Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s2.t1.1

c8.s2.t1.1

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*.