Indian Palaeography c13.s5.t1.9

c13.s5.t1.9

When we leave Amaravati and turn to the cave inscriptions, we find further confirmation of this theory of the time-lag. These inscriptions are divisible into three groups: (1) those found in Madura and Tinnevelli districts, (2) that found at Sittanavasal in the former Puddukottai State (Pl. VII), and (3) that found at Guntapalli (not illustrated here). The last is a very late record, as it shows deliberate head-formation and also slight curvature of the lower verticals which, as will be shown in the next chapter, are features which did not develop before the second century a.d. The inscription from Sittanavasal is unique in South India in that it copies certain northern letters which are not known even in Amaravati. The most remarkable is the form of *la*, which occurs in the Śaka Kshatrapa records of Mathura. The forms of *na*, *pa*, and *ya* are also remarkable. Hence this inscription cannot be dated earlier than the first half of the first century a.d. But the form of *i*, with a dot on either side of a vertical, occurring in this inscription is not seen at this time outside South India. This sign is used for long *ī* in North and West India in the next and subsequent periods. Could this form have been introduced from the south into the north? The development of this new form from the three dots of the short *i* is possible in South India, as it is used here both for short and long *ī*.