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INTRODUCTION
are written on one side only. Muniji also gave me a transcript prepared from the palm-leaves directly; and a copy of this, got prepared by me, I repeatedly used while preparing my press-copy. Though I have not handled the palm-leaves directly, every reading recorded by me is checked in the light of the photographs in which the leaves are of reduced size, a little less than half. As it was difficult to read them with naked eyes, a few photographs I got enlarged to 51 by 40.7 cms.; and therein the letters were easily readable, though due to not-verysharp focus some leaves gave a blurred appearance. The original Ms., I imagine, must be an admirable piece of calligraphic workmanship.
The number of lines varies from 4 to 7 on different pages depending on the breadth of suitable writing space available on each side of the leaf. Each fulllength line contains letters (including dandas etc.) ranging from 135 to 140. Excepting the first and the last, all the folios are written on both sides in black ink. The written portion on each page gets divided into three parts with space and a hole (for the string) in between them. There is margin left at both the ends. Some leaves are broken at the ends here and there, and as the photographs indicate, on a few pages the ink is rubbed. Perhaps the letters could be read easily in the original palm-leaves, because what is apparently blurred is duly copied in the transcript prepared directly from the palm-leaves.
The leaves bear page-numbers on one side only; on the left-side margin (generally at the centre) in symbolic syllables, standing vertically, i.e., one below the other, the lowest syllable forming the first place: and on the right-side margin (also at the centre) in numerals written horizontally. A careful study of these symbolic syllables discloses that they are practically covered by the excellent table drawn up by Muni Śrī PUNYAVIJAYAJI. Some of the symbolic syllables in the photographs of J are covered by the strings. One or two deviations I could mark, but they may be looked upon as scribal slips. Some of the syllables have a wavy crest on the serif or a couple of dots on the head: all this may be either decorative or just a flourish of the pen. The zero is also given sometimes a decorative figuration: it is faced, on four sides, by four round brackets with inward or outward curve; or its place is taken by a cross, or the sign of multiplication, the angles being filled by round brackets of outward curve.
In this Ms. every letter is separate, or a unit by itself, and the serif or headline of one is not connected with that of the other. The padi-mātrā or prşthamātrā is used here and there; but it is less frequent, if not altogether absent, in the first line which has ample blank space for the top-strokes for the vowels e and o. Both para-savarna and anusvāra are used. There are instances of ya-sruti, but it is not uniformly used. Almost uniformly n is used everywhere: the instances of initial n and conjunct nn are scarce. There is plenty of use of inorganic t, or what is often called ta-sruti.
The Ms. J perhaps makes no distinction between v and b; and it uses the same letter for both of them. There are certain letters which look very much alike in some places, for instance, cand v, tha and ddha, y and v, bh and h etc. Many
1 Jaina-citra-kalpa-druma by S. M. NAWAB, p. 63 of the First Section, Ahmedabad 1935; also Sanmati-prakarana (Gujarati Intro.) by S. SANGHAVI and B. DOSHI, pp. 15-27, Ahmedabad
1932.
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