Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s19.t1.8

c7.s19.t1.8

(4) The sign for *I* is mostly derived from the Gupta form of Indor (plate IV, 3, VII) by the substitution of a curve for the third dot (plate IV, 3, XI—XXIII; V, 3, II—IV, &c.; VI, 3, V—IX). But in addition there is (plate V, 3, V, XII, XIII, &c.; VI, 3, XII—XV) a derivative from the *I* of the Uccakalpa plates (IV, 3, IX), in which the upper dot is replaced by a straight line; and this *I* is the parent of the modern Devanāgarī *I*, in which the two lower dots have been changed into curves and finally have been connected. In Jaina MSS., the *I* with two dots above and a curve below occurs occasionally as late as the 15th and 16th centuries. The unique early forms of the long *Ī* (plate VI, 4, V, VII), as well as their later development (plate VI, 4, XV), which has followed the analogy of *I*, deserve attention.