Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s5.t1: A. — The archaic variety
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s5.t1
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A. — The archaic variety
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For the history of the Sanskrit alphabets in the Tamil districts during the period after A. D. 350, we have only the Sanskrit inscriptions of the Pallavas, Colas and Pāṇḍyas from the eastern coast, among which only those of the first-named dynasty can lay claim to a higher antiquity. Corresponding inscriptions from the western coast are hitherto wanting. For this reason, and because only a small number of the eastern documents have been published with good facsimiles, it is as yet impossible to give a complete view of the gradual development of the letters.
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The most archaic forms of the Sanskrit scripts of the Tamil districts, which usually are classed as "Grantha," are found on the copper-plates of the Pallava kings of Palakkada and (? or) Daśanapura² (plate VII, cols. XX, XXI) from the 5th or the 6th century (?), with which the ancient inscriptions, Nos. 1 to 16, of the Dharmarājaratha (plate VII, col. XXII)³ closely agree. These inscriptions, together with a few others,⁴ exhibit what may be called the archaic Grantha, the latest example of which occurs in the Bādāmi inscription, incised, according to FLEET'S newest researches,⁵ by the Pallava Narasiṁha I., during his expedition against the Calukya Pulakeśin II. (A. D. 609 and about 642) in the second quarter of the 7th century; and it seems to have gone out soon after, as the Kūram plates of Narasiṁha's son Parameśvara I. show letters of a much more advanced type. It is met with also in the stone inscription from Jambu in Java; see IA. 4, 356.
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² IA. 5, 50, 154; compare B.ESIP. 36, note 2.
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³ I owe the facsimi es of this inscription and of those used for pl. VII, col. XXIV, and pl. VIII, col. XIII, to HULTZSCH'S kindness; see now his SII. 2, part 3.
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⁴ IA. 9, 100, No. 82, 102, No. 85; 13, 48; EI. 1, 397.
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⁵ Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, Bombay Gazetteer, vol. 1, part 2, p. 328.
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The characters of the archaic Grantha in general agree with those of the archaic Kanarese-Telugu (see above, § 29, A), but shew a few peculiarities which remain constant in the later varieties: thus: —
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(1) The *tha*, the central dot of which is converted into a loop, attached to the right side (plate VII, 23, XXI); compare the *tha* of col. XX, where the straight stroke of the Kanarese-Telugu script appears.
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(2) The *śa* with the cross-bar converted into a curve or loop and attached to the right side (plate VII, 36, XX—XXII, 45, XXII); compare also the cursive *śa* of the western script, mentioned above, § 28, A, 7.
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(3) The *ṣa* with the cross-bar treated similarly (plate VII, 37, XX); compare the *ṣa* of col. XXI, which shows the older form.
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The characters of plate VII, cols. XX, XXI, show no closer connection with those of the Prākrit inscriptions of the Pallavas, discussed above in § 20, D.