Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t3.12

c7.s5.t3.12

The second of the “special” scripts is Śaṅkhalipi or “shell characters” (fig. 2). Like Ornate Brāhmī, this highly ornate script, also evidently used principally for signatures, was in wide use over virtually all of India except the far south from approximately the fourth to the eighth centuries A.D.; over six hundred examples of this script are now known.²²⁵ The characters are highly stylized, tending to conform to a general shape superficially resembling a conch shell or *śaṅkha*, whence the name applied to the script. Statistical and formal analysis of the characters indicates that they are derived from the characters of standard Brāhmī, but the changes are so extensive that it is still very difficult to authoritatively identify them.²²⁶ Several claims of decipherment have been put forward, but they are not convincing.²²⁷