Indian Palaeography c15.s9.t3.4.2

c15.s9.t3.4.2

Then there is a break. We have only a fragmentary record, the Darsi plate, to fill this gap. Here the writing has faint traces of thick head-marks and the letters are well formed. This tendency is very clear in the first Omgodu grant¹ of Vijaya Skandavarman, but the published lithograph of the plate is so bad that no certain details can be derived from it. Then we come to the inscriptions of Siṁhavarman. We can clearly distinguish three styles in them: (i) the writing seen in the Magdur and Pikira grants, which has thick head-marks and the lower verticals of which have long curves; (ii) the style seen in the Uruvupalli and Vilavati plates, which has hollow or solid square head-marks and shows a preference for angularity, especially noticeable in the lower curves of the verticals; and (iii) the altogether different script of the second Omgodu grant, which is in the proto-Kannadi writing of the seventh to eighth century a.d. The first two styles are easily derivable from the square-headed letters of the Madharas of Guntur region, which have been assigned to the late fourth and early fifth century a.d.² Later still we find two styles persisting in the Pallava records. (iii) is seen in the Chura (sometimes called Narasaraopet) plate of Vijaya Vishṇugopavarman and in the Udayandiram plates of Nandivarman.