Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s18.37

c7.s18.37

In Northern and Central India, the Nāgarī appears first on the copper-plate of the Mahārāja Vināyakapāla of Mahodaya (plate IV, col. XXIII),¹⁰ probably of A. D. 794, which however exhibits some archaisms and peculiarities in the signs for *kha*, *ga*, and *na*, found also in later inscriptions from Eastern India. The fact that an earlier inscription from the Kanarese country, the incision of which is due to a Brahman from Northern India (see EI. 3, 1 ff.), shows a mixture of Nāgarī and acute-angled letters, makes it probable that the northern Nāgarī was in use at least since the beginning of the 8th century. From the next century, we have only a few inscriptions in northern Nāgarī.¹¹ But after A. D. 950 their number increases, and in the 11th century the script becomes paramount in nearly all the districts north of the Narmadā.