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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www. kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
NOTES
151
Nāsik Cave inscription of king Kanha differ from the Sanchi Gateway inscriptions in these two essential features : "(1) Letters with the socalled serif or thick-headed vertical are quite conspicuous by their absence in these records. (2) In place of ta's with the invariably round lower part of the Sānchi Gateway inscriptions, we have in these earliest Andhra inscriptions and in the coins of king Siri Sāta (rightly identified with Siri Sātakaṇi of Nānāghāt) ta’s with mostly angular lower part."
Sometime ago Mr. R. D. Banerji read, at one of the monthly meetings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a carefully written paper embodying the results of his study of the letter-forms of the Nānāghāt Cave inscription of Nayanikā and the Hāthi-Gumpha inscription of Khāravela. His paper, which has been meant for publication in JASB with copious illustrations, showed that he had made a most painstaking analysis of the letter-forms of the two inscriptions. He said, in the course of discussion, that he could see in Khāravela's inscription the engraving of three separate bands. He tried to point out that in all cases ga's and ta's were not arched or rounded but angular, and that, as a matter of fact, there were a number of letter-forms bearing the characteristic features of Asokan Brāhmi, and that, on the other hand, there were certain letter-forms in the Nānāghat Cave inscription that anticipated those of the Kuşāņa inscriptions. Thus he found reasons to differ from Rai Bahadur Chanda who assigned an earlier date to the alphabet of the Nânaghat record. He seemed to think that as, on the ground of anticipation of some of the letter-forms of the Kuşā!a inscriptions, the Nānāghāt record might be dated later, so, on the ground of lingering resemblance with the letter-forms of Asokan Brāhmi, the Hāthi-Gumpha record might be dated earlier. He inclined to explain the occurrence of different types of Brāhmi letters in the Hāthi-Gumphā inscription by the fact that of the scribes employed, one was well-practised in the Eastern variety, one in the Southern variety, and so on.
Mr. Banerji's analysis of the Brāhmi letter-forrns of the two inscriptions leaves nothing to be desired in the way of industry and precision. It convinces us that all the ga's in Khāravela's inscription are not arched ; that the lower parts of all the ti's are not invariably rounded ; that it has a number of letter-forms bearing the characteristic features of the alphabet of the Maurya inscriptions ? ; and that the Nānāghāt Cave inscription shows some letter-forms anticipating those of the Kuşāņa inscriptions.
1. Some of the Nathi-Gumphà letter-forms may be Asokan or Mauryan, but none of the Asokan or Mauryan letter-forms has a serif or thickened top.
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