Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s2.t1: A. — The western script
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s2.t1
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A. — The western script
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The western variety of the southern alphabets is found in the inscriptions of the Imperial Guptas and their vassals since the time of Candragupta II.,⁴ of the kings of Valabhī,⁵ of the Gurjaras of Broach,⁶ of some of the Calukyas of Bādāmi (Pulakeśin II. and Vijayabhaṭṭā- rikā), and of Nāsik and Gujarāt and their vassals,¹ of the Traikūṭakas,² of the Aśmakas (?) of Khāndesh,³ and of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas of Gujarāt,⁴ as well as in numerous votive inscriptions in the caves of Kaṇheri, Nāsik and Ajaṇṭā.⁵ Ordinarily, its characters no doubt were written with ink, just like those of the northern alphabets (see above, § 21). This is made highly probable by the use of wedges on the tops of the letters during the Gupta period (see plate VII, cols. I—III) and by the thick, frequently knob-like, heads of the signs of the Valabhī, Gurjara and Rāṣṭrakūṭa grants (plate VII, cols. IV—IX, and plate VIII, col. I), both of which ornaments can only be drawn with ink. Another argument is furnished by the fact that all the copper-plates from Gujarāt have been cut according to the ordinary size of the Bhūrja leaves (BURNELL), on which it is not possible to write with a *stilus*.
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⁴ Compare the facsimiles in Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions (CII. 3), Nos. 5, 14, and 62, plates 3 B, 8, 38 B, and Fleet's remarks.
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⁵ Compare the facsimiles in F. GI (CII. 3), Nos. 38, 39, plates 24, 25; IA. 1, 17; 5, 204 ff.; 6, 14 ff.; 7, 65 ff.; 8, 302; 9, 238; 14, 328; J. BBRAS. 11, 363; EI. 3, 320.
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⁶ Compare the facsimiles at J. RAS. 1865, 247; IA. 13, 78; [7, 62; 13, 116; 17, 200; disputed]; EI. 2, 19 ff.
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¹ Compare the facsimiles at EI. 3, 52; IA. 7, 164; 8, 45; 9, 124; J.BBRAS. 16, 1; Seventh Oriental Congress, Aryan Section, 238; IA. 19, 310.
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² Compare the facsimiles at B.ASRWI. No. 10, 58.
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³ Compare the facsimile at IA. 16, 98.
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⁴ Compare the facsimiles at IA. 12, 158; J.BBRAS. 16, 105; EI. 3, 56.
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⁵ Compare the facsimiles at B.ASRWI. 4, pl. 55, 9; pl. 58, 5 and 9; plates 59, 60; vol. 5, pl. 51, 6—9. Compare the facsimiles in F.GI. (CII. 3), No. 6, 17, 61, plates 4 A, 10, 38 A.
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The finds of nearly or quite contemporaneous inscriptions with northern characters in Rājputāna, the Central-Indian Agency,⁶ and Valabhī, as well as the Nāgarī signatures of the Gurjara princes,⁷ prove that northern scripts were being used simultaneously with this southern alphabet. And this circumstance is no doubt the cause of its showing traces of northern peculiarities in the following letters: — (1) in the *kha* with a large loop and a small hook (plate VII, 9, I—IX; VIII, 12, I), instead of which the true southern form appears only very rarely;⁸ (2) in the *ca*, rounded off on the right (plate VII, 13, I—IX; VIII, 16, I); (3) in the ancient *ta* without a loop (plate VII, 22, I—IX; VIII, 25, I); (4) in the narrow *dha* (plate VII, 25, I—IX; VIII, 28, I; compare plate IV, 25, I—III); (5) in the looped *na* (plate VII, 26, I—IX; VIII, 29, I), which agrees more exactly with the northern forms of plate IV, 26, than with the southern one of VII, 26, XIII (compare below, § 29, A); (6) in the Mātrās often placed above the line in medial *e* (plate VII, 26, V), *ai* (plate VII, 10, IV) and *ō* (plate VIII, 35, I), which latter, however, has a peculiar looped form in *lō* (plate VII, 34, III, IV); (7) in the medial *au*, consisting of three strokes above the line (VII, 25, V; 36, III); and compare plate IV, 7, IV); (8) in the subscript *ña*, which occasionally, as in plate VII, 42, VII, shows the northern cursive form. The inscriptions Nos. 17 and 62 of FLEET'S Gupta Inscriptions (CII. 3), plates 10, 38 B, which are not represented in plate VII, show, [62] besides, the northern *A* and *ka* without the curve at the foot. A *ka* of this description occurs also sometimes in the Valabhī inscriptions (plate VII, 8, V).
