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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA plates for both u and û ; compare durlla- at the end of line 23, dûtakô, l. 51, puraḥsarêṇa, l. 40, and pûrvva, l. 34. Of the consonants, jh and b do not occur in the text, and the signs for chh and ṭh─ the latter hardly to be distinguished from the sign for ṭ─ occur only as subscript letters. In general, it may suffice to draw the reader’s attention to the forms of kh, e.g. in khyâtaḥ, l. 9 ; g and ṅ in Gaṅgâ, l. 3 ; ś in śâśvata, l. 12; gh in vighaṭṭi, l. 19 ; ch in chandraḥ and j in jalêshu, l. 17 ; th in slathâ, l. 3 ; dh and v in pravôdha, l. 16 ; ph in phala, l. 48 ; bh and h[1] in mahêbhakumbha, l. 23, and graha, l. 26 ; l in kômaladalâyatalôº, l. 9 ; and s in sañchaya, l. 8. The signs for ṭ and ṭṭ are those which we find generally used in inscriptions from Eastern India ; compare paṭunâ, l. 29, shaṭpada, l. 22, pâṭṭaka, l. 36, and bhaṭṭa, l. 40. For the form of the single ṇ see e.g. phaṇa, l. 2, and guṇinâ, l. 10. When in Ś. ṇ or ñ form the first part of a conjunct, two distinctly different signs are used to denote the two nasals ; compare in Ś. maṇḍana, l. 14, and sañchhannôº, l. 6. In the present plates the signs for ṇ and ñ as first parts of conjuncts differ very slightly, if at all, and one sign only is used to denote the same two nasals as last parts of conjuncts ; compare maṇḍalaṁ, l. 10, sañchaya, l. 8, vâñchhâ, l. 13, lâñchhitaṁ, l. 50, kṛishṇâº, l. 8, and yajñais=, l. 28. One sign only is used in the present plates also for the subscript chh and th,[2] just as the plates of the time of Śaśâṅkarâja use one sign for the same two letters ; compare in Ś. sañchhannôº, l. 6, and ssthiyuº, l. 16, and in the present plates vâñchhâ, l. 13, and sthalî, l. 23.
When r precedes another consonant, it is always, as in the modern Nâgarî, denoted by a superscript sign ; but, excepting in the conjunct ry, the letter y, when it follows upon another consonant, is everywhere denoted by the secondary form of the letter y which in the same position is used throughout (even in ry) in Ś. So it happens that the signs for such aksharas as tya, nya, shya, sya of the present plates differ very little from the corresponding signs of S. The sign of avagraha is not used in these plates ; nor do we find in them the sign of virâma, except perhaps in the final form of k, used in the word samyak at the commencement of line 43 Of other special signs for final consonants the plates contain one for t, in asakṛit, l. 15, kamalâkaravat, l. 24, Aṅgirôvat, l. 39, and svadânât, l. 48, and one for n, in gari(rî)yân, l. 18. To determine with confidence the exact time of these plates from the characters seems to me impossible ; my impression is that they cannot be earlier than about the 10th century A.D. and that probably they are not much later.
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