Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c11.s3.15

c11.s3.15

Other designations of the writers in the inscriptions are *karaṇa*,⁵ *karaṇika*⁶ or more rarely *karanin*,⁷ *śāsanika*⁸ and *dharmalekhin*.⁹ *Karaṇa* is perhaps only a synonym of *kāyastha*,¹⁰ as the law-books mention the Karaṇas as one of the mixed castes. The other terms, among which *karaṇika* has to be rendered, according to KIELHORN, by "writer of legal documents (*karaṇa*)," appear to be merely official titles without any reference to caste. The development of the Indian alphabets, and the invention of new forms of the letters, no doubt is due partly to the Brahmans and the Jaina and Bauddha monks, but much more to the professional writers and to the writer castes. The opinion, according to which the modifications have been introduced by the stone-masons and the engravers of the copper-plates, is less probable, because these persons were not suited for such work by their education and their occupation.¹¹