Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s15.t2.1

c7.s15.t2.1

[43] The writing of the western Dekhan and the Koṅkaṇ in the caves of Nāsik, Junnar, Kārle, Kaṇheri, Kuḍā, &c., shows three varieties, an "archaistic" or retrograde type, a more advanced one with mostly faint traces of southern peculiarities, and an ornamental one. The first two appear in the oldest dated inscriptions of the Śaka Uṣavadāta or Usabhadāta (Ṛṣabhadatta),⁴ the son-in-law of the Kṣaharāta king and Kṣatrapa Nahapāna from the years 41 to 45 of, according to the usual assumption, the Śaka era,⁵ or from A. D. 118 to 122. The Kārle inscription No. 19 (col. VII) offers the "archaistic" or retrograde type, among the letters of which *gha* (10), *ja* (13), *da* (23), *bha* (29), *ya* (31), *la* (33), *sa* (37) and *ha* (38) come close to the forms in the older alphabets of pl. II, especially to those of the oldest Andhra inscriptions in cols. XXIII, XXIV. The same variety is found in some other, partly older, inscriptions of the same caves,⁶ and must be regarded as a direct development from the ancient Andhra type. It shows only very faint traces of the southern peculiarities enumerated above. The curves at the ends of the verticals are only rudimentary. The vertical of *la* is curved, but to the right. The triangular *dha* (24), which appears here for the first time, is found also in other alphabets of this plate (see col. XI ff.); the abnormal *kha* (8) is confined to Kārle No. 19.