Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s13.5

c7.s13.5

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.