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The Background (6th-8th Century A.D.)
Passing through its developmental stages, in North India, Brāhmi grew into a script called by the palaeographers as-Siddhamātrikā, Kutila, acute-angled, etc. The new innovation, by which it differs from Brāhmi, is the inward bending in the right vertical limbs of the letters. The bending of the vertical shows an acute-angle with the base line. Apart from these, in general, the top of the letters are triangular in shape and the medial signs are prolonged with twists and bends. These are mainly due to the pen-technique which can be seen in the forms of the letters (Fig. 4), which become much more decorative in the medial signs (Fig. 5). The distinctive feature of this newly developed Kutila script, according to Bühler4 as well as Danis are first noticed in the Bodh-Gayā inscrip of Mahānāma (A.D. 588–89) and later on became the characteristics of the North Indian scripts. In due course of time all scripts of North India, i.e. Nāgarī, Assamese, Bengali, Oriyā, etc., have developed from this very script.
The demarcation of geographical boundaries of the Kutila script may be assigned on the basis of its use from Gilgit in the North to Tiwarakhed
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