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52
INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904 ; APPENDIX
($ 24, A.
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the Kalacuri Karna of Tripura, dated A, D, 1042 (plate V, col. XV), both from the eastern part of Central India, and the plates of the Canlukya Bhima I. of Gajarāt, dated A. D. 1029 (plate V, col. XVI), give specimens of the northern Nāgari of the 11th century. Finally, the northern Nāgari of A. D. 1100-1207 is illastrated by the alpbabets of a plate of Jayaccandra, the last Rästraküțn (Gähadavāla) king of Kananj, dated A. D. 1175 (plate V, col. XX), of the plates of the last Chalukya of Gujarat, Bhima II., dated A. D. 1199 and 1207 [52] (plate V. col. XXI), of the plate of the Paramára Udayavarman of Mālva, dated A. D. 1200 (plate V, col. XXII), and of the Ratnapur stone inscription from the reign of the Kalacuri Jäjalla of Tripura, dated A. D. 1114 (plate V, col. XXIII).
With the characters of these Nāgnri inscriptions, agree those of the now numerous ancient palm-leaf MSS. from Gujarat, Rājputāna and the northern Dekhan, the dates of which run certainly from the 11th, and possibly from the 10th century.' Cols. XV-XVII. of plate VI. exhibit their alphabet chiefly according to LEUMANN's photographs and traeings of the Višeşāvasyakabhāşyaţikā, dated A. D. 1081, together with some supplements from the Royal Asiatic Society's Guņnrat namahodadhi, of A. D. 1229.3 But a number of MSS. from Nepal, belorging to the 11th and 12th centuries, show the northern Nāgari of the preceding century. And col. XIII. of plate VI. offers a specimen from No. 866, the oldest Cambridge MS. of this class, which is dated A.D. 1008. Of the same type is the alphabet of plate VI, col. XIV, taken from the reproduction of col. 1 of WYLIE's copy of the Vajracchediki in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan Series, 1, 1, pluto 4. $24. - Details of the changes in the acute-angled and the Nagari alphabets.
A. -The Mütrkās. Among the numerous changes, which the letters of the acnte-angled and Nagari scripts undergo in course of time, the following more important ones, affecting the Mātīkās or radical signs, deserve special mention :
(1) The signs for E, gha, ca, tha, dha, pa, ba, ma, ya, la, va, sa and sa, develop gradually, the later the more distinctly, - shorter or longer tails, which first slant off towards the right below the bottom-line of the letters, but later, in the Nagari, become vertical strokes, except in the onse of E. [53] From the 10th century similar pendent lines appear in the middle of cha (plate V, 16, II, III, &c.), and of dha (plate V, 23, II), of pha (plate V, III, &c.) and of ha (plate V, 42, II-IV, &c), which the Nagari, too, retains in cha and ha and converts into a medial vertical in the case of pha. In the acute-angled script, kha, ga, tha, dha, and sa frequently show on the right a small born-like protuberance or an elongation of the vertical, which, owing to the dattening of the tops, the Nāgari again discards except in the case of dha. Both the lastmentioned peculiarities are due to the circumstance that the writers drew the left and right portions of the letters separately and neglected to join carefully the two halves. In course of time these irregnlarities became characteristic features of most of the letters.
See above, 21, p. +, note 2; compare also the facsimilos at IA. 6, 63, 54; 8, 10, 12, 126, 202; 15, 86 ; 16, 208 ; 18, 34; El. 1.3.6, 316; 3, 50.
Som above, $ 21 p. 46, note 2: comparo, e. 9., the facsimiles at IA. 11, 72; 17, 226; 18, 130.
* KIELHORN, Report on Sanskrit MSS. for 1880-81, pp. VII, 37; J.RAS. 1895, 247, 504; compare also the facsimiles, Pal, Soo., Or, Feries, pl. 1, 2, 3, 58; Cat. Berlin Sanskr. und Prākr. H dechft., Band 2, 3, pl. 1. In the marginal glosses of the Visopivakyaka and other MSS., frequently appear other cursive alphabets ; see LUMANN'S edition, pl. 85.
BINDALL, Cat. Buddh, Sanskrit MSS. from Nepāl, pp. XXIV 1., 1 f. ; compare also the facsimile, Pal. Soo.. Or. Series, pl. 13. According to S. v. OLDENBURG (letter of 7th April, 1897), the alphabet of these Nepalese MSS. is the so-called Laijā ser pt, in wbich is written complete MS. of the Saddharmapundarika, preserved in St. Petersburg
Compare, for this paragraph, BENDALL, Cat. Cambridge Buddhist MSS. from Nepal, XLIN-LI; Aner. Oxon., Aryan Ecrier, 1, 3.73-87.
• Aneo. Ozon., Aryan Series, 1, 3, 70.
