Indian Epigraphy c10.s4.38

c10.s4.38

The symbol was gradually modified to the shape of a stroke slanting towards lower right with its top curved or looped inwards to the right⁸ or slanting towards lower left with its top curved or looped inwards to the left.⁹ Sometimes the lower end of the stroke exhibits an ornamental downward flourish¹⁰ or upward bend.¹¹ Both the *vām-āvarta* and *dakṣiṇ-āvarta* types were used in some cases in records of the same locality and also of the same age.¹ In the medieval inscriptions of Eastern India, the symbol resembles the Bengali numerical figure 7 ( a vertical stroke with its top curved towards the left and ending in an inward bend)² and it was used in the central parts of Bengal with the addition of a sign called *candra-bindu* or *ānunāsika* above. But, in the easternmost areas of Bengal, the same symbol was written with the lower end curved considerably towards the right and was called *āñji*,³ and the Bengali alphabet with this symbol at the head was called *āñji-ka-kha*.⁴ In Western India, however, the symbol appearing in medieval inscriptions looks like a numerical figure⁵ and often a globular mark looking like a cypher is placed after it.⁶ In South Indian records of the early and medieval periods, the symbol is often a *śām-āvarta* spiral,⁷ sometimes resembling the representation of a conch-shell, which is called *pillaiyār-śuḷi* or Gaṇeśa’s curl and is first taught to the children before they begin to learn the alphabet.⁸