Indian Palaeography c15.s9.t1.1

c15.s9.t1.1

Pl. XVII. 1 is taken from the Kondamudi grant of Jayavarmma, which is the only record of this dynasty published so far. A newly discovered inscription¹ gives the name of another king Śrīvarman. The writing in the Kondamudi grant is very corrupt and some of the letters have not been properly formed. No head-mark is seen here. The medial *ā*, *e* and *o* are horizontal lines with short ticks at either end. But *e* in *be*, *ā* in *dhā*, and *o* in *mo* are applied to the middle of the letters. The medial *i* is a short curve to the left, and the medial *u* is a short stroke as in *yu* and *tu*. Śātavāhana influence is noticeable in the curves of the verticals in *a*, *i*, *ka*, *ra*, *la*, and the vertical type of the medial *u*. Again, some of the Śātavāhana forms are preserved, e.g. *i* with a vertical and a dot on either side, as is also seen in the earlier cave inscriptions of the south;² *kha* with the lower end of its vertical bent towards the left; the round-backed *ḍa* and *da*; the Deccani type of *ta* as used in the Śātavāhana inscriptions; and the round-bottomed *pa*, *ya* and *gha*. The most crudely drawn forms are *a* with its right vertical drawn separately from the main left-curved body, and having a hook hanging downwards; *e* with the left arm of the triangle missing; *ka* with its middle bar in *ke* slanting downwards to the left; *cha* being of the beak-form with its upper end open; *ja* having the upper two arms drawn together in a curve; *ma* having its top two strokes drawn in a curve and a lower loop detached from the upper curve, but formed with the same sweep of the hand—a type also seen in the Bhattiprolu inscriptions; *la* with its left-hooked part drawn in a curve; *sa* having its left hook separate from the body; and *ha* optionally dropping the right vertical and attaching the hook to the base line. These crude forms are also noticeable in the conjuncts *nhu* and *mha*. The forms of *ṇa* and *na* are exactly the same and resemble that of the round-backed *da*. The corners of *o* are rounded; *chha* has hardly any stem and its left loop is triangular; *ḍa* and *da* are round-backed; *tha* is also drawn with one sweep like an oval similar to the form of *dha*; *ba* is a rough quadrangle with its upper arm broken; *bha* is of the broad type; and *va* has a loop attached to a short vertical. The corrupt forms of most of the letters suggest that the highly sophisticated style of the Ikshvākus was hardly known to the writer of these plates.