Indian Palaeography c14.s3.5

c14.s3.5

Two different styles were employed in the inscriptions of the eastern region. The first is illustrated in its early stages by the Kanishka inscriptions from Kosam, Sahet-Mahet and Sarnath, and in its later ornamental development by the Sarnath inscription of Aśvaghosha, dated in the year 40 (Pl. VIII. 10), the Allahabad Municipal Museum inscription of the year 23, and the Pahladpur inscription. This style is occasionally met with in the seal inscriptions at Bhita, Basarh, and Sahet-Mahet as late as the fifth century A.D., and it persists longer in the Gupta coinage as an optional style. In this eastern style the line head-mark does not appear at all, but the verticals faintly recall the tapering style of the Mathura Kshatrapas. In the Kanishka group of inscriptions the medial vowel signs follow the Mathura style, but there are other differences. The distinctive letters are *a*, *da*, *bha*, *ya* and *ra*. The older *a*, with its two slanting strokes on the left meeting the vertical at the same point, persists here side by side with the curved variety of the Kushāṇa *a*. Similarly, the angular *da* of the Mathura Kshatrapa type is used along with the round-backed *da*. *Bha* is of the notched type. *Ya* never has the loop at the left arm, nor does it develop into a hooked form in combination with other letters. The lower tip of *ra* is always bent.