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Coins with legends in Kharosthi have been found from almost
all chronological span of the script, including issues of the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parmians,
Kusanas, Ksatrapas, Audumbaras, Kulutas, Kunindas, Rajanyas,
Vemakis and Vrsns. Many of these coins have been catalogued
and illustrated in Gardner 1886, Hill 1906, Smith 1906,
Rapson 1908, Whitehead 1914, and Allan 1936. A few
Sino-Kharosthi coins, bearing inscriptions in both Chinese
and Kharosthi, have been discovered in and around Hotan.
The attribution and dates of these coins are discussed in
Gribb 1984, 1985.
British Library has a collection of
twenty-nine birch bark fragments containing the work of
twenty-one different scribes, reportedly found in Hadda, Afganistan.
Click
here for the 1-st c. BC Parthian map
The Kharosthi signs for a, ca, da, na, ya, ra, va, s'a, sa, za and ha present little difficulty as they can be
derived more or less directly from their Aramaic
counterparts alep, sadeh, dalet, nun, bet, yod, res, waw, het, samek, zayin and
he.
The letters ka, kha, ga, ta and pa do not match the
Aramaiv letters kap, qop, gimel, taw, and peh, which show a
closer resemblance to Kharosthi da, sa, ya, pa and a
respectively. Probably each form da, sa, ya, pa and a was
created before ka, kha, ga, ta and pa.
Table Kharosthi and Aramaic
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