Indian Palaeography c17.s2.6

c17.s2.6

(ii) From the close of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century A.D. onwards writing spread to most of the regions of South-east Asia. The style which became current at this time bears the closest resemblance to the writings known from the records of the Madharas, Vishṇukuṇḍins, and Pallavas. The earliest examples known are from the *yūpa* inscriptions of Mūlavarman from Borneo, which, though showing ornamental developments and new types of medial vowels, are related to the style of writing known from the Bhadravarman's inscriptions in Indo-China. This relation is established by the simplicity of the long verticals, which generally do not have curved ends. On the other hand, the new developments link the script with the ornamental style of writing seen in almost all the inscriptions of the sixth century A.D. The best-known examples in this style are the inscriptions of Pūrṇavarman from Java, the records of the kings from Fou-nan, the Srideb inscription from Siam, and the inscription of the *Mahānāvika* Buddhagupta from Malaya. These inscriptions borrow not only the Pallava medial vowels but also some of the forms of their letters. It seems that contact with the south-eastern coast of India was greatest at this time. But it is wrong to think that the western coast was totally forgotten. The influence from that coast is traceable in a few letters of this time, and much more so in those of the seventh century A.D. In fact the dated inscriptions of this last century from Fou-nan and Sumatra exemplify a happy mixture of the sixth-century writing of the eastern coast of India and the new features of the seventh century from the western coast. It is strange to note that the Pallava Grantha writing of the seventh century is not traceable in these inscriptions at all. On the other hand, we find a local development towards simplification, first recognizable in the forms of *ka*, *ra* and *la*, which later characterized the growth of the local scripts in South-east Asia. These dated inscriptions are very helpful in relating the undated sixth-century inscriptions with them, and thus indirectly they confirm my dating of the Pallava inscriptions on the basis of the Indian evidence.¹