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66
INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
[$ 29, A.
col. XIII; and in the first half of the 7th century the letters of the Calukya inscriptions from Vātapi and from Vengi show an almost perfect resemblance. But the more considerable differences between cols. XII, and XIII, which both are derived from grants of the Kadamba Mrgesavarman issued within a period of only five years, have to be explained by the assumption that the letters of col. XIII, with which nearly all the other Kadamba inscriptions agree, imitate writing with ink, and those of col. XII. writing with the stilus. This explanation is suggested by the thinness of the signs of col. XII, and by the much greater thickness of those in col. XIII, and by the wedges and solid squares at their heads (compare above, 28, B).
The letters of the older documents of this period remain very similar to those of the Andhra inscriptions of plate III, the so-called "cave-characters." In the Sālańkāyana grant, and in those of the Kadambas Kákasthavarman, Sāntivarman, Mrgesavarman and Ravivarman, we find only few, and by no means constant, traces of the development of the later characteristic Jound forms. Thus, col. XII, no doubt offers rather far advanced signs for A and ra, but at the same time a more archaic A, and the facsimile frequently shows even an angular na with a not very long upward stroke. In the grants of the last Kadamba king Harivarman and in those of the Calukyas between A. D. 578 and 660, the A, A, ka and ra, characteristic of the next stage of development, occur not rarely, but never constantly. Thus col. XIV, derived from the Būdāmi inscription of Kirtivarman I. and Mangalesa, has the ka closed on the left. Bat this form is the only one used there, and it never appears on Mangaleśa's copper-plate, nor on the Haidarābād plates of his successor Pulakesin II. Further, this ka, as well as the closed na of 33, col. XV, occur on the Nerür plates of Pulakebin II. Finally, the Aibole stone inscription, of the time of Pulakekin II., has exclusively the older ka and ra, but occasionally the later A of col. XV. This vacilation indicates that between A. D. 578 and 660, and perhaps even earlier, the round-hand forms of the middle Kanarege alphabet existed, but that they either had not completely displaced the older ones, or that they were not yet considered as really suitable for inscriptions, though the clerks occasionally introduced them by mistake into the official documents (compare above, 93, page 8).
Among the other signs, the following may be noted especially :
(1) The na (plate VII, 21, XII-XIV, XVII) which is never looped, but looks as if it were cursively developed from a looped form similar to that of col. I, ff.
(2) The ta, which keeps the old form of the western inscriptions without a loop in 22, XIII, but shows in cols. XII, XIV, XVII, a cursive development from the looped ta of cols. XX-XXIII, which likewise is not rare in Kadamba and Calukya inscriptions of this period.
(3) The tailed da (24, XIV, XVII) agreeing exactly with the western form [66] of da (19, IV-IX).
(4) The na, which sometimes has the Jooped form (26, XIII), and more frequently that without the loop (26, XII, XIV-XVII); the latter being, however, apparently derived from the looped one.
(5) The very exceptionally looped ya (in yö, 45, XIV), which thus is identical with the much older northern form.
(6) The medial vowels : - (a) u in pů (27, XIII), a cursive substitute for the of yü (32, VI), củ (13, IV), &c.; (6) the subscript of ks (8, XII, XVII; 41, XIV), somewhat resembling a northern r (which lattor actually occurs once on the seal figured in 1A, 6, 24, in Mrgesa), but probably independently derived from a not uncommon in the shape of an
Compare also the facsimile at IA. 6, 73, and B.ESI P. pl. 27. IA. 6, 72. .IA. 8, 44.
• See the plates at IA. 8, 841 : EI. 6,6.