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⁷ Compare above, § 21 end.
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⁸ Compare, for instance, *likhitam*, facsimile at IA. 7, 72
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Irrespective of these northern peculiarities, which throughout remain almost unchanged, the characters of this script show three stages in their development, that of the 5th century (plate VII, cols. I—III), that of the 6th and 7th centuries (cols. IV—VI, VIII), and that of the 8th (col. IX) and 9th centuries (plate VIII, col. I) which last is very markedly cursive.
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Among the single letters the following deserve special remarks: —
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(1) The *I* (plate VII, 3, IV, ff.; VIII, 3, I), which here, as in most southern alphabets, consists of a curved line with a notch in the centre and of two dots below, and which appears to be a modification of a form like that in plate IV, 3, IX.
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(2) The *Ī* (plate VII, 3, I; VIII, 4, I), which, like that of the Bower MS. (plate VI, 4, I), has been developed by the transformation of two dots into a line, but in addition has the curved tail, characteristic of the southern alphabets.
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(3) The *E*, which usually consists of a triangle with the apex at the top, and is irregularly broadened on the left (plate VII, 6, I; and compare *AI* in VII, 6, VII), and which from the end of the 6th century frequently, especially in Gurjara inscriptions, is opened at the top (plate VII, 6, VI) and finally resembles a northern *la* (plate VIII, 8, I).
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(4) The *ḍa*, which in its oldest form (plate VII, 19, II), as mostly in the southern alphabets, is undistinguishable from *da*, but from the 6th century develops a little tail (plate VII, 19, IV—IX), or, in some inscriptions of the 8th and 9th centuries, a loop at the end (plate VII, 43, VII; plate VIII, 22, I).
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(5) The *tha* with a ringlet on the base-line (plate VII, 23, III, IV, VI) instead of the cross-bar (plate VII, 23, I, II), developed out of the ancient dot, or since the end of the 6th century with the southern notch in the base (plate VII, 23, VII—IX; plate VIII, 26, I).¹
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¹ Transitional forms occur in the Calukya inscriptions.
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(6) The *la* with the diminutive main portion of the original sign and the enormous tail (plate VII, 34, VI, VIII), which latter since the 7th century frequently becomes the sole representative of the letter (plate VII, 34, VII, IX).
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(7) The *śa*, which shows regularly in the Gurjara inscriptions (plate VIII, 39, I) and the Nāsik Calukya inscription,² and occasionally in the Valabhī inscriptions,³ a cursive combination of the cross-bar with the vertical on the right, which occurs also in the north.⁴
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² Compare facsimile at *IA.* 9, 124.
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³ Compare *IA.* 6, 10, and facsimile at 14, 328.
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⁴ Compare facsimile at *J.ASB.* 64, 1, plate 9, No. 2.
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(8) The *sa*, which occasionally shows (plate VII, 38, V) a cursive combination of the left limb with the *Serif* occurring also in southern scripts (plate VIII, 41, XI).
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(9) A number of cursive forms in ligatures, thus: — (*a*) The prefixed *ña* which often loses the hook on the right and looks like *ṇa* (compare also plate V, 19, V, VII. (*b*) The prefixed *na*, which especially before *ta*, *tha*, *dha* and *na* (see the *nta* of *anumantavyaḥ*, plate VII, 42, V) consists of a horizontal or bent stroke and looks like *ta*.¹⁶ (*c*) The subscript *ka*, which occasionally, as in *ṣka* (plate VII, 46, VIII), is looped on the left (compare *IA.* 11, 305). (*d*) The subscript *ca* of *ñca* (plate VII, 41, VIII, IX), which since the 6th century remains open on the right and bears the hook of *ña* on its base. (*e*) The subscript *ṇa*, which already since early times is merely indicated by a loop (see *rṇṇa*, plate VII, 41, IV). (*f*) The subscript *tha*, which, as in other southern alphabets (compare, *e. g.*, plate VII, 45, XX), is changed to a double curve open on the right (plate VII, 45, IV; plate VIII, 49, I).