Indian Palaeography c15.s5.t1.1

c15.s5.t1.1

(i) Pl. XIII. 1 is taken from the Udayagiri cave inscription, dated in the (Gupta) year 106 (A.D. 425). It is a private record. The letters, which show a distinctly triangular head-mark, are boldly engraved, and some of the medial vowels, such as *ā*, *e*, and *o*, show flourishes and produce an effect not dissimilar to the Meh-rauli pillar inscription and the Bilsad inscription of Kumāra Gupta I. But the medial vowels are derived both from the north and the south. The northern features are marked in the top slants for *ā*, *e*, *o*, and *ai*, in the curved hooks for the medials *u* and *ū*, and in the medial *ī* which is turned to the right with an initial prominence. But we also find the horizontal *ā*, and the medial *i* has the circle of the south as well as the left curve of the north. Southern influence can also be seen in the medial *ṛi*, as applied to *nṛi* and *kṛi*, in the form of a round curve to the left ending in a curl. The initial *ā* introduces the new type, the earliest of its kind. It is from this that the later forms of the sixth century A.D. are derived. It consists of two vertical limbs joined by a slanting bar, the right limb having a curved tip, a southern characteristic, and the left limb having a crooked appendage open to the left. This is the beginning of the curved *a*. To this form of *a* a slanting stroke on the right is added in the southern fashion to make a long *ā*. The only other initial vowel used is *u*, the base of which is gently curved upwards in the southern fashion. But the consonants all show northern features. The verticals in *ka* and *ra*, the upper limb of *la*, and the vertical stroke for the medial *u* in *mu* and *yu* do not show any tendency to curvature. The flat tops of *kha*, *ga*, *ṭa*, *dha*, and *śa* again relate them to the north. In the same northern fashion *kha* has its triangular appendage on the inner side of the right limb, the right verticals of *ga*, *ta*, *bha*, and *sa* are longer than the left, and the left verticals of *kha*, *ga*, and *sa* show foot-marks; *cha* is of the beaked type; *ṇa* is of the open-mouthed type; the two limbs of *ta* meet above either at an angle or in a curve; *tha* has a dot within a circle; *da* is round-backed; *dha* has its lower end narrowed; *na* has two varieties—one with a curved base and the other with a looped one but with the ioop filled up; *pa* shows slight curvature; *ba* is rectangular; *bha* is of the angular type; *ma* is of the tailed variety; *ya* is of the tripartite form but the left arm is changed into a loop; *ra* has a trace of the foot-mark; both *la* and *ha* have a firm base with two uprights and a hook; *va* is triangular; *śa* and *sha* have a mid-line; and *sa* has a hook attached to the left limb. In the conjuncts we should note the forms of *ṅghi* and *sthi*. In *ghna* and *stu* the second consonants *na* and *tu* have been constricted, and not the first, as is required by the rules of grammar.