Note 32 — LECTURE III. The Law (Dharma) and Sacred Scriptures of Buddhism.

They are in two quite distinct kinds of writing. That at Kapurda-garhi—sometimes called Northern Aṡoka or Ariano-Pāli—is clearly Semitic, and traceable to a Phœnician source, being written from right to left. That at Girnār, commonly called Southern Aṡoka or Indo-Pāli, is read from left to right, and is not so clearly traceable. If it came from the west it probably came through a Pahlavī channel, and gave rise to Devanāgarī. General Cunningham and others believe this latter character to have originated independently in India. James Prinsep was the first to decipher the inscription character.