Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s18.16

c7.s18.16

To this third and last variety⁶ of the acute-angled alphabet belong the characters of the Multāī copper-plates (plate IV, col. XX) of A. D. 708-709,⁷ of the Dīghvā-Dubaulī plate, probably of A. D. 761 (plate IV, col. XXI),⁸ of the Gwalior inscription of A. D. 876 (plate V, col. II), and of the Ghosrāva inscription of the 9th or 10th century (plate V, col. VI),⁹ as well as, among the MSS., those of the Cambridge MS. No. 1049 (plate VI, col. VII), dated in the year 252,¹⁰ probably of Aṃśuvarman's era of A. D. 594,¹¹ or in A. D. 846. An intermediate position between the acute-angled and the Nāgarī alphabets, is occupied by the letters of the Pehoa Praśasti of about A. D. 900 (plate V, col. III), of the Deval Praśasti of A. D. 992 or 993 (plate V, col. VIII) and of the copper-plates of the Paramāra king Vākpati II. of A. D. 974 (plate V, col. X).¹² They, no doubt, show the wedges; but these are so broad that they produce the same effect as the long straight top-strokes, and that, *e. g.*, the open tops of *A*, *Ā*, *gha*, *pa*, &c., are closed, just as in the Nāgarī inscriptions. Specimens of the mixture of wedges and straight top-strokes, mentioned above, are found in the Rādhanpur and Vaṇī-Ḍiṇḍorī copper-plates of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa king [51] Govinda III. of A. D. 807-808 (plate V, col. IV),¹³ and the Harṣa inscription of the Cāhamāna Vigraha II. of A. D. 973 (plate V, col. IX).¹⁴