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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE, 1875.
Society; many of the notices, however, are very ksit to the Canarese language and idiom, and imperfect, and some are full of inaccuracies that! vice versa, is very abrupt. Lastly, the more may mislead.
modern inscriptions are entirely in the Old These two works contain all that is as yet Canarese language and idiom, with of course generally available towards a history of the a copious intermixture of pure as well as corCanarose Country and its language. And, as, rupted Sanskrit words; the opening invocations in addition to many of the inscriptions thus and the closing benedictive and imprecatory published being altogether insignificant, and in verses are sometimes pure Sanskrit and someaddition to some in one of the two books being times Canarese. Speaking generally, the pure only different copies by another hand of those Sanskrit period lasts up to about the middle in the other, the photographs are on a very of the ninth century A.D., the mixed Sanskrit small scale and frequently are so indistinct and Old Canarese period lasts from then up to in details as to be practically illegible, the field about the middle of the eleventh century, and thus offered for investigation becomes of a very the pure Old Canarese period then commences; limited extent.
the limits of these periods may be more defiOfficial duties leave but little leisure for pri. nitely fixed when a greater number of the vate study; but, as a commencement towards inscriptions have been examined in detail. placing on record for general reference a series of Pure Sanskrit inscriptions are of course to be Old Canarese inscriptions in a connected form, met with down to the last, but, after the first I propose publishing from time to time in the period specified above, they are the exception pages of this journal such of the contents of these and not the rule; it should be remarked, how. books as I have leisure to look into. Occasionally
over, that copper-plate inscriptions are almost I may add inscriptions copied from the originals always Sanskrit, whatever their age may be. by myself or under my direct superintendence. The inscriptions of the earliest period are not And, whenever I am able, I shall give such
very numerous; by far the majority belong to notes of my own on the subject of inscriptions the second and third periods. at other places as may tend to elucidate the As regards the characters used, the earlier gubject matter of the text, or to indicate where inscriptions of the pure Sanskrit period are in further information bearing on it may be found. the old Cave-alphabet, the source of both the If others, to whom other copies of these two modern square Devanagari characters and the collections may be available, will coöperate, round Canarese characters. The Old Canarese such of the inscriptions as can be satisfactorily alphabet began to be elaborated, by rounding edited from the photographs may soon be dis- off the angular points of the characters of the posed of, and a great deal of useful information Cave-alphabet, towards the end of the pure be placed on record.
Sanskrit period. By about ihe middle of the According to the language used, the inscrip- tenth century it assumed a defined and settled tions of the Canarese Country may be distri. character. About the commencement of the buted over three periods. In the older inscrip- thirteenth century the characters began to de tions the language is as a rnle entirely Sanskrit; teriorate and to pass into the modern forms; occasionally Old Canarese words are introduced, in some respects the inodern Telugu alphabet but they are not of frequent occurrence, and represents, more closely than the Modern Canafrom their isolation it is often difficult to deter- rese alphabet does, the Old Canarese alphabet mine their meanings. In the next stage, both of the third period specified above. Pure the Sanskrit and the Old Canarese languages Sanskrit inscriptions of the latter part of the are used conjointly, the latter usually predomin- first period and of the second and third periods ating; frequently the transition from the Sans- are frequently engraved in the Old Canarese
For instance,-Plate No. 20 of Major Dixon's work contains a photograph 91 high by 4 wide of an inscription of ninety-four lines averaging about fifty letters each on a stone-tablet 11'2' high by 3' 6 broad. The original is in the most excellent order, and must be legible from beginning to end with ease and certainty ; but, so small are the letters in the photograph, that it is a very difficult matter to decipher and edit the contents. To photograph
inscriptions successfully, the extreme length of the plate zaust be applied to the breadth, and not the height, of the original, which must then be copied in a succession of plates, the lowest two or three lines of the highest plate being repeated as the highest lines of the next plate, and so on, to prevent confusion and the possible omission of any part of the original.
