Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s13: § 18. — The last four alphabets of Plate II

Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s13

Language: English

§ 18. — The last four alphabets of Plate II

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In addition to the inscriptions of Daśaratha (col. XVII), which very probably belong just to the end of the 3rd century B C. (see above, § 16, A), only those of the Ceta king Khāravela of Kaliṅga (cols. XXI, XXII) and those of the Andhra queen Nāyanikā in the Nānāghāṭ cave (cols. XXIII, XXIV) can be dated approximately. Khāravela's inscription must have been incised between B. C. 157 and 147, as the king's thirteenth year is said to correspond to the year 165 of "the time of the Muriya (Mauriya) kings,"¹ and it fixes also the time of the Nānāghāṭ inscription. For, according to line 4, Khāravela assisted in the second year of his reign a western king called Sātakaṇi. This Sātakaṇi probably is identical with the first Andhra prince of that name mentioned in the Purāṇas, whose inscribed image is found in the Nānāghāṭ cave. Hence the date of the large inscription, which was incised during the regency of Sātakaṇi's widow Nāyanikā, cannot be much later than B. C. 150.²

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¹ Sixth Oriental Congress, 3, 2, 149; compare Östreichische Monatsschr für d. Or., 1884, 231 ff.

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² Sixth Oriental Congress, 3, 2, 146; differently Bhāṇḍārkar, Early Hist. of the Dekkan², 34, who assigns Sātakaṇi to the period B. C. 40 to A. D. 16.

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Paleographic evidence is almost the only help for fixing the time of Dhanabhūti's inscription on the *toraṇa* of the Bharahut Stūpa (col. XVIII), which was incised "during the rule of the Śuṅgas," as well as that of the Pabhosa cave inscriptions (col. XIX) and of the oldest votive documents from Mathurā (col. XX), all of which order (see above, § 15, 5) the Śuṅga type of the ancient Brāhmī. To judge from the evidently close connection of their characters, partly with the younger Maurya alphabet and partly with the Kaliṅga script, the signs of cols. XVIII, XIX, probably belong to the second century B. C. Those of col. XX. may date from the first century B. C., as the elongation of the lower parts of the verticals of *A*, *Ā* (1, 2), the broad back of *śa* (37), the cursive *ḷa* (41) and the subscribed *ra* in *dra* (42), which is twisted to the left, point to a later time.

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The tendency to shorten the upper vertical lines, mentioned already above (§ 16, A), is, though here and there not fully carried through, common to all the four scripts. The broadening of the letter or of the lower parts of *ga*, *ta*, *pa*, *bha*, *ya*, *la*, *sa* and *ha* is found only in the last [40] three alphabets; and the thickening of the tops of the upper verticals, and the use of the so-called *Serif*, are particularly remarkable only in the Śuṅga and Kaliṅga alphabets. Tendencies in the direction of later developments are found, not only in the letters of col. XX, already mentioned, but also in the round *ḍa* (20, XXII, XXIII), so characteristic for the later southern alphabets, in *ṭa* with the curved upper horizontal line (22, XVIII, XIX) in the partly or entirely angular *na* (32, XIX, XXII) in the semicircular medial *ī* of *kī* (9, XXII), *bī* (30, XXII), and *vī* (36, XXIV), as well as in the detached *o* of *go* (11, XXII), *tho* (19, XXIV) and *tho* (24, XXIV). The single medial *au* of the plate, in *pau* (28, XVIII), deserves to be noted.

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As regards the geographical distribution of these types, the younger Maurya alphabet belongs not only to the north-east (Bihār), but also to the north-west, where its *ja* and *ṣa* are found on the coins of the two Indo-Grecian kings, mentioned above (§ 15, 4). The Kaliṅga alphabe is of course that of the south-eastern coast, and the type of the Nānāghāṭ inscriptions that of the western Dekhan. Finally, the Śuṅga type probably represents the script of the centre of India. It, however, extends also to the west, as the same or very similar characters are found in the caves of the Marāṭhā country; compare § 15 above, 5, note 3.

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Very little can be said regarding the duration of the use of these scripts. The Indo-Grecian coins show that the younger Maurya characters were used in the first half of the 2nd century B. C.¹ The Kaliṅga script is visible also in the inscriptions of Khāravela's next descendants.² If Burgess has correctly fixed the time of the Pitalkhorā caves,³ it would follow that the script of the Nānāghāṭ inscriptions continued to be used in the first century A. D.

Linked texts (2)

Pitalkhora Caves
Pābhosa cave inscriptions (Nos. IX and X) — Sanskrit