Indian Palaeography c14.s3.6

c14.s3.6

In the other group of the inscriptions the change is more marked. The Allahabad Municipal Museum inscription is absolutely in the Mathura Kshatrapa or pre-Kushāṇa style as regards the head-formation, the application of the medial vowels, and some of the letters such as *ka*, *kha*, *ga*, *gha*, *cha*, *chha*, *ja*, &c. The most remarkable is the older form of the round *da* with its mouth open to the left. But other letters such as *na*, *ma*, *śa*, *bha* and *ha* are also different. The Sarnath inscription of Aśvaghosha and the Pahladpur inscription agree in the use of the older fashion of the medial vowels. They also retain the older type of *a* with its two left strokes bifurcated. The subscript *ya* keeps the tripartite form. In these cases we find the survival of the older style in Eastern India, though showing some influence from the Kushāṇa inscriptions of the eastern region. To this same group belongs the Sahet-Mahet Buddhist stone inscription,¹ in which we find the round-backed *da* and the hooked *ha* of the Kauśāmbī region, but no looped *sa* is seen.²