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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022927507 
 
DISTRIBUTION OFSINDIAN ALPHABETS U P TO 1550 A. D. 
 
 Vinceu hi-cJks l)^.'& Sori, Litli, London W.C 
 
ELEMENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 SOUTH-INDIAN FAL^OGEAFH? 
 
 FROM THE FOURTH TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY A. D. 
 
 BEING 
 
 ANINTRODUCTION TO THE 
 STUDY OF SOUTH-iroiA]^ INSCRIPTIONS AND ISS. 
 
 BY 
 
 A.f ^ 
 
 URNELL 
 
 SECOND ENLARGED AND IMPROVED EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 TRUBNER & Co., 57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL 
 
 1878 
 
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 FEINTED AT THE BASEL MISSION PRESS, MANGALOEE. 
 
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 ^eidjett kx ^m\khxh\i iix V\t iljiit ijn1ie|euc §octoilDiii'k 
 V\m €tstlitigs=^rl)eit awf mum Ms^er ttnbel);mtttt Jictk 
 
 &er 
 
 'moMAtA). 
 
 ST', J 
 
 
 
NOTE 
 
 When this book was originally printed in 1874 but little had been done in respect of Indian Inscrip- 
 tions ; since then^ Mr. Fleet and others have added much to what was known, and thus, with the help of 
 the exhaustive reviews of the first edition by Profr. Weber in the "Jenaer Literaturzeitung" and by M. 
 A. Barth in the "Revue Critique", as well as the opportunities afforded to me by a visit to Java in 1876, 
 I am enabled now to bring out a revised and enlarged edition. 
 
 I have permitted myself more than once to use a provisional hypothesis, but, in such cases, I have 
 pointed it out. In the present state of Indian philology and archaeology, there can be no objection to this 
 course ; but it must always be remembered that it is not free from danger, and the popular but unwarranted 
 inferences from a similar provisional hypothesis of an 'Aryan race' are sufficient warning to all engaged in 
 such studies. 
 
 To the Hon. D. F. Carmichael I am indebted for the use of an inscription which has furnished a better 
 specimen of the transitional Telugu character than the one used for the former edition. 
 
 To Mr. J. F. Fleet, Bombay c. s., I am greatly obliged for help in revising the plates, and my thanks 
 are again due to the Basel Press and especially to my friend Mr. Sikemeier, for help in looking over the 
 intricate proof-sheets. 
 
 April, 1878. A. B. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 trust that this elementary sketch of South-Indian Palaeography may supply a want 
 flong felt by those who are desirous of investigating the real history of the peninsula 
 
 of India. 
 
 From the beginning of this century (when Buchanan executed the only archaeologi- 
 cal survey that has ever been done in even a part of the South of India) up to the 
 present time, a number of well meaning persons have gone about with much simplicity 
 and faith collecting a mass of rubbish which they term traditions and accept as history. 
 There is some excuse for Buchanan, but none for his followers; the persistent retailing 
 of this "lying gabble" (as Genl. Cunningham aptly terms it) has well-nigh ruined the 
 progress of Indian research, and caused the utter neglect of a subject that evidently 
 promises much''. The Vedic literature will always remain the most attractive object of 
 
 1) It must be obyious that these traditions are merely attempts at explanations of the unknown through current ideas, 
 which in S. India amount to the merest elements of Hindu mythology as gathered from third-rate sources. Mouhot the 
 illustrious discoverer of the Cambodian temples, though a naturalist and not an archaeologist, saw this very plainly. He 
 says ("Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China", vol. ii. pp. 8, 9): "All traditions being lost, the natives invent new 
 ones, according to the measure of their capacity." The Mahatmyas are equally worthless with the oral legends, for they 
 are modern compositions (mostly later than the 10th century A. D.) intended to connect particular places with events 
 entirely mythical and belonging to modem or even foreign religious systems. How worthless tradition is in S. India, a 
 few examples will easily prove. The chain of rocks from India to Ceylon is (as is well known) connected with the myth 
 of Rama's conquest of Lanka, but this localization of the mythical event must be quite recent ; for, firstly, whatever may 
 be the age of the Ramayana, the worship of Rama is quite modem. Again, had there been any such myth current in the 
 place during the early centuries A. D., we might expect something about it in the Periplus or Ptolemy, especially as the 
 former gives the legend then current about Cape Comorin; but there is nothing of the kind to be found. Lastly, there is 
 nothing whatever (Mr. D'Alwis assures us) known of the legend in Ceylon. Again, the localization of the events of the 
 Mahabharata is endless ; every few miles in S. India one can find the place where some battle or other event occurred, and 
 so it is also in Java. Such legends, therefore, are absolutely worthless, for they prove no more than that the Mahabharata 
 and Ramayana are or were favourite stories over a large part of the East. But the traditional practice in respect of 
 
