Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t2.7

c7.s5.t2.7

The normal method of writing was by incising or carving lines into the hard surface with a stylus, chisel, or other suitable implement. Some early inscriptions, mostly Kharo\d{s}\d{t}h\={\i} relic dedications on metal plates, are written with a series of dots (e.g., the Taxila silver scroll, CII 2.1, 70--7). In the later medieval 142–8).²¹⁷ This system was largely abandoned in later centuries²¹⁸ (except in Southeast Asia, where it remained in use much longer),²¹⁹ and thereafter all inscriptions, verse and prose, are lineated and marks, sometimes developed into elaborate floral motifs, are used at the end of records, where they function as marks of both decoration and punctuation (see, e.g., EI 31, plate facing page 127, l. 212).