Indian Palaeography c15.s7: C VI. Deccan
Indian Palaeography c15.s7
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Contents
- c15.s7.9 — 4 parts
- c15.s7.t1 (e) Inscriptions of the Kings of Śarabhapura — 12 parts
C VI. Deccan
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Deccan is the Persianized form of the Sanskrit word *dakshiṇa*, meaning south. The Muslim historians applied this term to those areas which lay immediately south of the central belt of the mountainous and forested regions in India, and this special sense of the term is preserved to this day. As it is commonly understood, it excludes Gujarat and Kathiawad in the west, the Tamil and Kannadi areas in the south, and Orissa in the east. The upper central region of the Indian peninsula is, *par excellence*, the historical Deccan, and here I have used the term in this sense. It was really the middle country between the north and the south. Traditions from both directions reached this region and were absorbed. Eastern Malwa was the passage through which northern ideas passed into this region, spread down the Godavari and the Kistna rivers from west to east, and finally trickled into the extreme south. The opposite current from the south to the north flowed in exactly the reverse direction. The intermediary character of this zone is clearly marked in the writing styles that developed here. The northern and southern traditions have equal weight, varying only with the force that keeps them alive. Sometimes there is a happy mixture of the two traditions leading to new forms. It is this last characteristic in the writing style with which we are concerned in this section. I have called it the Deccani style. It appears for the first time in Eastern Malwa, where southern influence had penetrated long before with the Sātavāhana advance into the north. In the fourth century A.D. this writing received a new character by the addition of a square head-mark at the top left of the verticals. This mark, which gave rise to the old term 'box-headed character', is natural neither to pen nor to stylus. Bühler is obviously wrong when he says that the solid squares were due to the pen style and the hollow ones to the stylus. It has been shown in the last chapter¹ that this head-mark is a development from the new pen style of writing that is seen from the first century A.D. onwards in the north. These peculiar heads are no doubt stylized forms of the original head-marks. This is indicated by two factors: (i) the varying shapes of the marks, as seen in the different groups of the inscriptions, depending on a particular form chosen in one region, and (ii) their superfluous nature, having no essential connexion with the actual form of the letters. This is especially true in the inscriptions of the extreme south where the head-mark was hardly understood. As a result no one style of letter-forms could develop in the Deccan inseparably associated with this square head-mark. It remained an ornament to be worn by the different characters first in Malwa and the Deccan and subsequently in the neighbouring south. But no sooner did the characters evolve new forms than the fashion had to be set aside. This Deccani characteristic had a short life and died a natural death without leaving any trace behind.
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¹ See above, p. 80.
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Several minor varieties can be distinguished on the basis of how this head-mark was attached to the different characters and the influence, if any, exerted by it on the letter forms.
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(*a*) The Malwa variety of the fourth century A.D. is represented by Pl. XV. 1, taken from the Eran pillar inscription of Samudra Gupta and the Udayagiri cave inscription of Chandra Gupta II, the latter dated in the (Gupta) year 82. This variety has been described in the last chapter.¹ Here it only needs to be pointed out that the forms of all the letters are southern, including also the medial vowels, as is definitely proved by the form of the medial *ṛi* in *nṛi*, and the medial *ā* attached to the middle of *mā*. In these inscriptions the head-mark is distinctly given at the top left end of the verticals. If there are two or three verticals in a letter, such as *a*, *gha*, *pa*, *ma*, *ya*, *sha* and *sa*, the square mark is applied to the left one. This mark is also given over the round tops of *tha* and *śa*, but not over *ga*, *ṇa* and *la*. It is seen on the flat top of *dha*, but not over *ṅa*, *ja* and *ṭa*. This head-mark is given separately, and does not appear to have had any other influence on the actual forms of the letters.
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¹ See above, p. 103.
