Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t3.6

c7.s5.t3.6

The development of these techniques reached its climax in northern India in the seventh and eighth centuries, from which period several inscriptions in Siddhamātṛkā constitute masterpieces of calligraphic art; see, for example, the Lakkhā Maṇḍal *praśasti* (Appendix, no. 8; fig. 18), displaying the characteristic features of artistically angularized consonants and highly elaborated vowel signs. This type of ornamental script attains extreme forms in some cases, particularly in signatures such as those of the Emperor Harṣa on the Bānskheṛā plate (EI 4, 208–11; fig. 1) or of one Pūrṇṇāditya at the Rājīvalocana temple at Rājīm (IEBHA, pl. 4). In the latter example the decorative portions of the vowel diacritics are elaborated into floral and animal-like motifs, a technique which is to be further developed in southern Indian calligraphy of succeeding centuries.