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INTRODUCTION
is peculiar and different: they are wedge-shaped, often show a pool of ink at the head, stand mutually detached, and do not generally extend beyond the body of the letter, especially on the right side, as in V. In V lower point of the letters is often blunt, but in J generally slanting and as a rule pointed. The pool of ink at the top, slanting lines and pointed ends of akşaras raise a suspicion whether J is written with a fine brush. This is not unlikely; but these, according to expert opinion, can develop even when written by a wooden quill, with a graded point.
Though V and J come from nearly the same locality and are of the same age, they illustrate two styles of writing though structurally majority of akşaras is of the same pattern. The squarish handwriting in V can be favourably compared with that found in some old palm-leaf Mss. at Jaisalmer and other places in Western India. The writing of J, as seen above, is a little angular and cursive, with wedge-shaped serif, the line of writing showing different thickness occasioned by the point of the quill (or brush ?) and the quantity of the ink at different places, This style has close resemblance with the one found in the palm-leaf Mss. of Nepal and Eastern India, from which specimens are drawn by BÜHLER in plate VI, columns xiii-xiv. It is not unlikely that the copyist of J comes from Eastern India or is more accustomed to the style of writing seen in palm-leaf Mss. like the Aștasahasrikā prajñā-pāramitā of the late 12th century A.D., belonging to the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay;a or the Nī palm-leaf Ms, of the Rāmāyana, dated c. A.D. 1020, belonging to the Bir Library, Kathmandu, Nepal;3 or in the Ms. of the Arya-gandavyūha-mahāyāna-sūtra-ratna-rājah.4 A palm-leaf Ms. of the Upadesamālā, with the Heyopādeyavrtti, was an interesting item for me in the exhibition of Mss, arranged at the time of the session of the All-India Oriental Conference, Ahmedabad 1953. Its writing very closely resembles that of the Ms. J of the Kuvalayamālā. On an inquiry, Muni Srī PUNYAVIJAYAJI told me that the Ms. belongs to his collection and can be assigned to the 12th century (of the Vikrama era ?). One can have a fairly correct idea of the script of J from the chart of select akşaras carefully traced and given in this volume and also from the photograph of a few leaves reproduced here and elsewhere.
2. COMPARISON AND MUTUAL RELATION OF P & J To compare and contrast and thereby to ascertain the relation between the 1 See the photographs (Nos. 2 and 3) of the Mss. Upadesapadatikā, dated samvat 1212 and
Bhagavadgitā Sāmkara-bhäşya, dated sam. 1300, in the Bharatiya Vidyā, part 3, pp. 240-41, ed. by Sri JINA VIJAYA MUNI, Bombay 1945. See also Citra Nos. 11-15, in the Jaina-citra-kalpa-druma, at the close of Muni PUNYAVIJAYAJI'S essay, Bhāratīya Jaina
Bramaņa-samskȚti and lekhana-kalā, Ahmedabad 1936. 2 P. CHANDRA: Indian Illustrated Mss., The Times of India Annual, Bombay 1960, pp. 42 ff. 3 Reproduced in the Vālmiki-Rāmāyana, Critical Edition, Vol. I, Fascicule I, Oriental
Institute, Baroda 1958. 4 Two folios of this in photographic print were shown to me by my Professor, Dr. P. L. VAIDYA, Poona. This Ms. of Gandavyūha belongs to the Library of Oriental Institute, Baroda and bears No. 13208. The size is 61.5 cm. by 27.2 cm. with 9 lines to a page and about 98 letters to a line. It is a paper Ms. white on one ride and yellow on the other in the fashion of Nepalese Mss. It was procured by the Institute from Vajrācārya monastery in Kathmandu. The folios are 218,
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