Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s17.t1.7

c7.s17.t1.7

The western variety of the Gupta alphabet again appears in two forms, a cursive round-hand and an angular, monumental, type. The second form, which shews very characteristic thick top-lines and a hooked *ra* (33), is represented in plate IV, col. IV, by the alphabet of the Bilsaḍ Praśasti of A. D. 415. Another fine example is found in Fleet's No. 32, from the Meharaulī iron pillar near Delhī. Specimens of the cursive form are given in col. VII. from the Indor copper-plate of A. D. 465, in col. VIII. from Toramāṇa's Kura inscription, probably of the second half of the 5th century,¹ and in col. IX. from the Kārītalāī copper-plate of Jayanātha of Uccakalpa, dated the year 174 or probably A. D. 423.² The same type is found in Fleet's Nos. 4, 13, 16, 19, 22—31, 36, 61, 63, 66, 67, 69, 74, 76, and in the Jaina votive inscriptions from Mathurā, new series, Nos. 38, 39.³ It deserves to be noted that Fleet's No. 13 from Bhitarī is found in a district where one would expect the eastern variety. Fleet's No. 61, the Jaina inscription from Udayagiri in Mālva, shows a mixture of the northern characters with southern ones, as it offers throughout *A*, *Ā*, with a curve, and once a southern *ṛ*. Perhaps the same may be said of Fleet's No. 59, the Bijayagaḍh inscription from Bhartpur in Rājputāna, where *ra* shows a curve at the end and medial *i* and *ī* resemble those in plate III, col. XVI. The characters on the Gupta coins⁴ are frequently retrograde, and offer, *e. g.*, the angular *ma* of the Kuṣana period.