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KUVALAYAMĀLĀ
pose of both in early days. The Nāgarī form of both of them was the same for a pretty long time; and the cross line in the belly of the letter, to mark out b, came much later, say by the 13th and 15th century A.D. For bh cf. VI. xv, but often it gets closed at the lower point. For m cf. VI. xv.
For y of J, cf. BÜHLER VI. xv, but note the parallel bend on both the sides. For r, cf. VI. xiv-xv, and also V. vi etc.; the thick line and dagger-like shape of our r are striking. For 1 cf. VI. xv, but the shape of its serif is somewhat different. For v, cf. VI. xv; its longish and angular shape deserves attention. For s cf. VI. XV; it occurs in J only in a few Sanskrit verses, and at times it is written like s. For s cf. VI. xv; but the style is more similar to those at V. xvi, and VI. x-xi. For s cf. VI. xv, but some difference in the shape; cf. also VI. xiii. For h cf. VI. xv, but for its style cf. V. iii and VI. xiii. For kş cf. VI. xv. For jñ cf. V. x. 44; our symbol is more roundish.
From the above detailed observations it is seen that most of the akşaras of the Ms. J have a close resemblance with those recorded by BÜHLER in plate VI, column xv. He has drawn them from a palm-leaf Ms, of the Sanskrit commentary of Kotyācārya on the Viseşāvas yaka of Jinabhadragani (together with some supplements from the Royal Asiatic Society's Ganaratnamahodadhi, of A.D. 1229), now deposited in the Bhandarkar 0. R. Institute, Poona. I have personally inspected this Ms. with a view to have precise palaeographic comparison of it (V) with J. Both V and J contain Jaina works; they belong originally to Jaina Bhandāras; and possibly hail from nearly the same area. V is written is sam. 1138 Pausa and J in Saṁ. 1139 Phālguna; that is V is older than J by a year and two months. The writing of V is strikingly clear, though some of its leaves are damaged and even broken to pieces: possibly, for its age, it is adversely exposed to weather and repeatedly handled. J has its leaves, however, quite intact; and my impression is that it is not much handled. The akşaras of J, in most cases, have a close structural resemblance with those of V. Some letters in these have clearly different patterns, for instance, i, 7, ņ, ph (second variety), and even d and dh. Despite this structural resemblances between many letters in V and J, the appearance and impression of the written matter that one gets are different. Some of the apparent reasons are as below: In V letters are squarish but in J, longish, angular and slanting. In V serifs or headlines are flat, straight and mutually not very much detached; but in J, their shape, in most of the letters,
1 See A catalogue of the Govt. Collection of Mss. Deposited in the Deccan College, XII,
Collection of 1880-81, p. 169, No. 57. Luckily I could spot the concluding leaf. The Ms. ends thus: समाप्तमिदं विशेषावश्यकम् ॥ छ । कृतिजिनभद्रगणिक्षमाश्रमणपूज्यपादानां ॥ छ ॥ भाष्यं सामायिकस्य स्फुटविकटपदार्थोपगढं यदेतच्छीमत्पूज्यरकारि क्षतकलषधियां भूरिसंस्कारकारि । तस्य व्याख्यानमात्रं किमपि विदधता यन्मया पुण्यमाप्तं । प्रेत्याहं द्राग्लभेयं परमपरिमितां प्रीतिमत्रैव तेन ॥ छ । लिखितं पुस्तकं चेदं A T T I grat a Tarafa feat 11 # %3Catafa 11 o 11 [Then in a different hand:) # MT ETT ATafalla Il [Then in a different hand:] TUHET TOETAEFITfor सप्तशताधिकानि ॥ १३७०० ॥ पुस्तकं चेदं विश्रुतश्रीजिनेश्वर पूरिशिष्यस्य जिनवल्लभगणेरिति ॥ Syllabic numbering of pages seems to be original; numeral pagination is perhaps put later. The first folio is pasted on paper by Prof. E. LEUMANN; and he has left a note on the sheet like this: pasted by Ernst Leumann of Strassburg Alsatia'.
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