60 Annual Address, [Feb. 



stance that the custom of using the Kharostlu script died out in 

 India too early to admit of any such radical change. For that script 

 prohahly ceased to be used in India about the end of the second century 

 A.D., though it continued to be current for a much longer period in the 

 countries bordering on India in the West and North. In those regions 

 its use probably survived until the time of their conquest by the 

 Muharamadan Arabs in the eighth century A.D., when it was 

 superseded by varieties of the Arabic script. On this subject some 

 more evidence has recently come to light. In 1895, Mr. A. Caddy, 

 who had been deputed by the Government of Sir Charles Elliott 

 on archaeological exploration, excavated a large statue of a standing 

 Buddha at the Lorian Tangai stupa, in the lower Swat valley, on 

 the pedestal of which was found a short inscription in the Kharosthi 

 characters, dated in the year 318. A. similar inscription dated 

 in the year 384 appears on the pedestal of another standing figure of 

 Buddha, discovered in 1883 by Mr. L. White Kinsr, at Hashtanagar, 

 in the Peshawar District, and published by Mr. Y. A. Smith in our 

 Journal. The era of these two dates is still a matter of dispute^, 

 but so much is certain that they carry us well into the fourth or fiftb 

 century A.D.27 



These dated inscriptions in the Kharosthi characters have an 

 important bearing not only on the subject of palaeography, but also on 

 the question of the age of Grraeco-Buddhist art in the countries on the 

 further side of the Indus. Into the latter subject, however, I cannot 

 enter now, both because it is foreign to the matter of epigraphy and 

 palaeography which I have now in hand, and because much of it also 

 lies outside the period I am now reviewing. For the existence of a 

 considerable Grreek influence on the Indian Buddhist art in the countries 

 bordering on the Indus has long been known. But I will not pass 

 on without calling attention to two masteily essays by Mr. V. A. Smithy 

 on " Graeco-Roman Influence on the Civilization of Ancient India," 

 published by him in 1889-92, in the Journal of our Society,^^ and highly 

 praised by Professor Griinwedel of Berlin in his " Buddhistic Art in 

 India." Mr. Smith reviews the subject from every point of view, dis- 

 cussing principally the subject of sculpture, but also touching on 



SI The era may either be that of Kanishka, commencing in 78 A.D., or of Moga 

 commencing about 40 B.C. Accordingly 318 may be equivalent to 396 or 278 A.D., 

 and 384) to 462 or 344 A.D. The latter date has hitherto been read 284, but, as 

 Dr. Bloch informs me, it is undoubtedly 384. See our Journai Vol. LVIII, p. 44; 

 also Indian Antiquary^ Vol. VIII, p. 257. 



28 See Vols. LVIII and LXI, p. 50, 107ff. Professor Griinweders book was pub- 

 lished in 1893 ; see there, p, 79. 



