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RELICS OF PERSIAN DOMINION 243 Where the Daivas had been worshipped, the king worshipped Ahuramazda together with Řtam (divine world order). India' may have been among the lands which witnessed the outcome of the religious zeal of the Persian king.
Among interesting relics of Persian dominion in India mention is sometimes made of a Taxila inscription in Aramaic characters of the fourth or fifth century B.C. 1 But Herzfeld points out 2 that the form Priyadarśana occurs in the record which should be referred to the reign of Asoka, and not to the period of Persian rule. To the Persians is also attributed the introduction of the Kharoshthi alphabet, the "Persepolitan capital” and words like "dipi” (rescript) and “nipishta” (“written'') occurring in the inscriptions of Asoka. Persian influence has also been tracted in the preamble of the Asokan edicts.
1 JRAS., 1915, I p. 340-347. 2 Ep. Ind., XIX. 253.
