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Introduction
dictated by the Greek lettering as well as by the technique of die-cutting."48 Verma believes that the most significant and revolutionary change on Brahmi was introduced by the Sakas of Mathura.49
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By nature, the writing activities are more intense and as a consequence more advanced in the centres of power than remoter areas. With the transference of the political and cultural gravity advances in writing travelled from one place to the other. For example, cultural gravitation was centralized earlier in Magadha in the East which after the disintegration of the Mauryan empire, in the post-Sunga period, shifted to Mathura in the West. Hence, it became more advanced and predominant in the realm of writing in subsequent centuries. With the weakening of the Kushāṇa power and the rise of the Maghas of Kausāmbī in the last phase of 3rd century A.D., the writing style of that region follows a more developed variety. In the 4th century A.D., the Guptas adopted and encouraged the script of Kauśāmbi region, which was nearer to their original home. But 'in the beginning of the 6th century A.D. the Maukharis of Malava ruled over Magadha and Kanyakubja and with them they brought the script of the Mālava region,'50 which eventually gained full currency.
The actual form of the letter is dependent on the writer's method of producing the letters on a given surface. Kasia copper-plate51 reveals 12 black ink written unengraved and only one engraved line. This makes clear the two stages of copper-plate making, writing and engraving. In several cases, the writing was done by a professional scribe of the court and engraved by someone else. However, sometimes the engravers themselves wrote the text on the surface or engraved the text without previously drawing the letters on them.52 It is generally held that a writer was a literate man while an engraver was illiterate. Naturally the skilled hand of the professional writer made the script standard and uniform than the illiterate or semi-literate hand of the engraver. Occasionally, the movement of the engraver's instrument also made some differences in the representation of the forms of the letter. Bühler's observation is accurate in that "the degree of regularity with which the signs are used, depends not
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