Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s5.t2.1

c8.s5.t2.1

The earliest inscription of the much more advanced forms of the second variety or the middle Grantha, is found on the Kūram copper-plates (plate VII, col. XXIV) of the reign of Parameśvara I., the adversary of the Western Calukya Vikramāditya I. (A. D. 655—680).¹ @H [69] Compared with this document, which appears to offer a real clerk's script, the monumental inscription of the Kailāsanātha temple (plate VII, col. XXIII), built according to Fleet² by Narasiṁha II., the son of Parameśvara I., is retrograde, and shows more archaic forms for several paleographically important letters. On the other hand, the Kaśākūḍi copper-plates (plate VIII, col. XIII), incised in the time of Nandivarman who succeeded Mahendra III., the second son of Narasiṁha II., and warred with the Western Calukya Vikramāditya II. (A. D. 733—749),³ agree more closely with the Kūram plates, and offer, besides some archaic forms, also much more advanced ones.