Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s3.t3: C. — The Old-Kanarese alphabet
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s3.t3
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C. — The Old-Kanarese alphabet
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The third and last variety of the Kanarese-Telugu alphabet, which BURNELL calls “the transitional” and FLEET more appropriately “Old-Kanarese,” does not differ much from the modern Kanarese and Telugu scripts. In the east, it first appears in the Veṅgi inscriptions of the 11th century; in the west, a little earlier, in a Gaṅga inscription of A. D. 978 and in a not much later Calukya inscription.¹ Some of its characteristics, like the opening of the loop of *ma* and of the head of *va*, appear however in the sign-manual of Dhruva II. on the Baroda plates, mentioned above under B. The specimens of this script² in plate VIII, among which cols. VI. and VII. date from the 11th century, col. VIII. from the 12th, and col. IX (according to HULTZSCH, Telugu) from the 14th, show the gradual progress very distinctly.
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¹ BURGESS and FLEET, Pāli, Saṁskṛit, and Old-Canarese inscriptions, Nos. 271, 214; see also, for the Gaṅga record, IA. 6, 102.
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² Compare also the facsimiles at IA. 9, 74; 14, 56; EI. 3, 26, 88, 194, 228; Ep. Carn. 3, 116, 121; B.ASWI. No. 10, 100; and J.RAS. 1891, 135 (the original of PRINSEP’s, Kistna alphabet, which is archaic and retrogracd *A*, *ka*, *ra*, *la*).
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One of the most characteristic marks of the Old-Kanarese consists in the angles over all Mātṛkās which do not bear superscripted vowel-signs. These angles, which in col. VI. resemble those of the modern Telugu and in cols. VII, VIII, those of the modern Kanarese, probably are cursive representatives of wedges, and have been invented because the latter did not suit the writing with the *stilus*. Since the 6th century, they occur more or less frequently in single inscriptions from other districts, such as Guhasena’s grant of A. D. 559-60 (plate VII, col. IV) and Ravikīrti’s Aihoḷe Praśasti,³ sometimes together with wedges. But it is only in this alphabet that they become a constant distinctive feature.
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³ IA 8, 241; EI. 6, 6.
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The most important among the changes in the several signs are:—
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(1) The opening of the heads of *E* (plate VIII, 8, VI, VIII), of *ca* (16, VI—IX), of *bha* (33, VI—IX, which in col. IX. becomes identical with *ba* by the connection of the two base-strokes), and of *va* (38, VII—IX), as well as of the loop of *ma* (34, VI, VIII) and of the right limb of *cha* (17, VI—IX; compare also col. V).
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(2) The cursive looped forms of *A*, *Ā* (1, 2, VII—IX), and of *I*, *Ī* (3, 4, VI—IX; compare their precursors in 3, II, and 4, III, V), and of *śa* (39, VII—IX), the central cross-bar of which is connected with the curved end of the right side.
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(3) The conversion of the long-drawn loops of *ka* (11, VI—IX) and of *ra* (36, VI—IX) into much smaller circles.
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(4) The cursive rounding off of the angles of *ṇa* (24, VI—IX), *na* (29, VI—IX), and *sa* (41, VI—IX).
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(5) The development of new loops or ringlets to the right of the top of *Ṛ* (7, IX), *ṅa* (15, VIII, IX) and *ja* (18, VI—IX; compare col. V).
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(6) The exclusive employment of the medial *u* turning upwards on the right (see, for instance, *pu*, 30, IX), which in earlier times is restricted to *gu*, *tu*, *bhu* and *śu*, but later appears also in *su* (plate VIII, 41, II, III).
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(7) Finally, the appearance of the Anusvāra on the line (see *raṁ*, 36, VIII), which cannot be a survival from ancient times, but must be an innovation intended to make the lines more equal (compare page 59 above, § 26, A, 5).¹
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¹ Compare for this paragraph B ESIP. 15 ff.