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(*b*) Pl. XV. 2 is taken from the Bilsad stone inscription of Kumāra Gupta, dated in the (Gupta) year 96. The inscription is well executed on the stone, and the writing shows the influence of the broad pen style for the first time. The display of the thick and thin strokes, the foot-marks, and the prominent top slants of the medial vowels all speak of a new tendency in writing, seen in North India in the fifth century A.D. This style also affected the head-mark, which is no longer a small square at the top left of the verticals. Here it assumes the form of a solid rectangle with its lower side concave. The verticals hang down from its middle. Both the head-marks and the style of the letters are inseparably related. Unfortunately this style is not known from any other record. The medial vowels are all of the Kushāṇa style, though slightly developed, with the exception of one optional form of the medial *i* which has a curl at the top. No initial vowels are known from this inscription. Angularity is well marked in the consonants, which are all in the Kauśāmbī style except *ra*, which has the curved tip, the dental *sa*, which shows a hook on the left, *ya* which has dropped its third left arm, and *ha* which maintains its base, two verticals, and a hook. The head-mark is seen over the tops of all the letters except *ba*, and optionally in the case of *ga* and *dha*.
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(c) The Malwa variety of the fifth century A.D. is represented by Pl. XV. 3, taken from the Mandasor inscription of Naravarman, dated in the Mālava (Vikrama) year 461, and from the Tumain inscription of Ghaṭotkacha Gupta, dated in the (Gupta) year 116. These inscriptions show a further development of the style known in the fourth century A.D. in this region. The letter-forms preserve the southern character and they are indistinguishable from those described in B IV (a) (ii),¹ except for the head-marks, which are different in the two groups. The forms of the medial vowels are also identical. The initial vowels emphasize their southern character by having the form of *a* with a hook at the left limb, the root-type of *i*, and the form of *e* with a stem. *Ta* is optionally of the Gujarat form with a vertical on the right and an angular hook on the left—a form which later persisted in the proto-Nāgarī of the Rāshtrakūṭas. The square head-mark is small in size. It is regularly given in the Tumain inscription, but in the Mandasor inscription it is transformed into a thick horizontal in many cases. It is found over all the letters except *i*, *kha*, *ja*, *ṇa*, *tha*, *ba* and *śa*. After the fifth century the square head-mark is no longer seen in this region.
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¹ See above, p. 157.
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(d) *Vākāṭaka inscriptions*. The Vākāṭakas were mainly responsible for developing this Deccani style of writing. All their inscriptions are written in this style, except the Poona copper plate which has hollow triangular head-marks.² Wherever their rule extended, this style spread, and it is found in their inscriptions as far south as Ajanta. Wherever the influence of the Vākāṭakas reached, their writing had its effect on that of later dynasties. We notice its influence in the inscriptions of the Gurjaras of Broach,³ those of the Western Chālukyas, of the Kadambas, of the Pallavas, of the Madharas, and of the Gaṅgas of Kaliṅga. Within their own kingdom the style had different varieties. (i) The earliest variety is seen in the stone inscription of Vindhyaśakti at Nachne ki Talai (Fleet, nos. 53–54). It has hollow square head-marks, but the letter-forms are not yet affected by angular features. Morphologically the inscription appears to be earlier than the Eran pillar inscription of Samudra Gupta. (ii) The hollow square heads lead on to the hollow triangle, and we have the Poona copper plate of Prabhāvatī Guptā in this type. This inscription and others similar have already been described. (iii) The next variety is of the solid square type. It is illustrated in Pl. XV. 4, taken mainly from the Chakmak copper plate of Pravarasena II. It is this particularly solid square type that is copied in the inscriptions of the neighbouring kings.
