The sun., 1900-06-17


Is invallda.ed by the assumption Of doubtful.
and even improbable. meaning IN Vedsc woru
which forms a starting point III me perioo'
For the present We must rest conteht WIN
the certainty that yedic literature Il In any
case W considerably higher hitidnty 'hah
that Of Greece.
| How were the vedic and classical sanskrt
| writings transmitted 10 posterity' lhe ""e~t
| inscriptions are those which have been ionho
| on rocks and pillars and which date from 'he
middle OF the third century d. G. Ihey were
made by tho order OF the great Buddhist KING
! Acoka. who ruled over northern inoin from
/ $50 to %? b C.. during whose reigr was
/ held ths third Buddhist Council NJ whch prop
| ably the canon OF the BUDDHIST scr'pereS
WAS fIed These Acoka Inscriptions arc us
earliest records of Indian writing. The aues-
, ton OF The origin and are oil writing IN ihoia,
long involved In controversy has been o'earcu
up 70 large extent by the recent paleoerapA-
ical researches Of Prof. R0hier. he has SHOWN
that OF the two kinds of script known IN an
Client India. the one employed In the country OF
Gandhara tcastern Afghanistan and northern
Panjab) from the fourth century Is L. 10 y"
A. d. was borrowed from tho Aramaie 'ype
Of Semitic writing. In use during the hith CEN
tury B. c. 1t was always written from riaht
TO left, like its original The other ancient
Indian script. called Brahrnits the true nauonai
writing Of India. because all later Indian nlrha-
bets are descended from II, however dlssimllar
many Of them may appear at the present div.
II was regularly written from left TO r'sht'
but tina. this wus rot its origira. direction Is
indicated by a coin Of tho fourth century b.
c.. the inscription on which runs from right
- lnks n nsNk La ~ thotf lie
ing IL based on tho oldest northern Semitic or
PhpnrIan type represented on Assvrtan weights
and on thu Moabite stone. which datee from
about $40 c. He rgues that II was intro
duced about 900 p. c. into India nv tradere
coming by way OF Mcsopotamia.
References TO writing In ancient Indian liter
ature are very rare In TO case. perhaps earlier
than the fourth century B. c. OF not very long
before the date OF the Acoks Inscriptions. In
this instance, however, but little weigh. can
be attached to the inference drawn from silence
for although writing has now been extensively
IN use to- an immense period the native learn
ing Of the modern Indian Is sti,l based on oral
tradition. The sacred Scriptures. "a well as
the sciences are s'l acquired from the lips
OF a teacher. not from a manuscript, and as
only memorial knowledge 10 accounted Of value,
writing and manuscripts are seldom referred
TO- Even n odern poets do not wish to be read,
but cherish the hope that their works may be
recited. II follows that the art of writing
may have bccn IN Use long before It began to
be mentioned. In nnv case. the Photograph
icaI evidence Of the Acoka Inscriptions proves
that writing was no recent invention In tho
third century b. C.. for most ~ the letters hnys
several often very divergent forms. some
times a. manv ne nine or ten. A considerable
| length Of time. moreover. must have been
needed to elaborate from the twenty-five bor-
rowcd Semitic symbols the full Brahmi alpha
| bet OF fortv-six letters. According to Prof.
| Enhler. this complete alphabet. which was
evidently worked out bv learned Bra ahmans on
phonetic principles must have existed by 500
| n. G. II is the alphabet which IL recognized
in ranini's great Sanskrit drama belonging
TO the fourth century X. C., and It has remained
unmodNed ever since. II not only represents
all the sounds OF the Sanslrit language, but Is
arranged on a thoroughly scientific method.
the simple vowclS coming first. then the diph-
thongs and lastly the consonants In uniform
groups according 20 the ORGANS Of speech with
which they ere pronounced We Europeans on
the other hand twenty-five hundred years
later and in q scientific age. stll employ an
alphabet which not only is Inadequate 10 rep
resent all tho sounds OF our languages but even
| preserves the random order In which vowelS
| and cnnsonants are iumhled up as they were
! In the Greek adaptation Of tho primitive Semitic
! nrrnn cement OF three thousand years ago.
| Owing 80 tho perishahility Of tho material
| on which they were written, Sanskrit manu-
| scripts older than the fourteenth century A. y.
are rare The two materials anciently used In
| India were strips Of birch bark and palm leaves.
The employment Of the former. beginning In the
northwest Of India, where extensive birch
forests clothe the slope. Of the nimalayas, grad
uelly spread TO central, eastern and western
India. The oldest known Sanskrit manuscript
written on birch bark dates from the nfth CEN
tIry A. D., and Pail manuscript, which became
known in 1897 Il still older; doubtless the of
| this material goes back 10 far earlier days. We
have the statement Of Quintus Curtius that the
Indians employed II 10 write upon AZ the time of
Alexander The testimony of classical San
| skirt authors shows that leaves of birch bark
were also regularly used for letter writing in
| early mcdeval India. The first example of a
paln-leaf Sanskrit manuscript belongs 70 the
sixth century A. D. 1t il preserved in Japan.
but there Is facsimile Of II IN tho Bodleian Ii
brary. According TO the Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen
Thsang. who visited India In the lrst half Of the
seventh century A. D.. the use Of the palm leaf
was then common all over the country That
| II was known many centuries earlier Is proved
by tho fact that an n,crbed copper plato, dating
at the latest from the first century A. D., imi-
tate. q palm leaf In shape. Paper WAS intro
dlced by the Mohammedan Conquest in the
| eleventh century A. D., and since then has
| been very extensively used for manuscripts
| The oldest known example Of a paper Sanskrit
manuscript written in India Is one from GU
! iarat. belonging to the early part Of the thir-
| teenth century. In northern Ind Ia, where Ink
was employed for writing. palm leaves went ont
Of Use after the Introduction Of paper. In the
| south. where a stylus has always been employed
for scratching the character. palm leaves are stl
| commonly used for both manuscripts and
| letters The birch bark and palm leaf manu-
| scripts are held together by a cord drawn
| through single hole In the middle OF two holes
| placed some distance apart. This explains how
| the Sanskrit word for knot" came n acquire
| tho sense Of book" Leather or parchment has
| never been utilized In India for manuscript
owing to the ritual impnrity Of animal materials
For Inscriptions plates of copper we're early and
| frequently employed. They regularly initiate
the shape Of either palm leaves or strips Of birch
| bark The use Of ink is actually proved for the
| second century B. C. by An inscription from a
| Buddhist relic mound. and is rendered very prob
| able for the fourth century y, c. by the state
| mnn,s Of Nearchos aud Quintus Curtius. All
scripts were written with ink and reed pen.
| II