400 DECIPHERMENT OF DOCUMENTS [CHAP. XXVI.
elaborate documents are dated (` Maharaja,' ` devaputra,' i.e., " son of the gods," &c.), are purely Indian. They agree strikingly with the official nomenclature observed under the Kushana or IndoScythian princes who ruled the extreme North-West of India and Afghanistan during the first centuries of our era. The majority of the persons to or by whom documents are despatched bear purely Indian names, among them appearing a Kushana-sena, as if to emphasise some connection with Indo-Scythian dominion far away to the South-West.
In strange contrast to the names, some of the titles borne by these officials are distinctly non-Indian (Chodbo, Shodhoga, Kala, &c.). But we meet also with official designations familiar from ancient Indian usage ( `raj advara-purasthita,' " president of the royal court of justice ; " dibira,' " clerk," &c.). Letter-carriers, ` lekhaharaka,' are frequently referred to by their Sanskrit designation. The often recurring introductory formulas, with their stereotyped greetings, honorific addresses (` priyadarshana ; ' ` devamanushya-sampujita,' ` priyadeva-manushya,' " dear to gods and men," &c.), and polite inquiries after the health and spiritual welfare of the addressees, possess a distinct flavour of that quaint phraseology to which the Sanskrit correspondence of my Kashmirian Pandit friends has accustomed me. But in other documents we find a style far less ornate, in fact quite peremptory, as, e.g., in some office 4‘memos " ordering the submission of affidavits (` savatha ') according to a specified list; the production of certain witnesses ; arrests of individuals, &c.
The particular interest attaching to some petty records is well illustrated by an oblong tablet, dated in the ninth year of King
Jitroghavarshman, which relates a transaction by a certain
Buddhagosha, slave of the Sramana or Buddhist monk Anandasena, concerning some household goods, pawned perhaps or taken over
on mortgage. The articles are enumerated in detail and their value indicated in a currency that we may yet succeed in determining. It is curious to find that this list, besides sheep, vessels, wool-weaving appliances and some other implements, enumerates also
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