Indian Palaeography c15.s3.t1.5

c15.s3.t1.5

(ii) Pl. XI. 2 represents the writing in the copper plates of the time of Kumāra Gupta I and Budha Gupta, dated between the (Gupta) years 113 (A.D. 432) and 163 (A.D. 482). The change of the writing material makes for the stylistic difference from (i) above. The Susunia rock style shows firm angular lines but the style as known from these copper plates may be termed ‘fugitive’, implying three things: (i) looseness in drawing the lines on the part of the writer; (ii) a tendency to curve the angles, as in *pa* and *ma*, and (iii) a preference for extremely cursive forms, as in *la* and *ha*. As a result of the first feature the head-mark becomes a mere line. No attempt is made to give the letters their full forms. This defect is obviously due to the metal worker who incised the inscriptions on the plates rather than to the scribe himself. As far as it is possible to get at the latter’s hand, there does not seem to have been any deliberate attempt to deform the letters.