Indian Palaeography c12.s2.10

c12.s2.10

There is at least fifteen to twenty years' difference between the writings of the earliest and the latest records, but no gradual improvement in the engraving of the letters is to be noticed, except that the pillar inscriptions are better written than the rock inscriptions. Hence the letters cannot be arranged on the basis of chronology. It would again be wrong to separate rock inscriptions from pillar inscriptions, as there is no difference in the actual method of writing. The regional groupings—northern and southern (according to the theory of Bühler and, following him, others), eastern and western—do not work out, as exactly the same methods are traceable in different regions. The various inscriptions show individual characteristics, and I have found them hard to reduce to any one or two systems. Even on one particular rock different hands are traceable. As a result it was considered desirable to copy in separate rows as many hands as possible. These rows of alphabets have then been classified in two plates (III *a*, *b*) showing letters from the pillar and minor pillar inscriptions and the Kalasi R.E., all of which come from north of the Vindhyas. The pillar inscriptions are on a prepared surface, but they hardly differ in style of writing from the rock edicts, which are on a natural rock surface. Pl. IV *a*, *b* depicts the writing from the remaining rock edicts and minor rock inscriptions, all of which come from south of the Vindhyas. The plates also include the Bairat slab, the Gujarra and Sasaram M.R.I., and the Barabar cave inscriptions. Except for the last these inscriptions are engraved on natural rock surfaces. The few North Indian inscriptions are given here for the sake of comparison with the inscriptions of the south. But, as the plates show, there is hardly any recognizable basis on which to differentiate between northern and southern styles.