Indian Palaeography c13.4

c13.4

The shape of the Aśokan letters has usually been taken to be the basis for dating the inscriptions all over the subcontinent. While we hear of the Mauryan inscription from Mahasthan in the Bogra district, East Pakistan, we are also told, from purely palaeographical criteria, that the cave inscriptions from the south belong to the same period. In the determination of the age of an inscription the ratio of the length of the verticals to the breadth of the letters has been used most carelessly, without properly understanding its significance. Further important evidence given both by Bühler and Ojha is from the mistaken reading of the Maurya era in the Hathigumpha inscription, and accordingly it has been dated 'between B.C. 157 and 147'. Various synchronisms have been established on this false statement. Again Ojha alone speaks of the Mahāvīra era on the basis of the Barli inscription and dates it to the 84th year of this era. Dr. Jayaswal's correction makes no improvement, while the new reading given by Dr. D. C. Sircar is still hypothetical, though somehow he reaches the correct conclusion that the inscription should be dated to the first century B.C. His argument is not based on palaeography but on his supposed identification of Bhagavata mentioned in this inscription with King Bhāgavata in the Bhilsa record. Lastly palaeographers have used the word 'serif' very loosely without properly defining it, and have built up their chronological schemes on faintly recognizing it in some inscriptions.