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The solid square may be a regional variety of the solid triangle so much in fashion in the inscriptions of North India. But the idea that this is a regional variation should not be unduly stressed. The letter-forms of the Vākāṭaka inscriptions are entirely different from those of the north. In them we see a development of the style of writing known in the late Sātavāhana records. The hand shows a mixed tendency to both angular and round shapes. The angular shapes are marked in the forms of *a*, *ka*, *kha* (optionally), *ga*, *gha*, *ṭa*, *ḍa*, *ta*, *da*, *dha*, *pa*, *ba*, *ya*, *ra*, *la* (optionally), *va*, *sa* and *ha*. The remainder prefer round shapes. The verticals of *a*, *i*, *ka*, *ra* and the vertical-type of the medial *u* curve their lower ends, while *la* has its right vertical curled to the left. *A* maintains its hook on the left. *I* is of the roof-type. *Ī* has a dot on either side of the vertical. The lower end of the vertical of *u* bends in a broad curve to the right. *E* has a quadrangular body attached to a stem on the right. The medial vowels are all given in the southern style, though sometimes, as in *ai* and *o*, the top slants are also seen. Both medial *i* and *ī* curve to the left, but the latter has an additional upright. The medial *ā* in *mā* and *lā* and the medial *e* in *me* are applied to the middle of the letters, but the medial *e* in *khe* is a top left slant.
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The medial *u* covers its lower end to the left, but in *tu* it is curved to the right. The medial *ū*, as in *sū*, has an additional stroke to that of *u*. In the case of *ru* the stroke is a mere slant on the right. The medial *ṛi* is a broad curve to the left. The medial *au* is of the curved type of the south. *Ka* has a cross-bar. In *kha* the loop at the lower end of the hook is seen very faintly. *Ga* has equal arms. The left arm of *gha* is bent, but the base is straight. *Cha* is of the broad type, and *chha* has its left loop bigger than its right one. *Ja* clearly has the two curves with a common central arm. *Ṭa*, *ḍa* and *da* have all angular backs. *Na* and *ṇa* are both looped. *Ta* has an angular hook attached to the right vertical. *Tha* has a curved stroke within an oval. *Dha* is rectangular. *Pa*, *sha* and *ha* have angular bends at the left arms. *Ba* is square. *Bha* is of the broad type. *Ma* has its lower loop tilted to the left. *Ya* is of the tripartite form with its left arm short and slightly curved inwards. *Va* is a rectangular loop attached to the right vertical. *Śa* has equal arms with a mid-line, and *sa* has a hook on the left. *Ha* extends its right hook downwards. The subscript *ya* is of the hooked type. The *upadhmānīya* takes the form of a Roman ‘x’ within a square. On the whole the writing shows more similarity to the southern characters than to the northern.
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Only a very few forms, such as *i* with a curved roof, *e* with a quadrangular loop, *kha* with an insignificant looped base, *ta* with an angular hook on the left, *ma* with its loop tilted to the left, and *va* with a quadrangular loop, are distinctive of this region. But most important is the fact that the solid square head-marks have decidedly influenced the angular forms of the letters. Thus in a sense the square of the head-mark leads to the creation of angular forms.
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² See above, p. 162.
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³ See Sankheda plates of Dadda, dated in the (Kalachuri) year 392 (A.D. 641), *Epigraphia Indica*, vi. 39–40.
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(iv) The last variety is of the hollow square head-marks (Pl. XV. 5). The large majority of the Vākāṭaka inscriptions are of this variety. These fall into two sub-varieties: those still retaining the round curves of the southern characters, and those which have strictly angular forms. In this period they are defined chronologically, but generally later inscriptions tend towards greater angularity. In the next group we shall see that the angular sub-variety alone survives in this region. In the shapes of the letters, except for the emphasis on angularity, there is no fundamental difference from what we have seen in (iii) above. The medial vowels are also of the same type. But we must note that the roof of the medial *i* is also angular here, the base of *kha* has a small rectangular loop, *ja* has the hollow square head-mark but shortens the upper angular curve, *ṇa* extends the vertical downwards and has a loop on the left, *dha* is almost trapezoidal, an angular bend is seen in the left arm of *ba*, and the loop of *ma* is rectangular and tilted to the left.
(e) Inscriptions of the Kings of Śarabhapura
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These inscriptions have been found in the upper valley of the Mahanadi river, which flows through the jungles of Chhattisgarh and falls into the Bay of Bengal in Orissa. The only well-known historical place in this area is Śrīpura, and it is not unlikely that its older name was Śarabhapura. This region produced two different styles of writing: (i) the one seen in the Arang plates of Bhīmasena II, already described,¹ which shows influence from the north received through the Uchchhakalpas and the Parivrājakas, and (ii) that seen in the Arang plates of Mahā Jayarāja and the Raipur plate of Mahā Sudevarāja (Pl. XV. 6). These inscriptions carry further the angular sub-variety of the hollow square head-mark type of the Vākāṭaka inscriptions; (iii) still later a local angular style developed, as is seen in the Pipardula copper plate of Narendra (Pl. XV. 7), which, properly speaking, is a development from the solid square head-mark type. In this inscription the head-mark is a long solid rectangle, placed on the top left of the verticals. This type may have been borrowed from the Gaṅgas of Kaliṅga. Between (ii) and (iii) the head-marks are the only distinction. In other respects they exhibit similar features. But there is a definite change in these inscriptions from those of the Vākāṭakas. Firstly, they copy only the later sub-variety of the Vākāṭaka inscriptions, which exhibit a special preference for angularity, and further they are distinguished by their greater stress on the verticality of the letter forms. Secondly, even if these long verticals remain unnoticed, no one can mistake the new influences as seen in the medial vowels and also the forms of some letters—influences which are traceable only to the Gurjara inscriptions of the sixth century A.D. Therefore the date of these inscriptions must lie towards the close of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century A.D. A still later survival of the hollow square type is seen in the Rajim plate of Tīvaradeva, which has been rightly dated by Fleet in the eighth century A.D. (Fleet, no. 81). The new change in the medial vowels is seen in the use of the circle type of the medial *i* and *ī*, which, though known in the inscriptions of Malwa and Gujarat in the fifth century A.D., was not used in this region in the Vākāṭaka records. The Śarabhapura inscriptions must have derived this feature from the Gurjaras, whose influence probably reached this region after the fall of the Vākāṭakas. That the influence is from the Gurjaras, and not from the Chālukyas, is proved by the use of at least three letters: *kha* with its larger rectangular looped base, *ta* with its angular hook reduced to a mere line attached to the right vertical, which is slightly curved, and *la* with its upper curve extended downwards. Other minor influences may be traced in the form of *tha* having a loop within a rough oval, the preference for the looped *na* and *ṇa*, the use of the Deccani *ḷa* (not found in the earlier inscriptions of this region), and a new type of the conjunct *jña*, in which *ña* has a loop on the left. It should not be confused with *ṇa*. We may also note the form of the *jihvāmūlīya*, which resembles that of *ma*, and the form of the initial *au*, which has a curved base in the ‘z’-form with an additional top curve to the right.
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¹ See above, p. 163.
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(*f*) So far we have been dealing with the square headed Deccani style within the home country of the Vākāṭakas and their successors in the jungles of Chhattīsgarh. Outside this region the Deccani style influenced the writing in the inscriptions of the Gurjaras, the Chālukyas, the Kadambas, the Madharas, the Pallavas, and the Gaṅgas. Unlike the Vākāṭaka inscriptional writing, here we have only solid squares, except in the Pallava records which have a mixture of solid and hollow squares side by side with thick head-lines. Secondly these inscriptions do not show any preference for angularity, which is marked in the later inscriptions of the Vākāṭakas. Hence it is legitimate to infer that this influence reached here quite early. The late fourth or the early fifth century a.d. is the most probable time when such a borrowing could have taken place. This is the first stage of influence. In the second stage we find a borrowing from one dynasty to the other, and in the third place we see a development of the style. Thus these inscriptions fall into three categories: (i) those which show influence directly from the Vākāṭakas, such as the inscriptions of the Kadambas and the Madharas, which may be dated in the late fourth or early fifth century a.d.; (ii) those which borrowed from (i), such as the Kudgere plates of Māndhātṛivarman,¹ the Jirjingi plates of the Gaṅga Indravarman, dated in the (Gaṅga) year 39 (a.d. 535–8), the even later Saṅkheḍa plates of the Gurjara Dadda, dated in the (Kalachuri) year 392 (a.d. 641),² the Yekkeri plates of the time of Pulekeśin II, and the inscriptions of the Pallava Siṁhavarman; (iii) those which show a development of a new style, such as the later inscriptions of the Gaṅgas, dated between the (Gaṅga) years 79 and 183.¹
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¹ *Epigraphia Indica*, vi. 14.
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² Ibid., pp. 39–40.
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¹ The Gaṅga era starts somewhere between A.D. 496 and 499.
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(i) Pl. XV. 8 is taken from the Talgunda pillar inscription of Śāntivarman and the copper plates of Mṛigeśvaravarman. Pl. XV. 10 is derived from the Uruvupalli and Vilavati plates of Siṁhavarman, the Pallava ruler, which will be described in the next section. Pl. XV. 11 is taken from the plates of Śaktivarman, Umaravarman, and Chandravarman. Of these the Talgunda inscription, being on a stone pillar, shows a high quality of engraving and the letters are clearly brought out, with emphasis on angularity. The head-mark is a mere fashion, and has not at all affected the local forms of the letters. This fact is a great distinguishing feature between the inscriptions of these dynasties and those of the Vākāṭakas. The writing differs from dynasty to dynasty. We also find in these inscriptions the influence of the stylus, clearly recognized in the notches and the rounded features in *i*, *e*, *kha*, *cha*, *ja*, *ḍa*, *tha*, *dha*, *pa*, *pha*, *ba*, *bha*, *ma*, *la*, *va*, *sha* and *ha*. The medial vowels and the general forms are of the local styles known from other contemporary inscriptions. These will be discussed subsequently, when the general character of all the inscriptions will be taken up.²
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² See below, p. 182.
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(ii) Pl. XV. 9 is taken from the Yekkeri rock inscription of the time of Pulekeśin II. In this as well as other inscriptions of this type the head-mark is again a small square, which does not affect the writing in any way. What is important is to decide the particular dynasty from whose record the style is borrowed. The Yekkeri style is obviously not in the local style of the Chālukyas, as the forms of *a*, *kha*, *ṇa*, *ba*, *ya* and *va* show. In fact in this inscription an attempt has been made to discard the influence of the stylus script. Relying on the forms of the letters, we can find their analogues in the inscriptions of the Gurjaras of Broach. It is from that source that the short curved hook of the letter *a*, the broad loop of *kha*, the looped *ṇa*, and the straight-sided *ba*, *ya* and *va* were derived. The medial vowels adopt the local style.
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(iii) Pl. XV. 12 is taken from the Gaṅga inscriptions of Hastivarman, Indravarman II, Indravarman III, and Devendravarman; dated between the (Gaṅga) years 79 and 183 (A.D. 574 and 680). The square head-mark shows another development in these inscriptions. Here we notice the solid square growing into a broad rectangle, and this mark is placed centrally over the verticals, as in *ka* and *ra*, and over both the verticals in letters like *a* and *ma*. The practice of giving head-marks to both the verticals is inherited from the Madhara records. But there is no doubt that the change of the square head-marks into broad rectangles is a distinctive feature of the later Gaṅga records. It is most probably from this type that the Pipardula plate of the Śarabhapura king derived its style, because in that region the solid square type had long been given up. In this Gaṅga style the influence of the stylus is clearly marked. The letter forms are in the Andhra style, not influenced by that of the Eastern Chālukyas or even by that of the Pallavas. In fact a northern influence is traceable in the open-mouthed type of *ṇa*, *ta* with an angular hook, and *na* with a head on the left. The distinctive letters are *a*, *ka* and *ra*, all of which have a short curve at the lower ends of the vertical, *kha* with a broad looped base, and *la* with a short upper curve. The medial vowels are all in the local style.
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In its latest phase the Deccani style developed two distinctive varieties—the first having the hollow square head-mark with angular forms, in Chhattīsgarh, and the second the broad solid rectangular head-mark with rounded forms, in Andhra. Both of these varieties survived, as far as we know, only up to the eighth century A.D. The only other region where this style had any effect is the Pallava kingdom, where a new style with angular features appeared.¹
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¹ See below, p. 201.