Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s3.t1.10

c8.s3.t1.10

The letters of the older documents of this period remain very similar to those of the Andhra inscriptions of plate III, the so-called "cave-characters." In the Śālaṅkāyana grant, and in those of the Kadambas Kākusthavarman, Śāntivarman, Mṛgeśavarman and Ravivarman, we find only few, and by no means constant, traces of the development of the later characteristic round forms. Thus, col. XII. no doubt offers rather far advanced signs for *A* and *ra*, but at the same time a more archaic *A*, and the facsimile frequently shows even an angular *ra* with a not very long upward stroke. In the grants of the last Kadamba king Harivarman and in those of the Calukyas between A. D. 578 and 660, the *A*, *Ā*, *ka* and *ra*, characteristic of the next stage of development, occur not rarely, but never constantly. Thus col. XIV, derived from the Bādāmi inscription of Kīrtivarman I. and Maṅgaleśa, has the *ka* closed on the left. But this form is the only one used there, and it never appears on Maṅgaleśa's copper-plate, nor on the Haidarābād plates of his successor Pulakeśin II.² Further, this *ka*, as well as the closed *ra* of 33, col. XV, occur on the Nerūr plates of Pulakeśin II.³ Finally, the Aihoḷe stone inscription, of the time of Pulakeśin II.,⁴ has exclusively the older *ka* and *ra*, but occasionally the later *A* of col. XV. This vacillation indicates that between A. D. 578 and 660, and perhaps even earlier, the round-hand forms of the middle Kanarese alphabet existed, but that they either had not completely displaced the older ones, or that they were not yet considered as really suitable for inscriptions, though the clerks occasionally introduced them by mistake into the official documents (compare above, § 3, page 8).