Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/25

 The Northern Indian Alphabets (B.C. 350—A.D. 600).

A.The Older Maurya Alphabet.

Leaving aside the various theories about the origin of the ancient Indian alphabet, we turn to examine it as it has been found to exist at the beginning of the historical period. It is sufficient for the purpose of the present article that Dr. Bühler recognised the antiquity of the Indian Alphabet in Aśoka's time. "The existence of so many local varieties, and of so very numerous cursive forms, proves, in any case, that writing had had a long history in Aśoka's time and the alphabet was then in a state of transition." The alphabet is also recognised to be "a script framed by learned Brāhmaṇs for writing Sanskrit." The earliest Indian inscription is the record on the Piprāwā discovered in 1898. It can be proved on palæographical grounds that the forms of Brāhmī letters used in incising this record are older than those of Aśoka's inscriptions. The vases found in the Stūpa at Piprāwā contained according to one authority the relic (Śarīra) of Buddha himself, and according to another, those of his kinsmen of the Śākya clan. It has been surmised that the stūpa was raised over the relics of the Śākyas, who were slain by Viruḍhaka, King of Kośala, during the life-time of Buddha