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Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s16: § 21. — Definition and varieties

Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s16

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§ 21. — Definition and varieties

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[45] By the term "northern alphabets" I understand with BURGESS, FLEET,³ and others, that large group of epigraphic and literary scripts, which from about A. D. 350 conquers the whole

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³ F.CI (CII. 3), 3 f., and passim.

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**PLATE IV.** Cuttings from facsimiles.

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Cols. I, II, III ; from FLEET, Gupta Inscriptions (CII. 3), pl. 1. Col. IV ; from F.GI (CII. 3), pl. 5. Cols. V, VI ; from F.GI (CII. 3), pl. 9, A. Col. VII ; from F.GI (CII. 3), pl. 9, B. Col. VIII ; from plate at EI. 1, 238. Col. IX ; from F.GI (CII. 3), pl 13. Col. X ; from F.GI (CII. 3), pl. 22. Cols. XI, XII ; from F.GI (CII. 3), pl. 30 B, and 31, A, B. Cols. XIII, XIV ; from F GI (CII. 3), pl. 41, A. Cols. XV, XVI ; from plate at EI. 1, 10. Col. XVII ; from plate at IA. 9, 172, Nos. 7, 8, 9. Cols XVIII, XIX ; from F.GI (CII. 3), pl. 28. Col. XX ; from plate at IA. 16, 234. Col. XXI ; from plate at IA. 15, 112. Co. XXII ; from plate at IA. 11, 108. Col. XXIII ; from plate at IA. 15, 140.

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PLATE V.

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Col. I; from photolithograph of impressions of EI. 1, 97. The other columns cut from facsimiles : — Col. II; from plate at EI. 1, 160. Col. III; from plate at EI. 1, 242. Col. IV ; from plates at IA. 6, 65, and 11, 158. Col. V; from unpublished facsimiles of IA. 13, 134. Col. VI ; from plate at IA. 17, 310. Col. VII ; from unpublished facsimiles of EI. 1, 162. Col. VIII ; from plate at EI. 1, 77. Col. IX ; from plate at EI. 2, 120. Col. X; from plate at IA. 6, 50. Col. XI ; from plate at IA. 6, 192. Col. XII ; from plate at IA. 18, 11. Col. XIII; from plate at EI. 1, 234. Col. XIV ; from plate at IA. 16, 205. Col. XV : from plate at EI. 2, 297. Col. XVI; from Bhavnagar Sankr. and Prākr. Inscriptions, plates 10, 41. Col. XVII; from plate at IA. 16, 22. Col. XVIII ; from plate at EI. 1, 308. Col. XIX; from plate at EI. 2, 350. Col. XX ; from plate at IA. 18, 130. Col. XXI; from plates at IA. 11, 71, 337. Col. XXII; from plate at IA. 16, 254. Col. XXIII; from plate at EI. 1, 34.

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**PLATE VI.** Cuttings from facsimiles.

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Cols. I, II, III, IV; from plates in HOERNLE'S Bower MS., parts 1, 2. Cols. V, VI, VII, and IX ; from Anecd. Oxon., Ar. Ser., 1, 3, plate 6, cols. 1, 2, 3. Col. VIII ; from plate at Vienna Oriental Congress, Aryan Section, 127 ff. Col. IX; see above, with cols. V, VI, and VII. Col. X; from BENDALL, Cat. Buddh. MSS., pl. 2, 4, and Berlin Oriental Congress, Indian Section, pl. 2, 1. Col. XI; from BENDALL, op. cit., pl. 3, 1. Col XII; from Berlin Oriental Congress, Indian Section, pl. 2, 2, 3. Col. XIII; from BENDALL, op. cit., pl. 1, 3. Col. XIV ; from Anecd. Oxon., Ar. Series, 1, 1, pl. 4. Cols. XV, XVI, XVII; from LEUMANN, photogr. of Deccan College Collection, 1880-81, No. 57 : 7, XV, XVI ; 14 and 16, XV ; 18, XV, XVI, XVII ; 19 and 23, XV, XVI ; 24, XV ; 27, XV, XVI : 35, 37, and 41, XVII, added from LEUMANN'S Viśeṣāvaśyaka, pl. 35; 7, XVII, and 8, 9, 10, XV, and 12, 14, 16, XVI, added from photogr. of the Royal Asiatic Society's Gaṇaratnamahodadhi. Cols. XVIII, XIX; from plates at Vienna Oriental Congress, Aryan Section, 111 ff.

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Scale of the three plates = two-thirds of the facsimiles.

