Indian Palaeography c15.s9.t3.4.1

c15.s9.t3.4.1

The term ‘South India’ has been used here to denote the area south of the Kistna Valley. It is not a homogeneous region. Sufficient materials are not available from its different parts to give a coherent picture of the styles of writing in use between the fourth and eighth centuries A.D. The main inscriptions are those of the Pallavas, which give neither a continuous genealogy nor a connected development of the palaeography. Various historical factors are responsible for this chaotic development in the region. The coming of the Pallavas itself marks a definite change. It appears that they uprooted the Bṛihatphalāyanas in the Guntur region, as the Mayidavolu plates of Śivaskandavarman are in the same style as the Kondamudi plates of Jayavamma, and traces of this style are also seen in the subsequent record found at Hirahadagalli in the Bellary district. But the style of the first record, as I have already remarked in the case of the Kondamudi plates,¹ is a retrogression from the symmetrical writing of the Ikshvākus. The second record recalls the long verticals of the Ikshvāku writing but the hand is still corrupt. However, the connexion of the Pallavas with the Ikshvākus is established by the newly discovered inscription (discussed below) of the Pallava Siṁhavarman, which copies the degenerate style of the Ikshvāku writing. The next in the series, the British Museum plate, is in the same bad hand, but shows new types of medial vowels and also some new forms.