HI Mark,

As it happens, I discussed this inscription briefly on the first page of an article ("Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī Inscriptions from Ladakh") which is about to be published in Bulletin of the Asia Institute 30, pp. 93-111.

But I was not aware of the image of the inscription published in Neve's book, and had worked only from Francke's eye copy and J-Ph. Vogel's discussion.

Seeing now the original in the photograph in Neve, the eye copy looks to me to be pretty accurate. I agree with your colleague that the third and last character are very uncertain, as is the early dating. .

Concerning that, in the new article I say "Such an early inscription in Ladakh would be unexpected, but not impossible."

Regarding the marks above the inscription, it is pretty clear that they are not related to it and have no orthographic significance. For further comments on them, I would refer you to my co-author,

Quentin Devers, whom I have copied on this message.

Rich

On Thu, Oct 21, 2021 at 8:33 AM Mark McClish via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear colleagues,

I am posting the following on behalf of a colleague who is not a member of the list. It concerns an inscription from Khalatze (image attached). He contacted me to confirm Francke’s claim that it is Maurya period Brāhmī and reads "Bharad[v]ayasa” (which Francke renders in Sanskrit as bharadvājasya). I can make out bha ra … ya sa in early Brāhmī in the first five characters, but the third and the sixth are unclear to me, as also whether the marks above the name have any orthographic value.

The image is taken from

Neve, Ernest F. Beyond the Pir Panjal: Life Among the Mountains and Valleys of Kashmir. London: T. Fisher Unvin, 1912, plate 35.

And Francke discusses it in

Francke, A.H. “Historische Dokumente von Khalatse in West-Tibet (Ladakh).” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 36 (1907A): 583–614.

Any comment on Francke’s reading or help beyond what I can see would be most appreciated.

Best,

Mark

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