History · Ch 2 — Kings, Farmers and Towns — Early States and Economies
How Kharosthi was read
How Kharosthi was read
The decipherment of Kharosthi followed a very different path from that of Brahmi. While Brahmi was cracked by matching the script to a known language (Pali) and using the names of Greek kings on coins, Kharosthi was read by working directly with bilingual coins — coins that carried the same text in two scripts.
The key breakthrough came from coins of the Indo-Greek kings who ruled the northwestern part of the subcontinent from roughly the second to first centuries BCE. These coins were inscribed with the names of the kings in both Greek and Kharosthi scripts. European scholars of the time could already read Greek. By comparing the two scripts on the same coin, they could match individual Kharosthi letters to their Greek equivalents.
For example, the symbol for the vowel “a” appeared in both scripts when writing the name Apollodotus. By lining up such correspondences across many coins, scholars gradually built a key to the Kharosthi alphabet.
The final piece of the puzzle was supplied by James Prinsep. He identified that the language of the Kharosthi inscriptions was Prakrit — the same language family used in the Brahmi inscriptions. Once the script could be read letter by letter, and the underlying language was known to be Prakrit, it became possible to decipher longer inscriptions, not just coin legends.
The critical difference from Brahmi: Kharosthi was deciphered using bilingual coin legends (Greek + Kharosthi), whereas Brahmi was deciphered using the known language of Pali and the names of Greek kings written in Brahmi on coins.
Key points to remember:
- Script: Kharosthi, used in inscriptions from the northwest. …
The figure shows a single coin, the obverse and reverse laid out side by side. On the left is the front face of the coin, bearing a profile portrait of King Menander — a bearded man wearing a crested helmet or diadem, typical of Hellenistic rulers. Around the portrait runs a legend in Greek script, reading “ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ” (Basileōs Menandrou), meaning “of King Menander.”
On the right is the reverse of the same coin. It shows a standing figure of Athena, the Greek goddess of war and wisdom, holding a shield and a thunderbolt. Around this image runs a second legend, this time in Kharosthi script, reading “Maharajasa Menamdrasa” — the same name and title, but in the local Prakrit language written in Kharosthi.
The critical point is that the two legends are bilingual: the same king’s name appears in Greek (which European scholars could already read) and in Kharosthi (which was then unknown). By matching the Greek letters for “Menander” to the Kharosthi signs in the same position, scholars could begin to assign sound values to Kharosthi characters. For example, the Greek letter alpha (Α) corresponded to the Kharosthi sign for “a,” and the sequence for “Menander” in Greek gave the key to reading the same sequence in Kharosthi. …