Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s19.t1.2

c7.s19.t1.2

**(1)** The signs for *E*, *gha*, *ca*, *tha*, *dha*, *pa*, *ba*, *ma*, *ya*, *la*, *va*, *ṣa* and *sa*, develop gradually, — the later the more distinctly, — shorter or longer tails, which first slant off towards the right below the bottom-line of the letters, but later, in the Nāgarī, become vertical strokes, except in the case of *E*. **[53]** From the 10th century similar pendent lines appear in the middle of *cha* (plate V, 16, II, III, &c.), and of *ḍha* (plate V, 23, II), of *pha* (plate V, III, &c.) and of *ha* (plate V, 42, II—IV, &c.), which the Nāgari, too, retains in *cha* and *ha* and converts into a medial vertical in the case of *pha*. In the acute-angled script, *kha*, *ga*, *tha*, *dha*, and *śa* frequently show on the right a small horn-like protuberance or an elongation of the vertical, which, owing to the flattening of the tops, the Nāgarī again discards except in the case of *dha*. Both the last-mentioned peculiarities are due to the circumstance that the writers drew the left and right portions of the letters separately and neglected to join carefully the two halves.⁶ In course of time these irregularities became characteristic features of most of the letters.