Indian Palaeography c17.s8.7

c17.s8.7

The Pyu letters are characterized by line head-marks; very rarely do we notice the notched type. The verticals of *a*, *ka*, *ra*, and the vertical type of the medial *u* are extended downwards, ending in a loop—a feature which is hardly known in India but most probably developed from the lower curves of the verticals known in the southern scripts. Though this writing does not favour waves in the lines, acquaintance with them can be inferred from the form of *ṅa*, which has its vertical waved, *ba*, which has its left side notched, and *ha* with a bend in its left arm. The medial vowels are further instructive. What has been read as medial *i* is used profusely. It is of two types: the Halingyi inscription shows a long twisted stroke turned to the left, which recalls the stroke for *e* used in the sixth- to seventh-century inscriptions of North India; the other inscriptions uniformly have a right curve, which actually stands for long *ī* in North India. This second type of stroke occurs only once in the Halingyi inscription with the consonant *va*, which has been doubtfully read as *vī*. The medial *o* is two top curves, a form common in North India. The only other medial vowel known is *u*, which in the cases of *bhu* and *gu* is a sloping stroke added to the right vertical. In the late Myazedi inscription we find the curved type of the southern *au*, which is hardly known in India before the end of the fourth century A.D. Only two initial vowels are known. The most commonly used is the South Indian *o*-type, but, as the evidence from the Hmawza bilingual text suggests, here it stands for the initial *u*. One form of *kra* was read by Blagden as *o*, but this is hardly justified. From the late Myazedi inscription we find the form of the initial *a*, which has an upper angular hook with a line below attached to the right vertical—a form known from the Kushāṇa inscriptions (Pl. VIII. 5) and the manuscript of *Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā* (Pl. XII. 10). The following consonants are known from these inscriptions: