Indian Palaeography c4.2

c4.2

Palaeography is not confined to the study of the shapes of letters in the abstract. I have endeavoured to go beyond the mere shapes and search for the different traditions which govern a type following a set pattern on account of particular techniques. Writing is thus treated as an art resulting from a given culture. The different styles are only different traits in a cultural complex, and their analysis not only enables us to fix the type of writing that was prevalent at a particular period and in a particular place, but also provides a clue to the understanding of the culture within which the writing operated. It is only in the background of the cultural evolution that the writing styles can be properly followed and changes in them adequately explained. In the absence of this understanding the letters become mere shapes produced whimsically at random, but that is hardly true of any system of writing. The letter-forms are a part of culture, and palaeography defines them within that culture. In the following pages this concept is for the first time applied to the study of Indian palaeography.