Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s15.t3: C. — The alphabet of the Jaggayyapeta inscriptions; Plate III
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s15.t3
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C. — The alphabet of the Jaggayyapeta inscriptions; Plate III
c7.s15.t3.1
In the Kistna districts of the eastern coast, a still more ornamental alphabet, found in the Jaggayyapeṭa inscriptions from the time of the Ikṣvāku king Sirivīra Purisadatta (cols. XVII, XVIII), as well as in some Amarāvatī inscriptions,⁵ was developed out of the ornamental variety just discussed, probably somewhat later, in the 3rd century A. D. One of its most prominent characteristics is the very considerable elongation of the verticals of *A*, *Ā*, *ka*, *ña*, *ra* and *la*, as well as of the medial *i*, *ī* and *u*. To a later time point the cursive forms of *tha* and *ha*, which latter agrees with the northern Gupta form (pl. IV, 39, I, VI), and the medial *e* of *me* (30), which, with its downward curve, agrees with the *e* of the later southern inscriptions (compare 30, XIX, XX, and pl. VII, 35, XII), and the medial *ū* in *tū* (21; compare col. XIX, and pl. VII, 30, XX). The medial *ū* of *tū* (40), in which the stroke expressing the length of the vowel has been attached to the head of the consonant, is entirely abnormal.
c7.s15.t3.2
⁵ B.ASRSI. 1, pl. 58, Nos. 35, 36; pl. 59, Nos. 38, 40—42; pl. 60, No. 46; pl. 61, No. 54; pl. 62.