Indian Palaeography c17.s6: Malaya

Indian Palaeography c17.s6

Language: English

Malaya

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Apart from the single seal already described, we have three groups of early inscriptions from Malaya.

(i) Pl. XXI. 8 is taken from a stone inscription recording only the Buddhist creed. It was found in Kedah site no. 1. Here the letters are very crudely drawn. The initial *e* appears to be of the foot type. *Ga* has its right limb slightly longer than the left. *Cha* has a broad beak. *Ṇa* is of the open-mouthed type of the north, and *ta* also is of the northern form with its two lower arms meeting in an upper curve. In *tha* the central dot is replaced by a line drawn with the same sweep of the hand as the circle. *Da* is of the double curved type but the lower curve is squattish. *Na* has a bent base, and *ma* a triangular looped base. *Ya* is of the tripartite form, and *ra* is a straight vertical. The left side of *śa* is bent. The medial vowels recall those of the Vo-Canh inscription. The writing is probably derived from Gujarat and Malwa. The use of the open-mouthed *ṇa*, *tha* with a mid-line, and the hooked type of the subscript *ya* suggests a date in the latter half of the fifth century A.D.

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(ii) Pl. XI. 10 is taken from the inscription of the *mahānāvika* (great navigator) Buddhagupta. The letters have notched head-marks, and their forms agree with those of the inscriptions of Pūrṇavarman from Java. The medial vowels are also of the same type except that the ornamental extensions are not found here. The inscription may be dated in the early sixth century A.D.

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There is another inscription from Kedah,¹ found in the ruins of a brick building near Bukit Mariam. Its first part is a Buddhist creed. No photograph is now available as the inscription is lost, but if the drawing is representative of the writing it should be dated in the sixth century A.D. We have here looped forms of *ṇa*, *na*, and *ta*, but *ṇa* also shows double loops, as in the Tham Prasat inscription of Mahendravarman (Pl. XX*a*. 9). The medial *i* and *ī* are of the circle type. *E* is of the foot type with its mouth opening upwards. The medial *ā* and *e* are extended downwards. Notches are seen in the sides of *pa*, *ma*, and *va*.

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¹ *J.A.S.B.*, 1849, p. 247, pl. X.

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(iii) Pl. XXI. 9 is taken from the tablet inscriptions found in Kedah site no. 2. The head-marks are not properly given. Wherever found, they are of the notched type. The forms of the letters show a simplified version of the seventh-century style already known from the region of Fou-nan. Important to note are the short verticals of the initial *a*, *ka*, *ra*, and *ña* in the conjunct *jña*. Western Indian forms are recognizable in the initial *i*, which has a double roof with a tail below, the open-mouthed type of *ṇa*, *dha* with its upper end narrowed, and *la* with its upper curl extended as in the inscriptions of the Maitrakas of Valabhī (Pl. XIV*b*). Another Western Indian form is the initial *ā*, which has a long vertical added on the right of the form of *a*.