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Two Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The Kharoṣṭhī inscription here published (in private possession) has been referred to me by an interested friend for a reading. The Kharoṣṭhī script, and the North-West Prakrit language written in it still remain problematic, so that as usual the following translation is preliminary. The accompanying photographs (Plates II and III) will offer specialists in Kharoṣṭhī the necessary basis for study.

The inscription is on the halo of a standing Buddha (height 96.52 cm). Two photographs are given so that the letters behind the head can be seen.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1982

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References

1 An interim statement on the name Kharoṣṭhī (for which my preference is Kharoṣṭhī) is in “Lecture IV” of my book, The culture of the Sakas of ancient Iranian Khotan (forthcoming, July 1982). P. Pelliot in his Notes on Marco Polo, I, 197–9, gathered the early evidence from Chinese texts. Since the evidence is very complex the fairly usual spelling Kharoṣṭhī has been admitted to the title here.

The following abbreviations are used in this article:

BEFEO Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrème Orient

EI Epigraphia Indica

KBT H. W. Bailey (ed.), Khotanese Buddhist texts, London, 1951; second edition, 1981

Konow, KI Sten Konow (elsewhere Konov), Kharoshṭhī inscriptions, with the exception of those of Aśoka (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, II, 1), Calcutta, 1929

KT H. W. Bailey (ed.), Khotanese texts, I–V, Cambridge, 1945–63