62 Annual Address. [Fef. 



writing in India. No manuscript has, as yet, been discovered written 

 in the Maurya characters like those of the time of A^oka. Bat 

 that cursive writing did exist in those days is shown by the casual 

 occurrence of advanced forms of letters in the A9oka inscriptions, and 

 that it cannot have been at all uncommon in the daily concerns of life is 

 shown by numerous references to it in the oldest Indian literature. 

 Thus we hear of a slave getting himself a rich wife by means of a 

 forged letter, and another going to a school to learn writing together 

 with the son of his master, who was a Seth or banker, or again of a 

 teacher corresponding with his pupils.29 The style of writing used' 

 by bankers must have been then, as it is now, of a very cursive kind. 

 All this points to a very early knowledge of the art of writing in 

 India. It may very well go back, as Hofrath Prof. Biihler suggests, to 

 the sixth century before Christ. 



That actual manuscript evidence of such an early age will ever 

 be found is extremely improbable. The commonest writing material* 

 in those days were parna or leaves, that is, no doubt, the same kind' 

 of palm-leaves as those which are still occasionally used in Orissa and 

 elsewhere. In the climate of India such manuscript materials would 

 not conserve for any considerable length of time. It would have been 

 different, if we had to deal with climatic and meteorologic conditions, 

 such as we have in Egypt or Central Asia. It is not till we come to 

 the commencement of our era that we first meet with manuscripts 

 preserved down to our days. The oldest manuscripts, known until 

 quite recently, were some scraps of inscribed birch-bark, found in 

 1834 by Mr. Masson in one of the stiipas of Afghanistan.^^ These- 

 were inscribed with Kharosthi letters, but were too minute to be of any 

 service. However, we possess now a more serviceable manuscript of 

 the same description, and of about the same age. This consists of a few 

 detached leaves of birch-bark, inscribed with Kharosthi characters, and' 

 in the Pali language, which appear to have once formed a portion of 

 the Dhammapada, one of the well-known sacred books of the Buddhists. 

 Some of them were obtained in 1891 in Central Asia, by the French- 

 explorer M. Dutreuil de Rhins, who unhappily soon afterwards was 

 murdered at the hands of Tibetans. These leaves ultimately found their 

 way to Paris, while others, secured by Russian explorers, went to 

 St. Petersburg. They had evidently once belonged to the same manus- 

 cript. Photographic facsimiles of them were exhibited in 1897 at the 

 Eleventh International Congress of Orientalists in Paris, by Mr. E.Senart 



29 Numerous other examples will be found in Hofrath Prof. Btihler's essay on- 

 the " Origin of the Brahmi Alphabet " above referre<J to. 



SO It was one of the Nandara Topes ; see Ariana Antiqua, p, 84. 



