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The Period of Transition (9th-10th Century A.D.)
The sign-manual of Gūrjjara princes and the alphabet of Multai Plates represent the early transitional phase of the Kutila script, which moves fast in this period. This is the period in which Kutila script completed its path of evolution and the characters of the subsequent period show a mature form of Nāgarī. The general course of the development of Nāgarī out of Kutila letters is clear enough, but the ascertainment of the actual period of transition is still puzzling. Palaeographers and historians have given suggestions about the fact, however, they are not unanimous on this point. For example, Om Prakash Bhatiya ‘Araj'accepts the actual period of transition in A.D. 1000, while Sukthankar in the mid of the 9th, Bühler in the 7th and Vasut in the 5th century A.D. So, in these conditions of uncertainty it is necessary to make a thorough and minute palaeographical observation of the inscriptions of different regions and dynasties.
The Palas of Bengal, Pratīhāras of Northern India and the Rāshtrakūtas of Gujarat and Maharashtra dominated the history of India during this period. Their writing differs somewhat from each other. In order to understand the development with differences, the script of the transitional period may be divided into three groups: Eastern, Northern and Western.
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