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wide territory north of the Narmadā, with the exception of Kāthiāvāḍ and northern Gujarāt, and which, spreading in the course of time more and more, finally is used in a number of varieties for nearly all the Aryan languages of India. Their origin is to be found in the cursive forms, which first appear in the addition to the Aśoka edict VI. of Dhauli, and in a number of signs of the Kālsī version (see above, page 6 f.), and later are found, occasionally or constantly, in some of the Jaina votive inscriptions of the Kuṣana period (see above, § 19, A). Their general type is that of a cursive alphabet with signs reduced at the top to the same height, and made throughout, as much as possible, equal in breadth. As the occurrence of ancient MSS. and various peculiarities of the letters, such as the formation of wedges out of the *Serifs* at the ends of the verticals, clearly prove, they were always written with a pen or a brush and ink. Their most important common characteristics are: — (1) The absence of curves at the lower ends of the verticals of *A*, *Ā*, *ka*, *ña*, &c. (with occasional exceptions for *ra*); (2) the use of the *Serif* at the left down-strokes of *kha*, *ga*, and *śa*; (3) the division of the original vertical of *ṇa* and of its upper bar; (4) the use of a looped *na* and of a *ta* without a loop; (5) the transformation of the lower portion of *ma* into a small knob or loop attached to the left of the letter; (6) the shortening of the vertical of *la*; (7) the turn of the medial *i* to the left, which is soon followed by the twist of medial *ī* to the right; (8) the development of curves, open to the left, at the end of the originally horizontal medial *u*; and (9) the use of a curve, open to the right, for medial *ṛ*.

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While all the alphabets represented in plates IV, V, VI, show these common characteristics or further developments from them, they may be divided according to other peculiarities, into seven larger groups, most of which again comprise several varieties: —

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(1) The epigraphic North-Indian alphabet of the 4th and 5th centuries, commonly called the Gupta alphabet, which, according to HOERNLE's researches,¹ has an eastern and a western variety, among which the second again has two branches, and with the western variety of which the literary alphabet of the Bower MS. and of some other documents from Kashgar is closely connected.

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¹ J.ASB. 60, 80 ff.; and IA. 21, 29 ff.

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(2) The acute-angled or Siddhamātṛkā (?) alphabet with wedges at the verticals of the letters, which is first found in the palm-leaves of Horiuzi, and towards the end of the 6th century in the Mahānāman inscription from Gayā and in the Lakkhāmaṇḍal Praśasti.

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(3) The Nāgarī with its long-drawn, tailed, letters, and long top-strokes, the first certain traces of which occur in the 7th century.

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(4) The Śāradā alphabet, a northern variety of the western Gupta type, first found about A. D. 800.

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(5) The eastern Proto-Bengālī alphabet with much rounded, cursive letters, and with hooks or hollow triangles at the tops of the verticals, first traceable in the 11th century.

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(6) The hooked alphabet of Nepāl, [46] which is closely connected with the Proto-Bengālī and occurs in MSS. from the 11th century onwards.

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During the 4th and 5th centuries, the rule of these alphabets to the north of the Narmadā is by no means undisputed. In the west we find, as far north as Bijayagaḍh (Bhartpur), inscriptions in southern characters, or with an admixture of southern letters (see below, § 27). In the 6th and 7th centuries this mixture no longer occurs. Only the so-called "arrow-head" type (see below, § 26, C), the seventh variety on plates IV—VI, which appears in rather late times in Bengal and Nepāl, offers an instance of the importation of a southern script into Northern India.

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On the other hand, we meet, from the 7th century, with inscriptions in northern characters first on the coast, in the west in Gujarāt,¹ and in the east even beyond Madras.² Documents of this kind appear from the middle of the 8th century also in the central Dekhan, and during the 12th and 13th centuries they penetrate as far as Vijayanagara in the Kanarese country (see below, § 23). But they never come into sole use beyond the northern limit of the Dravidian districts.

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¹ Fragments of inscriptions with northern characters of this period, from Valabhī, are preserved in the Museums of Bombay (the Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society) and Rājkoṭ. Compare also the sign-manuals on the Gurjara land-grants, J.RAS., 1865, 247 ff.

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² B.ESIP. 53, and plate 22 *a*; IA. 18, 161, 172.

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The ancient MSS. hitherto found in Kashgar, Japan and Nepāl, the oldest of which probably were written in the 4th century,³ show only northern letters. The palm-leaf MSS. of Western India, which begin in the 10th century, agree with the inscriptions of the period, and prove that the northern Nāgarī was generally used in Rājputāna, Gujarāt,⁴ and in the northern Dekhan as far as Devagiri (Daulatābād).⁵ The gradual advance of the northern characters towards the south probably is explained by the predilection of many southern kings for northern customs, and by the immigration of northern Brahmans, castes of scribes, and Buddhist and Jaina monks, to which facts the statements in various inscriptions and the historical tradition bear witness.⁶

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³ I agree with Hoernle, who considers certain portions of the new Godfrey collection from Kashgar to be older than the Bower MS.; J.ASB. 66, 258.

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⁴ Kielhorn, *Report on Sanskrit MSS.*, 1880-81, 1 ff.; Peterson, Second Report, Appendix I, and Third Report, Appendix I.

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⁵ J.RAS. 1895, 247.

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⁶ Compare B.EISP. 20, 53 ff.; Fleet in EI. 3, 2.

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