re ascribed to Anaximander the Ionian (610-547
B.C.[265]), and Pherekydes the Syrian (540 B.C.). These names carry us
into the broad daylight of history, for Anaximander was the teacher of
Anaximenes, Anaximenes of Anaxagoras, and Anaxagoras of Perikles. At
that time writing was a recognized art, and its cultivation had been
rendered possible chiefly through trade with Egypt and the importation
of _papyros_. In the time of AEschylos (500 B.C.) the idea of writing
had become so familiar that he could use it again and again in
poetical metaphors,[266] and there seems little reason why we should
doubt that both Peisistratos (528 B.C.) and Polykrates of Samos (523
B.C.) were among the first collectors of Greek manuscripts.

In this manner the simple questions asked by Wolf helped to reduce the
history of ancient Greek literature to some kind of order,
particularly with reference to its first beginnings.

It would therefore seem but reasonable that the two first questions to
be asked by the students of Sanskrit literature should have been:

1. At what time did the people of India become acquainted
with an alphabet?

2. At what time did they first use such alphabet for
literary purposes?

Curiously enough, however, these questions remained in abeyance for a
long time, and, as a consequence, it was impossible to introduce even
the first elements of order into the chaos of ancient Sanskrit
literature.[267]

I can here state a few facts only. There are no inscriptions to be
found anywhere in India before the middle of the third century B.C.
These inscriptions are Buddhist, put up during the reign of A_s_oka,
the grandson of _K_andragupta, who was the contemporary of Seleucus,
and at whose court in Patalibothra Megasthenes lived as ambassador of
Seleucus. Here, as you see, we are on historical ground. In fact,
there is little doubt that A_s_oka, the king who put up these
inscriptions in several parts of his vast kingdom, reigned from
259-222 B.C.

These inscriptions are written in two alphabets--one written from
right to left, and clearly derived from an Aramaaean, that is, a
Semitic alphabet; the other written from left to right, and clearly an
adaptation, and an artificial or systematic adaptation, of a Semitic
alphabet to the requirements of an Indian language. That second
alphabet became the source of all Indian alphabets, and of many
alphabets carried chiefly by Buddhist teachers far beyond the l