Indian Palaeography c18.s4.t5: 13. The Manuscript Style
Indian Palaeography c18.s4.t5
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13. The Manuscript Style
c18.s4.t5.1
Pl. XXIII. 13 is taken from pl. I of the *Kharoshṭhī Inscriptions from Chinese Turkestan*, edited by Boyer, Rapson and Senart. These letters are given in order to show the manuscript style, as it was known during or immediately after the Kushāṇa period. As has been pointed out by Rapson, the style bears great similarity to the writing seen in no. 12 above, but it is in this pen style that we learn all those minute details which are the natural results of writing with the pen, but which are not faithfully reproduced in no. 12 above. No attempt is made here to distinguish different hands in the manuscript, nor have I tried to reproduce all the letter forms from the manuscript. For this second purpose I reproduce the chart¹ prepared by Rapson, who has collected in one place the different letters occurring in the manuscript (Fig. 20). Here my purpose is simply to emphasize the important aspects of the manuscript writing. Some general characteristics are to be noted first. The verticals either end in a slight upward slant on the left, or gently curve towards the left. The horizontals also show slight curving, and the additional strokes, as in *e*, *g'a* or *ñe*, are drawn with one sweep of the hand, leaving a closed loop at the end of the verticals. The medial *i* is sometimes given at the left of the letters instead of across the middle. The general tendency is to simplify writing rather than to develop an ornamental form. As a result of this last tendency the medial *e* is added, as in *ñe*, at the lower end of the vertical; both *ya* and *śa* have rounded tops; both *ta* and *va* sometimes lose their horizontal (generally one); *ta*, *da* and *na* have almost identical forms—a double-curved vertical; the head of *sa* is very cursively drawn, and *ha* develops a tail at the end of the lower curve. On the whole the manuscript style shows that the writing traced in the inscriptions was not far removed from the pen style known at the time.
c18.s4.t5.2
¹ Some of the signs were wrongly interpreted by Rapson, e.g. no. 221 is now correctly read as *ly'a*, no. 182 as *tg'a*, no. 192 as *ts'a*, no. 250 as *l'sa*. The chart is thus partially out of date.