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No. 28.)
SOME RASHTRAKUTA RECORDS.
199
stone tablet, which was found near a temple of Hanumat at Mantrawadi and is now stored in the kachêri at Shiggaon.
At the top of the stone, there are soulptures representing the goddess Lakshmi, squatting and facing full-front, with an elephant on each side, standing towards her; the tips of the trunks of the elephants, which are uplifted, meet above her head ; and each of them holds, apparently, a flower over her.-The writing covers an area about 2'01" broad by 3' 9" high, and is mostly in a state of very good preservation. In addition to the record edited and shown in the collotype, there is one line of writing below the sculptures, which are, as usual, on a surface which projects pomewhat in front of that part of the stone which bears the body of the record. It is in characters of the same type with those of the body of the record; and it gave the name of the writer : but the greater part of it is damaged and illegible; we can only recognise, at the beginning of the line Sri-Ré(?)vayyana, and at the end likhitam, with perhaps a cross-mark below the m, as if to shew that something is to be supplied here, -namely, possibly, the aksharas, standing before the Svasti of line 1 of the body of the record, which are not wanted there and seem to be meaningless.---The characters are Kanarese, boldly formed and well executed. The size of them ranges from about t" in the dha of dharmmadol, line 22, to about 14" in the va of goravarun, line 8; the lohi of pelchisal, line 15, and the ffa of koffar, line 17, are each abort 28" high. The lingual d is not very clearly, if at all, distinguished from the dental d. As regarda the palmography,- the does not occur. The jocours four times, in lines 2, 3, and 8, and is, in each case, of the old square type: the exact form aimed at in this record, is illustrated best in the jd of rajadhi, line 2, No. 2; it is a closed for, of that partioular shape from which there may have been derived, quite directly, the back-to-back; and the open j which we have in the Doddahundi inscription of Nitimarga and Satyavákya. The kh cours three times, in lines 6, 17, and 20, and again in likhitam in the line below the scalptures : in each case, it is of the later cursive type; and the form of it is practically identical with the modern form of the present day: it is seen best in the kha of akhandita, at the end of line 17. The b occurs moro often, and is of the later cursive type, throughout; the intended form of it is seen very clearly in the bâ of badha, line 16, No. 11, and is to be recognised as almost identical with the modern form of the present day. The l occurs still more freely, and is, also, of the later cursive type, througl. out, including the l in likhitam in the line below the sculptures; the particular form of it aimed at in this record, is perhaps exhibited most clearly in the la of kilan, line 17, No. 2. Except in the I of rakshisal, line 15, where it is hardly to be detected, in the l, as presented in this record, we can recognise a feature which played an important part in the process by which the later cursive type of this character was evolved from the old square type, namely, the miniature representation, of the principal part of the old square character, which stands here in the centre of the later cursive character. In the development of the later character, the first step was the prolongation, with a sweep to the right, of the downstroke with which the formation of the original abaracter ended, a feature which is well illustrated in the Hatti-Mattor inscription of the time of Krishna I.;' that was eventually followed by a continuation of that stroke up to the top live of the writing; and, meanwhile, the principal part of the original character was diminished, rounded off, and raised, until the original leading characteristic of the old square letter was almost entirely lost. In some Kanarese fonts of the present day, it has disappeared altogether, for instance, in the font used, in aocordance with the general custom, in the Rev. Dr. F. Kittel's Kannader English Dictionary ; on the other hand, the miniature of the principal part of the old square character is distinctly recognisable in the font used for the words presented in Kanarese characters in the compilation entitled Bombay Places and Common Official Words. In lines 7, 8, 14, 20 (twice), 21, and 22 of this record, we have peculiar form of the m, for which at present the earliest limit is fixed by its occurrence in para-dattam=ba in line 14 of the Kanarese grant of
I See YOL VI. above, p. 42, and Plate.
• Vol. VI. above, p. 160, and Plate,
