Indian Palaeography c16.s1.11

c16.s1.11

This remark of Dr. Sircar is hardly justified, as there is no evidence of a pre-Aśokan Brāhmī in Ceylon, nor of ‘an earlier script of the South’. These inscriptions cannot be taken as survivals of an earlier practice in the absence of any definite early specimen. The present inscription shows a crude version of the writing that prevailed in Ceylon in the first to second century A.D. Here some of the letters, such as the second *da*, *śa*, *ta*, are reversed, while the others, such as the first *da*, *le* and *ṇā* are written in the right way. The letter *da* recalls the forms seen in Pl. XIX. 4 and 5, while *la* has its upper end curved to the left. This reverse order of the letters is best taken as a mistake on the part of the engraver.