Understanding Kharoshthi Script Decipherment

The Kharoshthi script was an ancient Indo-Aryan script used in Gandhara (present-day eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan) primarily during the period from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE. It was used to write Gandhari Prakrit and sometimes Sanskrit in inscriptions and on coins.

Reading ancient scripts that are no longer in use can be challenging unless there's a known key. For many ancient scripts, like Egyptian hieroglyphs (deciphered using the Rosetta Stone), bilingual inscriptions or coins have provided that key.

Analyzing Factors for Reading Kharoshthi

Let's examine the given options in the context of how the Kharoshthi script was actually deciphered:

• Option 1: Indo-Persian coins contained the names of kings both in Persian and Kharoshthi.

  Historically, the key to deciphering Kharoshthi was indeed bilingual coins, but they were primarily Indo-Greek coins, not Indo-Persian. These coins, issued by Indo-Greek rulers in northwestern India, often had the king's name and title written in Greek on one side and in Kharoshthi on the other. Since Greek was a known language and script, scholars like James Prinsep could compare the names written in Greek with those in Kharoshthi, sound by sound, and thereby unlock the script. While the principle of bilingual coins is correct, specifying "Indo-Persian" and "Persian" is inaccurate regarding the primary evidence used for decipherment.

• Option 2: Cunningham was expert in reading inscriptions.

  Alexander Cunningham was a prominent British archaeologist and epigraphist who played a significant role in the study of ancient India, including inscriptions. However, simply being an expert doesn't automatically allow reading an unknown script. The decipherment required specific material evidence, like the bilingual coins mentioned above. While Cunningham contributed greatly to the study of ancient Indian inscriptions, the direct facilitating factor for reading Kharoshthi was the discovery and analysis of key bilingual texts/coins, not just general expertise.

• Option 3: Brahmi was used by Gupta kings as well.

  The Brahmi script was another major ancient Indian script used across much of the subcontinent, including during the Gupta period. Brahmi was also deciphered by James Prinsep, partly through studying inscriptions and coins with known rulers' names (like those of the Mauryan king Ashoka). While Brahmi and Kharoshthi have some historical connections and were deciphered by the same scholar, the fact that Brahmi was used by Gupta kings (centuries after Kharoshthi was most prevalent) was not the factor that facilitated the reading of Kharoshthi. The decipherment of Brahmi itself was a separate, albeit related, challenge solved using different evidence.

Conclusion on Kharoshthi Decipherment

The actual factor that facilitated the reading of Kharoshthi was the study of bilingual Indo-Greek coins carrying inscriptions in Greek and Kharoshthi scripts. By comparing the known Greek names with the unknown Kharoshthi characters on these coins, scholars were able to deduce the phonetic values of the Kharoshthi script. Since none of the provided options accurately describes this specific historical method:

Based on the analysis, none of the given options correctly states the factor that facilitated the reading of the Kharoshthi script.