Indian Palaeography c17.s8.9

c17.s8.9

*Kha* is of the southern type, resembling a fish-hook with a horizontal line attached to its lower right vertical. Only no. 4 has a small triangular loop in place of the horizontal line. This form is known from the Kadamba and early Western Chālukyan inscriptions. *Ga* is of the northern type with a foot-mark at the left limb and the right limb longer. *Gha* shows the simple form with three uprights. The loop of *cha* below a stem is slightly tilted to the left. *Chha* has the double loop below a stem. *Ja* has three arms to the right of a vertical, the lowest one sloping down as in the North Indian forms after the fifth century A.D. *Ḍa* is round-backed, with its tip falling downwards. There is hardly any difference between the forms of *pa* and *ḍha*, and hence one is inclined to read the latter letter as *pa*. *Ta* shows a development from the Deccani form and agrees fully with what I have called the Chālukyan *ta*. *Tha* is a dot within a circle. *Da* is either of the double-curved type of the north or of the simple form with a longer stem and short lower curve to the right. *Dha* also is of the northern oblong form. *Na* has its left loop closed. The left sides of *pa*, *pha*, *ba*, *ḅa* and *ha* are bent. The new letter *ḅa* is formed from *ba* by the addition of a mid-line. *Bha* is of the broad type. *Ma* has a looped base, but the letter is drawn in outline by first forming the outer bend of the arms and then inserting the mid-line. The lower portion of the bend is slightly tilted to the left. *Ya* is of the tripartite form but its third left arm is replaced by a loop—a form known in Malwa in the fifth century A.D. In the late Myazedi inscription we find the third left arm of *ya* with an outer curl—a form which was known in Rajasthan and Eastern India in the sixth century A.D. What has been read as *ḷa* actually adopts the hooked form of the northern *la* known between the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. Only in the late Myazedi inscription do we find the true form of *ḷa*, with a curve below the shape of *ṭa*. *Va* is an elongated loop. *Sa* has a hook on the left. In these inscriptions we also find a symbol at the beginning and at the end. Both resemble the form of *oṁ*, the first curving upwards as in the northern inscriptions, and the second downwards as in the later southern inscriptions of India. The first symbol is followed by two verticals with looped ends.