Afghan manuscripts in pre-Islamic Indic scripts are included in the Red List of Afghanistan Antiquities at Risk of illicit traffic and looting.
Some later Sanskrit inscriptions in late Brahmi of about around the fifth to eighth centuries have also been found in Afghanistan in recent decades.
[2] Historians attest the largest population of the region including Bactria spoke vernacular dialects of Sanskrit.
[4] Between 750 and 1000 A.D., the Shahi's issued silver coins to provide currency for eastern Afghanistan and Gandhara.
Recent archaeological excavations have also yielded numerous Kharosthi inscriptions from north of the Hindu Kush, in ancient Bactria, both in sites in northern Afghanistan such as Qunduz and in several places in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.