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$ 23.)
INDIAN PALEOGRAPHY.
51
The last-mentioned two inscriptions are, however, by no menns the oldest documents, in which Nāgari letters occur. The first undoubtedly genuine specimensl are found in the signa tures of the Gurjara princes on the copper-plates of Kaira (of A. D. 628 and 633), of Dabhoi (A. D. 642), of Nausāri (A. D. 705), and of Kāvi (A.D. 786), the texts of which are written in a southern alphabet. In the first mentioned three signatures, the Nägari letters are in the minority, as most of the signs show either more archaic northern or southern forms. Only in the fourth signature the Nāgari is used throughout and is fully developed. But the most ancient document, written throughout in Nagari, is the Sämängad grant of the Rāştrakūta king Dantidurga of A. D. 754 (plate IV, col. XXII). Much of the same type are the characters of the Kanheri inscriptions Nos. 15 and 43 (plate V, col. V), which were respectively incised in A. D. 851 and 877 during the reigns of the Silāhāra princes Pullaśakti and Kapardin II.
The Sāmångad and Kanheri inscriptions, together with some others of the 9th century, show the archaic variety of the southern Nāgari, the fully developed form of which is exhibited
in the copper-plates of Kanthem (plate V, col. XVII), which were incised during the reign of • the Calukya king Vikramaditya V. in A. D. 1009-10. The southern Nāgari, of the 8th-11th
centuries, which differs from its northern sister of the same period chiefly by the want of the small tails slanting to the right from the ends of the verticals, and in general by stiffer forms, besides occurs in numerous inscriptions of the Silāhāras and Yadavas from the Marathā country and the Konkan, as well as of a Ratta prince from the Belgaum collectorate. Its latest development during the 13th-16th centuries is fonnd in the inscriptions of the kings of Vijayanagara or Vidyānagara in the Kanarese country. It still survives in the Balbodh or Devanagari of the Marāhā districts, and in Southern India it has produced the so-called Nandināgari which is still used for MSS.
In Northern and Central India, the Nāgari appears first on the copper-plato of the Mahürüja Vinayakapila of Mahodaya (plate IV, col. XXIII),10 probably of A. D. 794, which however exhibits some archaisns and peculiarities in the signs for kha,ga, and na, found also in later inscriptions from Eastern India. The fact that an earlier inscription from the Kanarese country, the incision of which is due to a Brahman from Northern India (see EI, 3, 1 ff.), shows a mixture of Nagari and acute-angled letters, makes it probable that the northern Nägari was in use at least since the beginning of the 8th century. From the next century, we have only
few inscriptions in northern Nagari. 11 But after A. D. 950 their number increases, and in the 11th century the script becomes paramount in nearly all the districts north of the Narmada.
The characters of the Siyadoņi inscriptions from Central India (plate V, col. VII), the dates of which run from A. D. 968, and those of the copper-plate of the first Caulakya of Gujarat, incised in A. D. 987 (plate V, col. XI), show the forms of the northern Nägari of the 10th century. The copper-plates of the Ráştrakūta (Gähada ila) king Madanapala of Kinauj in Northern India, dated A.D. 1097 (plate V, col. XII), the Uu ypur Prasasti of the Paramāras of Mälva (probable date about A. D. 1060) in the west of Central India (plate V, col. XIII), the Nanyaurā plates of the Candella Devavarman of A. D. 1050 (plate V, col. XIV) and of
The genuineners of the earlier Umetä and Bagumrā plates (IA. 7, 68; 17, 199) is disputed (1A, 18, 91 ff.); their Nägar lotters have been given in Anee. Ozon., Ary. Seri28, 1, 3, pl. 6.
• See the faosimiles, J.RAS. 1835, 247 ff.; EL. 5, 40; IA, 5, 113 ; 13, 78 ; and the remarks in SB.WA, 136, 8, 2. •IA. 11, 105.
•IA, 13, 285, 20, 421. . Compare, e. g., the Ambarnath insoription, J.BBRAS. 9, 219; 12, 884 ; IA, 19, 212.
IA, 16, 15 fr. Compare also the facsimiles, IA. 7, 308, 9, 32; 11,111 ; 17, 122 ; J.BBRAS. 13, 1; 15, 386 ; EI, 3, 272, 300 f., 806 f.
• Compare the facsimiles, EI. 8, 38 f., 152 ff.; B.ESIP. pl. 80, and the alphabet, pl. 20. • BESIP. 52 (where the Nandināgan is derived erroneously from the Siddhamätka), and pl. 21. 10 IA, 15, 140.
"Eee the facsimile, IA. 13, 64, 11 Soo above, $ 21, P. , note 2, compare also the facsimiles at IA. 12, 250, 263; 16, 202 ; EI. I, 192; J.BBLAS. 18, 239.
