Indian Palaeography c15.s3.t1.1

c15.s3.t1.1

Though the writing style of this region is derived from the Middle Ganges Valley, it has certain characteristic peculiarities. The Kauśāmbī style is seen as early as the Susunia rock inscription of Chandravarman, which is better executed than the Allahabad inscription of Samudra Gupta.⁴ The medial vowel *ā*, applied to the bottom right of *ṇā* in both these inscriptions, survives later only in Bengal, and this practice is further extended to *khā*, *gā*, and *bā*. The twisted slant in the medial vowel *e* and the curled form of the medial *i* appear here from the beginning, suggesting that ornamentation in the medial vowels first appeared in Bengal, and it is not unlikely that this twisting of the medial vowels led subsequently to the bending of the right verticals (i.e. *kuṭila* forms). Another practice already noted in the last chapter is the confusion between *sha* and *sa*, which resulted in the total dropping of the form of *sha* in the fifth-century copper plates of Bengal. Only dental *sa* was used for both. In all subsequent records in Bengal *ksha* is formed by combining *ka* with *sa*. Another confusion arose between *ba* and *va*, both of which are even today pronounced as *ba* in Bengal. This led to the dropping of the form of *ba* from the close of the sixth century onwards. It is probably from this source that similar confusion in these letters spread in the other regions. From the palaeographical point of view it is important to note that the style of Bengal does not have the foot-mark, though influence from the Middle Ganges Valley is clearly seen in the thick heads at the left limb of *ra*, *kha*, *ga*, and *śa*. The letters *bha* and *sa* do not have the solid triangular foot-mark at all. They show directly the open-mouthed triangle at this point, as is seen in *kha* of the Pāla period. The palaeography of this region falls into six chronological groups: