Indian Antiquary Vol 33

SR No.: 032525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 451

$ 18.]
INDIAN PALEOGRAPHY.
39
The signs, which agree with the Brāhmi, point to the time immediately after Asoka, or about B. C. 200. In favour of this estimate is particularly the occurrenoe of the long verticals, the invariably round g, and ther, which is always represented by a straight line.
18. -The last four alphabets of Plate II. . In addition to the inscriptions of Dasaratha (col. XVII), which vers probably belong just to the end of the 3rd centary B. C. (see above, $ 16, A), only those of the Ceta king Kháravela of Kalinga (cols. XXI, XXII) and those of the Andhra queen Nāyanika in the Nānāghāt cave (cols. XXIII, XXIV) can be dated approximately. Khāravela's inscription must have been incised between B. C. 157 and 147, as the king's thirteenth year is said to correspond to the year 165 of "the time of the Mariya (Mauriya) kings,"1 and it fixes also the time of the Nānāghāt inscription. For, according to line 4, Kbāravela assisted in the second year of bis reign & western king called Sātakaại. This Sātakaại probably is identical with the first Andhra prince of that name mentioned in the Purānas, whose inscribed image is found in the Nänäghāt cave. Hence the date of the large inscription, which was incised during the regency of Sätakani's widow Nāyapikā, cannot be much later than B. 0. 150.3
Paleographic evidence is almost the only help for fixing the time of Dhanabhūti's inscription on the torana of the Bharahut Stupa (col. XVIII), which was incised." daring the rule of the Sungas," as well as that of the Pabhosa cave inscriptions (col. XIX) and of the oldest votive documents from Mathură (col. XX), all of which offer (see above, $ 15,5) the Sanga type of the ancient Brāhmi. To judge from the evidently close connection of their characters, partly with the younger Maurya alphabet and partly with the Kalinga script, the signs of cols. XVIII, XIX, probably belong to the second century B. C. Those of col. XX. may date from the first century B. C., as the elongation of the lower parts of the verticals of A, A (1, 2), the broad back of sa (37), the cursive !a (41) and the subscribed ra in dra (42), which is twisted to the left, point to a later time.
The tendency to shorten the upper vertical lines, mentioned already above ($ 16, A), is, though here and there not fully carried through, common to all the four scripts. The broadening of the letter or of the lower parts of ga, ta, pa, bha, ya, la, sa and ha, is found only in the last [40] three alphabets; and the thickening of the tops of the apper verticals, and the ase of the so-called Serif, are particularly remarkable only in the Sanga and Kalinga alphabets. Tendencies in the direction of later developments are found, not only in the letters of col. XX, already mentioned, but also in the round da (20, XXII, XXIII), so characteristic for the later southern alphabets, in ra with the curved upper horizontal line (22, XVIII, XIX) in the partly or entirely angalar wa (32, XIX, XXII) in the semicircnlar medial i of ki (9, XXII), bi (30, XXII), and vi (36, XXIV), as well as in the detached o of yo (11, XXII), Tho (19, XXIV) and tho (24, XXIV). The single medial au of the plate, in pau (28, XVIII), deserves to be noted.
As regards the gengraphical distribution of these types, the younger Maarya alphabet belongs not only to the north-east (Bihār), but also to the north-west, where its ją and sa are found on the coins of the two Indo-Grecian kings, mentioned above ($ 15, 4). The Kalinga alphabet is of course that of the south-eastern coast, and the type of the Nānāghāt inscriptions that of the western Dekhan. Finally, the Sunga type probably represents the script of the centre of India. It, however, extends also to the west, as the same or very similar characters are found in the caves of the Marathā country; compare $ 15 above, 5, note 3.
Very little can be said regarding the duration of the use of these scripts. - The IndoGrecian coins show that the younger Maurya characters were used in the first half of the 2nd
1 Sixth Oriental Congresa, 8, 2, 149; compare Ostreichisobe Monstenchr. für d. Or., 1884, 231*.
* Sixth Oriental Congress, 3, 2, 146: differently Bbāņdarkar, Early Hist, of the Dekkan, 94, who asaigus Sutakapi to the period B. C. 40 to A. D. 16.