Indian Palaeography c13.s5.t1.1

c13.s5.t1.1

The most puzzling of these scripts is that used in the Bhattiprolu inscriptions (Pl. VII *a*, *b*). Even here we find a difference between the inscription on the crystal and those on the three caskets. They agree in differing from Aśokan Brāhmī in having the curve of *da* open to the right, exactly the reverse of *da* in Aśokan Brāhmī, and in the northern characters of this period; otherwise the crystal script shows all regular forms. In the caskets we have a few new forms: *gha*, *ja* (optional), *bha*, *ma*, *la* and *sha*. One new letter, *ḷa*, is added to spell South Indian names. All other letters are of the regular type except that they show regional variation. In the medial vowels the casket inscriptions have a short bar to express the short vowel *a* compounded with a consonant when it is not followed by *anusvāra*, and for long *ā* a farther downward slant from this bar. This is peculiar to the Bhattiprolu caskets and is not found elsewhere in South India, not even in the crystal inscription. As the casket inscriptions have a style of their own, it seems likely that they were written by one person, and the fact that a Dravidian sound *ḷa* has been introduced suggests that the writer was a local Buddhist. If his peculiar fondness for expressing short *a* by a bar is set aside, it is not difficult to derive the new forms from those known in Northern Brāhmī. Most of them appear to be the reverse of the regular forms. Fig. 7. I–IV shows how the Bhattiprolu forms of *bha*, *ma*, *la* and *sha* are derived from the regular forms. In *ja* we find the middle bar omitted when short *a* is not to be shown, and it appears only with two horizontals attached to either end of a vertical. The only letter which is strangely derived is *gha*, where the second loop is added to the long vertical at the top (Fig. 7. V). The new letter *ḷa* can be derived from *la* (Fig. 7. VI). These changes must be attributed to the man who wrote these inscriptions, as they are found nowhere else. I would regard them as mistakes on his part rather than accept them as a new script.