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§ 28, A.]
INDIAN PALEOGRAPHY.
rika), and of Nasik and Gujarat and their vassals, of the Traikuṭakas,3 of the Asmakas (?) of Khandesh, and of the Rastrakutas of Gujarat, as well as in numerous votive inscriptions in the caves of Kanheri, Nasik and Ajanta. Ordinarily, its characters no doubt were written with ink, just like those of the northern alphabets (see above, § 21). This is made highly probable by the use of wedges on the tops of the letters during the Gupta period (see plate VII, cols. I-III) and by the thick, frequently knob-like, heads of the signs of the Valabbi, Gurjara and Rästrakūta grants (plate VII, cols. IV-IX, and plate VIII, col. I), both of which ornaments can only be drawn with ink. Another argument is furnished by the fact that all the copper-plates from Gujarat have been cut according to the ordinary size of the Bhurja leaves (BURNELL), on which it is not possible to write with a stilus.
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The finds of nearly or quite contemporaneous inscriptions with northern characters in Rajputana, the Central-Indian Agency, and Valabhi, as well as the Nagari signatures of the Gurjara princes, prove that northern scripts were being used simultaneously with this southern alphabet. And this circumstance is no doubt the cause of its showing traces of northern peculiarities in the following letters: (1) in the kha with a large loop and a small hook (plate VII, 9, I-IX; VIII, 12, I), instead of which the true southern form appears only very rarely; (2) in the ca, rounded off on the right (plate VII, 13, I-IX; VIII, 16, I); (3) in the ancient ta without a loop (plate VII, 22, I-IX; VIII, 25, I); (4) in the narrow dha (plate VII, 25, I-IX; VIII, 28, I; compare plate IV, 25, I-III); (5) in the looped na (plate VII, 26, I-IX; VIII, 29, I), which agrees more exactly with the northern forms of plate IV, 26, than with the southern one of VII, 26, XIII (compare below, § 29, A); (6) in the Matras often placed above the line in medial e (plate VII, 26, V), ai (plate VII, 10, IV) and ō (plate VIII, 35, I), which latter, however, has a peculiar looped form in lo (plate VII, 34, III, IV); (7) in the medial au, consisting of three strokes above the line (VII, 25, V; 36, III); and compare plate IV, 7, IV); (8) in the subseript ña, which occasionally, as in plato VII, 42, VII, shows the northern cursive form. The inscriptions Nos. 17 and 62 of FLEET'S Gupta Inscriptions (CII. 3), plates 10, 38 B, which are not represented in plate VII, show, [62] besides, the northern 4 and ka without the curve at the foot. A ka of this description occurs also sometimes in the Valabhi inscriptions (plate VII, 8, V).
Irrespective of these northern peculiarities, which throughout remain almost unchanged, the characters of this script show three stages in their development, that of the 5th century (plate VII, cols. I-III), that of the 6th and 7th centurics (cols. IV-VI, VIII), and that of the 8th (col. IX) and 9th centuries (plate VIII, col. I) which last is very markedly cursive.
Among the single letters the following deserve special remarks: -
(1) The I (plate VII, 3, IV, ff.; VIII, 3, I), which here, as in most southern alphabets, consists of a curved line with a notch in the centre and of two dots below, and which appears to be a modification of a form like that in plate IV, 3, IX.
(2) The I (plate VII, 3, I; VIII, 4, 1), which, like that of the Bower MS. (plate VI, 4, I), has been developed by the transformation of two dots into a line, but in addition has the curved tail, characteristic of the southern alphabets.
(3) The E, which usually consists of a triangle with the apex at the top, and is irregularly broadened on the left (plate VII, 6, I; and compare AI in VII, 6, VII), and which from
1 Compare the facsimiles at EI. 3, 52; IA. 7, 164; 8, 46; 9, 124; J.BBRAS. 16, 1; Seventh Oriental Congress, Aryan Section, 238; IA. 19, 310.
2 Compare the facsimiles at B.ASRWI. No. 10, 58.
5 Compare the facsimile at IA. 16, 98. Compare the facsimiles at IA. 12, 158; J.BBRAS. 16, 105; EI. 3, 56.
& Compare the facsimiles at B.ASRWI. 4, pl. 55, 9; pl. 58, 5 and 9; plates 59, 60; vol. 5, pl. 51, 6-9. Compare the facsimiles in F.GI. (CII. 3), No. 6, 17, 61, plates 4 A, 10, 38 A.
7 Compare above, § 21 end.
Compare, for instance, likhitam, facsimile at IA. 7, 72
