Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8.s3.t1.8

c8.s3.t1.8

Documents of this kind are usually on three or more plates, the outer sides of the first and last being left blank; the object of this practice is evidently to preserve the writing from injury. The later grants are generally on a larger number of plates than the earlier, and of much heavier substance, owing (it seems) to the practice of cutting the letters much deeper than was done in earlier times. The earliest documents, being simple in style, could be written on three or four small plates with ease; by the 11th century, the forms had become so prolix that eight or nine large plates were necessary. By the end of the 17th century the forms used are much shorter, but the plates used are generally heavy and thick, and in shape like those used by the Vijayanagara dynasty. Some grants of the 17th century are on heavy plates of copper about a quarter of an inch thick, and evidently intended to represent stelæ³. Private documents of the 16th and 17th centuries are on plates much less carefully fashioned, and generally consist of a single square leaf, with a sort of handle on the left side.