Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s3.4

c6.s3.4

The first sign has hardly any resemblance to the last. But the sequence in the row shows their connection and their development. The first seven owe their existence to a predilection partly [7] for angles and partly for curves, — two mutually contradictory tendencies, which find their expression also in the forms of other letters of pl. II, such as *gha*, *ḍa*, *da*, *la*, &c. The signs Nos. 1, 2, 3 of the series given above, are due to the first tendency, and Nos. 6, 7 to the second. Nos. 4, 5 show the transition from the angle to the curve, and No. 8 is a cursive simplification of No. 6. These eight signs are not found in all the versions of the Aśoka edicts, but are divided locally as follows. The angular forms Nos. 1, 2, 3 appear only in the south, in Girnār, Siddāpura, Dhauli, and Jaugada, side by side with Nos. 4 to 7. And it must be noted that the latter are rare in Girnār and Siddāpura, but in the majority in Dhauli and Jaugada. In the versions discovered north of the Narmadā or the Vindhya, we find mostly only Nos. 4 to 7, but in Kālsī No. 8 also is common, and it occurs a few times in Rāmpūrva. Hence the angular forms of *A*, *Ā*, appear to be specially southern ones, and they are no doubt also the most ancient. The first inference is confirmed by a comparison of the most nearly allied inscriptions. The relic vessels from Kolhāpur⁶ and Bhaṭṭiprolu (pl. II, cols. XIII—XV), and the oldest Andhra inscription from the Nānāghāṭ (pl. II, cols. XXIII, XXIV) again show the angular *A*, *Ā*, either exclusively or together with the mixed forms Nos. 4, 5, while the numerous inscriptions found further north on the Stūpas of Sāñci and Bharahut, in Pabhosa and Mathurā (pl. II, cols. XVIII—XX) on the coins of Agathocles, and in the Nāgārjunī cave (pl. II, col. XVII), offer either pure curved letters or mixed ones. An exception in Mahābodhi-Gayā¹ is probably explained by the fact that pilgrims from the south incised records of their donations at the famous sanctuary. Similar differences between northern and southern forms may be observed in the case of *kha*, *ja*, *ma*, *ra* and *sa*,² and they are all the more important as the circumstances under which the Aśoka edicts were incised did not favour the free use of local forms.³ But the existence of local forms always points to a long continued use of the alphabet in which it is observable.