Indian Palaeography c15.s1.45

c15.s1.45

(iii) *Tendency to simplification.* This tendency is seen throughout and writers adopt it whenever they prefer and whatever their writing material. It would be wrong to say that the simplified style was usually adopted in the case of copper plates or manuscripts. The two copper plates of Harshavardhana (Fig. 12) are in two different styles—the Banskhera plate in the ornate style and the Madhuban plate in the simplified style. The Sonpat seal of Harshavardhana (Fleet, no. 52) is in the ornate style, but the Asirgadh seal of the Maukhari Śarvavarman (Fleet, no. 47) is in the simplified style. The two Bodhgaya inscriptions again illustrate this point, which was realized even by Rudolf Hoernle when he wrote that some parts of the Bower MS. are in an ornate style and others are written in a slovenly manner.¹ Here the writing material cannot have been responsible for differences in the style of writing. A tendency to simplification is to be found in the hands of some writers but not of others. Wherever it is traceable, it can be seen to follow the ornate or complicated way of writing, or at least the accepted form already achieved by a particular technical process,