Indian Palaeography c15.s6.5

c15.s6.5

Pl. XVI. 8 is taken from the Pardi plates of Dahrasena, dated in the (Kalachuri) year 207 (A.D. 457), and the Surat plates of Vyāghrasena, dated in the (Kalachuri) year 241 (A.D. 490). These inscriptions not only preserve the southern characteristics, as seen in *(a)* above, but they also show some further southern features. The most remarkable of these is the adoption of the southern type of the initial *i*, which here has a double roof. A new type of the medial *au* appears in *pau*, in which the two top strokes join together in a curve on the right. This will be henceforward called the curved type of the medial *au*. Other medial vowels are of the same type as in *(a)* above. But the medial *ā* as in *lā* and the medial *e* as in *ne* are sometimes applied to the middle of the letters. This tendency is certainly derived from the practice in the Girnar version of the Aśokan edicts, where in *mā* and *me* the medial vowels are given in the middle. The medial *u* in *gu*, *nu*, *bhu* and *śu* curves upwards—a tendency common in the southern inscriptions. The initial vowels other than *i* are of the same type as in (*a*) above. Of the consonants the looped base of *kha* is almost triangular; both *ḍa* and *da* show the angular back of the south; *ta* has an angular hook attached to the right vertical as in the proto-Nāgarī *ta*; *tha* is a rough oval with a small circle within; *dha* is of the broad type; the left arms of *pa* and *sha* are bent; *ba* is rectangular; *bha* is of the broad type; *ma* has the loop with two top prongs; the right vertical of *la* curves at the top; and *ya* is of the tripartite form with its left vertical dropped, but sometimes we find a loop in place of the latter. In the conjunct *yya* the first letter is tripartite and the second is hooked.