2 Ibid., p. 89, pl. xiia.

page 217 note 3 JRAS. 1914, p. 989.Google Scholar

page 218 note 1 JRAS. 1915, p. 317Google Scholar (following Dr. Thomas' suggestion, Ibid. 1914, 989).

page 218 note 2 Ibid. 1915, p. 317.

page 219 note 1 JRAS. 1913, p. 977.Google Scholar

page 219 note 2 The Plates accompanying this paper will appear in the July number of the Journal.