Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s18.26

c7.s18.26

The last-mentioned two inscriptions are, however, by no means the oldest documents, in which Nāgarī letters occur. The first undoubtedly genuine specimens¹ are found in the signatures of the Gurjara princes on the copper-plates of Kaira (of A. D. 628 and 633), of Dabhoī (A. D. 642), of Nausārī (A. D. 705), and of Kāvī (A. D. 736),² the texts of which are written in a southern alphabet. In the first-mentioned three signatures, the Nāgarī letters are in the minority, as most of the signs show either more archaic northern or southern forms. Only in the fourth signature the Nāgarī is used throughout and is fully developed. But the most ancient document, written throughout in Nāgarī, is the Sāmāngaḍ grant of the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Dantidurga of A. D. 754 (plate IV, col. XXII).³ Much of the same type are the characters of the Kaṇheri inscriptions Nos. 15 and 43 (plate V, col. V),⁴ which were respectively incised in A. D. 851 and 877 during the reigns of the Sīlāhāra princes Pullaśakti and Kapardin II.