Indian Palaeography c13.8

c13.8

In order to verify the actual working of this new approach the inscriptions have been classified by regions. Four main regions stand out clearly: (1) Eastern India with the old centre in Magadha, and the new foci—one, south of the Ganges at Kauśāmbī, the influence of which went south-west to Bharhut and eastwards to Bodhgaya as far down as Hathigumpha in Orissa, and the other, north of the Ganges at Ayodhya. (2) North-west India with its centres at Taxila, Mathura, and a number of places in the Malwa plateau on the route leading from the north to the Deccan. (3) North-west Deccan, which is a continuation of the culture from the Malwa plateau. (4) South India, with which has been included Eastern Deccan. Amaravati and its neighbourhood saw a farther southward progress of the culture from Western Deccan, and from this centre writing trickled into the barbarous hill-caves of the extreme south. Sanskrit or Prākrit speakers from the north, as is shown from the Sanskrit legend on a potsherd from Arikamedu,¹ brought northern technical advancement into the slow-moving backward region of the south. For each of these regions a different standard was to be established according as the new technique of writing was variously practised.