Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t3.9

c7.s5.t3.9

Besides the previously mentioned calligraphic varieties of the standard scripts, there also developed in the Gupta period and succeeding centuries calligraphic forms of writing which, though ultimately derived from standard Brāhmī, became so stylized and elaborate as to virtually constitute separate scripts. The first of these scripts, variously referred to as “Ornamental Brāhmī” or (preferably) “Ornate Brāhmī,” is characterized by squat, squarish, highly stylized characters. Short inscriptions in this script have been found in considerable numbers at various sites in northern, central, and upper southern India (see IEBHA, 5). They presumably record personal names or pilgrims’ records (see 4.1.6), following the pattern, noted earlier, that the most elaborate calligraphic writings are primarily used for signatures. Because of the highly stylized forms of the letters of the Ornate Brāhmī inscriptions, they are extremely difficult to read, and few, if any, of them can be considered to have been satisfactorily deciphered.²²⁴