150 On the Introduction of Writing into India. [No. 2. 



ander, but that they abstained from using it for literary purposes, 

 than this apparent contradiction in the accounts of Nearchus and 

 Megasthenes. Curtius, differing from Nearchus, maintains that they 

 wrote on the soft rind of trees,* a custom which we saw preserved 

 in the play of Urva'si. We could hardly believe that the Indians 

 should have used skins for writing. And though Nicolaus Da- 

 mascenus declares that lie saw the ambassadors of Porus to Csesar 

 Augustus in Antiochia, and that they brought a letter written 

 iv ZifyOipa, we must remember that that letter was written in 

 Greek, f and that the word St<pdepa might have been used for paper 

 hi general J 



We shall not be able to trace the Indian alphabet back much 

 beyond Alexander's invasion. It existed, however, before iUex- 

 ander. This we know from Nearchus himself, who ascribes to the 

 Indians the art of making paper from cotton. Now, in looking for 

 traces of writing before Alexander's time, we find in the Lalita- 

 vistara, which contains the life of Buddha, that the young S'akya 

 is represented as learning to write. Though the Lalita-vistara 

 cannot be regarded as a contemporaneous witness, it is nevertheless 

 a canonical book of the Buddhists, and as such must be ascribed 

 to the third council. It was translated into Chinese 76 a. d. As 

 we have seen before the system of instruction practised in the 

 lecture-rooms of the Brahmans, it will perhaps be of interest to 

 glance at the schools in which Buddha was educated, or supposed 

 to have been educated. 



" When the young prince had grown, he was led to the writing- 

 school (lipiVala).§" "We may leave out all the wonderful things 

 that happened on this occasion, how he received a hundred thousand 

 blessings, how he was surrounded by ten thousand children, preced- 

 ed by ten thousand chariots full of sweetmeats, of silver and gold ; 

 how the town of Kapilavastu was cleansed, how music sounded 

 everywhere, and showers of flowers were thrown from the roofs, 



* Curtius, 8, 9. "Libri arborum teneri, Laud secus quam chartse, literarum 

 notas capiunt." 



f Strabo, xv. 73. Tt?i> Se imaroh^v eWrjvi^eLP iv dupQepa yeypafj.f.Ui/7]i/. 



X Herodotus, v. 58. 



§ Lalita-Viatara, Adhpya, x. 



