64 OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF SANSKRIT today Siamese is drawing on Sanskrit for its technical vocabu- lary. At the same time Hindu culture spread to Indonesia and in Java, Sumatra and Bali Sanskrit literature was cultivated. The native languages came strongly under the influence of Sanskrit and Sanskrit culture-words remain widely current in the area today. The classical language of Java abounds in San- skrit words, just as its literature draws its inspiration from San- skrit models. The Mahommedan conquest of Java (a.d. six- teenth cent.) put an end to Hindu dominion in thearea, but the in- fluence of the preceding centuries was too deep to be eradicated. §9. Writing in India The art of writing was late in making its appearance in Aryan India. It had existed before the Aryan invasion in the Indus civilisation, but it perished along with this civilisation. During the period when the Vedic civilisation was being built up no form of writing was employed in India, and in its absence the technique was evolved of preserving intact the Vedic literature by means of oral tradition. Even when writing was introduced this oral tradition persisted in the various departments of know- ledge and it continued as a basic feature of Indian education and culture down to modem times. It is not known when the alphabet was first introduced into India. So far as preserved records go it is only attested from the third century b.c. when the two alphabets, Kharosthi and Brahmi, appear fully developed in the Asokan inscriptions. The Kharosthi alphabet, which is written from right to left, is confined to the extreme North-West of India, to that part of the country which in preceding centuries had been part of the Persian dominions. It is an adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet which was employed in this region in the Achaemenid period, and it w T as probably evolved towards the close of this period. It continued in use in the same area, and in some adjoining parts of central Asia. down to the fourth century a.d., after which records in it cease. The Brahmi alphabet, which differs from Kharosthi in being written from left to right, is the source of all later Indian alphabets, as well as of those in countries abroad which formed part of the area of Indian cultural expansion (Burmese, Siamese, Javanese, etc.). It is also derived from some form of the
