North Indian Inscriptions

INTRODUCTION

gory and has them classed “with certain epigraphs on the Bodh-Gayā railing, e.g. those of the time of Brahmamitra and Indrāgnimitra and with the Mathurā inscriptions of Utaradāsaka and king Vishṇumitra”. This group, according to him, belongs to about 100-75 B.C.

  We look with some reserve at the attempts to classify individual Bhārhut inscriptions as earlier, and others as later, resting upon the shape of one or two test letters only. Certainly, a process of gradual transformation of aksharas in early Brāhmī can be stated, and the general trend is clear is clear enough. However, as Barua says^[1], “certain forms became stereotyped. at a particular period of time as an outcome of a very complex process, of the action and reaction of various factors. The shape of letters depends on the local style, the personal habit and temperament, the nature of space and material, the position of the scribe, the nature of the tool, and the rest”. Sometimes we find slightly different forms of test letters side by side in the same inscription, or in inscriptions doubtlessly belonging to the same time. In other cases advanced types of one letter occur together with conservative ones of another. So in the inscription B 26 (Plate XVIII) an advanced chha of nearly ‘butterfly’ type stands by the side of an old shaped kā, and in B 28- B 31 (Plate XVIII), in the words alaṁbusā and achharā, the letter a is written each time in a somewhat different shape, although the inscriptions are found on one and the same sculpture and refer to the same representation. Majumdar says, after discussing the palaeographically late features of some letters of the

ground balustrade inscriptions of stūpa I in Sāñchī : “The parts of the balustrade where these inscriptions occur must undoubtedly have been later insertions, due to subsequent additions and repairs, and they have no bearing on the date of the balustrade as a whole”^[2].

   It seems wise, not to decide in such cases without allowing some margin for the habits of the individual scribes, and to take into consideration, besides palaeography, any other evidence that might be available.

   The gradual change in the front of some test letters in Bhārhut is shown in the following synopsis :
Regarding letter a : In the inscriptions of Aśoka the two left arms of the letter a generally meet at a point. Another type, more rare, has a gap between the arms, and this type is a characteristic of the post-Aśokan writing.
Letter ka : The old type is a cross of which the horizontal and the vertical intercross each other in the middle. The later type has a shorter horizontal, crossing higher up, and looks in the a hanging sword, or a dagger.
Letter ga: In the old type the arms form a sharp angle at the top; the later type has a markedly rounded top instead of the angle.
Letter chha : The old types show nearly a circle bisected by a vertical. Then the corpus becomes more elliptical, and finally it looks like a butterfly with two loops.
Letter dha : In the inscriptions of Aśoka this letter is of the shape of the Roman D, the vertical stroke appearing to the left. In the post-Aśokan writing the vertical stroke is found to the right, and the form of the letter is a reversed one.
Letter pa : In later times the right vertical is heightened, and the left and right verticals are nearly equalized.
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^[1] BI., p. 110.
^[2] Sāñchī Vol. I, p. 268.