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as specimens. Difference of place and time has its effect on the style of these drawings and this difference is natural and pleasing.
4. Entry of the This illustration in Gujarati style belongs to the twelfth century and was drawn on a wooden strip from which preceptor in facsimile is presented here. The illustration shows the meeting between Siddharaj Jaysinha, the king of Gujarat and a the city: Jain preceptor accompanied by a group of his followers and dancers dancing in an attractive style and musicians playing music. The males in ancient times, as shown in the illustration had matted hair and they kept long beards. Following the Kalpa Sutra style the illustration shows elongated eyes and sharp noses like those of parrots, the dress styles of the ascetics, the kings and the people. The Jain preceptor is giving religious instructions in a style adopted at the time. The upper garment covers the left shoulder which is unusual as from the tenth to the seventeenth century the custom was to cover the right shoulder as shown in the illustrations of Jain ascetics and in the stone sculptures of the icons of the preceptor of the period.
5. Various scripts and numerals:
184 Jain Education International
The first four horizontal sections of the strip present the scripts of the four languages and the fifth section of the bottom presents the remaining letters of these scripts, the conjuct letters of the Jain script, the numerals used in the Devanagari, the Jain and the Balbodh scripts, and marks of punctuation etc.
A script is a particular arrangement of the letters and numerals. It is a group of letters figures and conjunct letters, meant for the language or their group and written in a certain way for language 10. The letters are also known as Aksara or Matrika and the script is called Varna Matrika, Siddhanta Matrika or Siddha Matrika in Sanskrit. The script is also known as Varna Mala, Aksaramala or Mulaksar in Sanskrit.
The word Matrika means a mother. As the script gives birth to the principles of scriptures, learning, arts and all the dealings of the world and maintains them,it is rightly compared to a mother. As it is at the root of all principles it is called "Siddhanta Matrika" the mother of principles. There is neither the beginning nor the creation of the letters. They are called 'Anadisamsiddha'..
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATION STRIP
The first of the five horizontal sections shows the Devnagari script, the second shows the Jain script, the third shows the Kharoshthi script and the fourth shows the Brahmi script. The sequence should be the Brahmi, the kharoshthi, the Devnagari and the Jain Script in the strip if we take into consideration the Jain history or the history of scripts.But the Devnagari script is shown in the first section so that letters of unknown scripts would become easy to recognise. For proper understanding, the sequence of the sections should be taken as 4, 3, 2 and 1. The letters in the first section are followed by the letters of other scripts under them. Thus under the letter in the Devnagari is followed by the same in all the scripts, under it. This would give an idea about the radical changes in the letters during hundreds of years.
THE DEVNAGARI OF THE FIRST SECTION AND ENUMERATION OF 52 LETTERS
The modern Devnagari was originally known as Nagar or Nagari. Dev was prefixed later on to name the script as Devanagari. The same Nagari Script is known as Balbodh at present. The total number of letters in this scriptis 52!4 There are 14 vowels from A to Au 15 and 33 consonants from K to H, the nasal 16 being shown as a dot on the letter (as in monkey) Visarga 16 shown by two dots like :(A nasal sound) Jihvamuliya (Visarga before K and H, Upadhmaniya) 18 the aspirate Visarga before P and PH and the 52nd is a nasal letter 19 written as AM (e.g.). In the first column 39 letters of the Devnagari are shown and the remaining are shown in the fifth column. The
Note: 8. It is at present the custom among the Jain ascetics to keep the kambal on the left shoulder.
Note: 9. LIKHITAKSHAR VINYASE LIPIRLIVIRUBHAU-Amarkosh-1499. Such reference is also found in Haimkosha Vs 3-148. The script in the language of Karmagrantha is called Sanghyakshara and language is called Vyanjanakshara and both together are called " Dravyakshara. Certain letters which lead to the knowledge of other letters are called the alphabet of the language (See AV. Mu.Tika) Note: 10. It should be noted that the language and the script are different. What is pronounced is the language and what is written is a script. Any language can be transcribed in any script and any script can be translated in any language.
Note: 11. Even a single letter can be called a script, Matrika or Matrikakshara.
Note: 12. Some script-experts assign to the Kharoshthi script a period earlier than the Brahmi Script.
Note: 13. The Hindi script almost resembles the Balbodh script.
Note: 14. Vyanjanani Trayastrinshat Swaraschaiva Chaturdasha, Anuswara, Visargascha Jihvamooliya Ava Cha (1). Gajakumbha kritivarnau Proktauanunasikastatha. Ate Varna Dwipanchashad Matrikaya mudahrutaha (2).
Note: 15. Audanta Swaraha (Siddhahaima).
Note: 16-16.The nasal, the visarga etc. are merely signs but as they suggest some meaning they have found place in the script. Note: 17. Kaha Kulishakritihi.
Note: 18. Gaja Kumbhakritihi Pashcha. The conclusion is that if a word has a visarga at the end and after there is a word starting with Ka or Kha. the visarga is pronounced in a certain way with the help of the tip of the tongue. In order to identify such peculiar pronunciation grammarians have suggested to place the sign Vajrakruti-X there and they called this sign Mahapranavisarga and also called the same as an alphabet associated with the tip of the tongue. Nrupaha Karyam Karoti should be according to this rule written as Nrupax Karyam Karoti in Sanskrit. Now if the visarga is followed by Pa or Pha the Proununciation follows a certain pattern and so the Visarga sign is replaced by sign which resembles the temple of an elephant. x x One of these two signs is put. This alphabet is called Upadhmaniya. Upadhma means a lip and so the alphabet pronounced with the help of the lips is called a labial.
After the Note: 19. Another enumeration of 52 letters include La, Ksha, Gya among the Jihvamooliya, Upadhmaniya and nasal consonants. fourth century the conjunct letter was written as Kash and later on its original form was changed to Ksh. As it became necessary to show the constituents of the grammarians had to derive that Kshaha was made of 'K'and Sha (K, Shaha Samyoge Kshaha). Similarly Jya is made of Ja and Yan. Thus the two constituents formed the letters (Gna) and the grammarians give the aphoris, 'Janyor Gnaha Similarly letter was written as tar in ancient times and with the addition of a vowel it was written, as and as time passed it was transformed into (Tra). All these are conjunct consonants.
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