Indian Palaeography c8.11

c8.11

As has been said before, Prinsep laid the foundation of the second stage. Indian palaeography became a recognized study, and James Burgess defined it as ‘the study of the gradual modification of alphabets in the course of time’.² To A. C. Burnell goes the credit of producing in 1874 the first book on the subject, *Elements of South Indian Palaeography (from the 4th to the 14th century A.D.), being an introduction to the study of South Indian inscriptions and manuscripts*. About this time a Dutch scholar, K. F. Holle, was working in South-east Asia, collecting his materials on the different scripts of that part of the world, and he published in 1877 his *Tabel van Oud- en Nieuw-Indische Alphabetten*. A similar work was undertaken by Burgess in 1883: