Indian Palaeography c16.s1.12.1

c16.s1.12.1

A. Pl. XIX. 1 and 2. The earliest examples of Ceylonese writing come from the caves of Vessagiri, Ritigala, Keramba Hina and Naulpata. These cave inscriptions are related to one another not only by their contents but also by the particular kind of the rock surface on which they are inscribed. Morphologically they are reducible into two groups. Inscriptions included under no. 1³ have long verticals as in the earliest inscriptions from India, but cave inscription no. 12 from Vessagiri, which falls under no. 2, has its verticals equalized—a practice which started in North India after the Mathura Kshatrapa inscriptions in the first century A.D.¹ But this practice did not reach Ceylon directly from the north, as is clear from the letters which are akin to southern characters. Hence no. 2 can hardly be dated earlier than the beginning of the second century A.D. Here we find only three medial vowels, *i*, *u* and *e*. Of these the medial *u*, when added to *pu* and *su*, is a downward extension of the right vertical—a later practice. The letter *ka* has its vertical longer than its cross bar. *Ta* has a hook attached to the right of a vertical in the Deccani style. The angularity is well marked in the forms of *pa*, *sa* and *ha*. *Va* has a triangular base. The letter *ma* copies the form of the southern caves. The conjunct *sra* has its *ra* appended at the right bottom of *sa*. There is a certain unity in the inscriptions included under no.