— VIII — 
 
 study in relation to India, but there is much besides to be studied. The history of 
 Indian civilization does not cease (as some appear to think) with the early period of 
 Buddhism. About the early centuries of the Christian era, we find the Buddhist-Brahma- 
 nical civilization extending from its home in the North over alien races inhabiting the 
 peninsula of India, and in the course of some few centuries it had already extended over 
 Burmah, the Malay Islands, and even to the forests and swamps of Cambodia. But this 
 immense progress was not a mere reception of stereotyped forms and opinions by 
 uncivilized peoples; it was on the contrary (and herein lies the interest of the subject) a 
 gradual adaptation'' to circumstances, including the creation of national literatures in 
 many languages, which were then first reduced to writing and system. In South-India, 
 at all events, new sects rapidly arose, which have reacted powerfully on Northern India. 
 Books containing the various religious opinions that have prevailed more or less in these 
 Hinduized, or rather Brahmanized, countries, are yet easily accessible; but the chrono- 
 logical framework is almost entirely wanting, and this can only be supplied from the 
 inscriptions still existing in large numbers. If an outline of the historical events of the 
 last fifteen centuries of South-Indian history could be gained from these inscriptions, the 
 wearisome dry dogmatic treatises would begin to possess some human interest, and the 
 
 ceremonies is worth little more, though in this case religious prejudices can hardly interfere. Thus for the Soma many 
 dififerent plants are used. The Brahmans on the Coromandel Coast take the 'Asclepias Adda', those of Malabar the 
 'Oeropegia Decaisneana' or 'Ceropegia Megans'. How different in appearance these three plants are, may be readily seen 
 by a comparison of the figures of them given by Wight in his "Icones" ii., 595 ("Ascl. Acida") and his "Spicilegium 
 Neilgherriense" pi. 152 and 155. (The Parsees must originally have used the same plant as the Brahmans did, now they 
 use quite a different one. cfr. Hang's "Essays", p. 239). Which then, if any of them, is the original Soma? And this 
 loss of tradition must (apart from the obvious development of rites) have begun very early ; for otherwise, it is impossible 
 to account for the variations in the details of the same ceremony as described, e. g. by the different ^rautasutras. Thus we 
 find, in the Cayanas, that Apastamba directs the construction of the altars in a different way to that prescribed by 
 Bodhayana. So again the great difference in the way of uttering the Vedic accents and the singing of the Sama Veda, 
 must strike every one who hears them. These differences, at all events, cannot be original ; for they occur among followers 
 of the same ^akha of the Veda. The Ayoka tree of S. India is the 'Guatteria longifolia'; that of the North, the 'Jonesia 
 agoha'. Tradition is worthless all over the East in exactly the same way. Once, when crossing in a boat from the Nubian 
 bank of the Nile to the temple of Philae, I asked the native boatman what he knew of the temple? He replied directly: 
 "It is the Castle of Ans Alwujud". This personage is the hero of a popular Arabic fairy-tale! Had the boatman been 
 a native of India, he would have answered: "Rama's (or the Pandava's) palace", and backed up his story with an 
 endless legend. What I have here said about the worthlessness of local traditions in the East has been, long ago, asserted 
 in respect of other countries. See, e. g. Volney, "Egypt and Syria" (Engl, transl. of 1788) ii., p. 243. Von Hahn, 
 "Sagwissenschaftliche Studieu", pp. 58 ffg. F. W. Ellis wrote, about sixty years ago, of "the mist of fiction with which 
 the Indians contrive to envelop every historical fact", but not even his recognized authority seems to have had much effect, 
 as yet. 
 
 1) Cfr. W. von Humboldt's remarks on the Kawi (old Javanese) literature in his treatise on the Kawi language, ii. p. 4. 
 
— IX — 
 
 faint outlines of a long obliterated picture would reappear; faintly at first, but with 
 time and patient research, they would (like fossils in the hands of the geologist) present 
 a living picture of a past, if not attractive, at all events strange. The prospect of such 
 a result should tempt the few European students of Sanskrit in South-India who at 
 present, in the hope of learning something of Indian matters, devote their attention to 
 mechanical poems which repeat themselves with "most damnable iteration," or to plays 
 composed by pedants during the worst times of India. This real history of South-India 
 can only be gathered from inscriptions. 
 
 A manual of Palaeography like the one I have here attempted has a double object 
 in view — to trace the gradual development of writing by means of documents of known 
 date, and thus, also, to render it possible to assign a date to the larger number of docu- 
 ments which do not bear any. For this purpose I have given a chronological series of 
 alphabets traced (with few exceptions)'' from impressions of the original documents; 
 these are by no means perfect, as I have selected only the most usual letters, as these 
 alone can assist in determining the date. Unusual letters are often formed after analogy 
 or capriciously, and thus have, in Indian Palaeography, but little value. 
 
 Indian, and even South-Indian Palaeography is hardly a new subject, though much 
 that is really new will, I believe, be found in the following pages, which were originally 
 intended to form part of an introduction to a Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit mss. in 
 the Palace of Tanjore, now in the press. As, however, I found that that work would 
 necessarily be of considerable size, I have preferred to publish these pages separately. 
 The foundations of Indian Palaeography were laid by J. Prinsep some forty years ago^\ 
 when he showed that the Indian alphabets then known to him were probably derived 
 from the S. A9oka character which he first deciphered; since then, little or nothing has 
 been done except Sir W. Elliot's lithographic reproduction of the Hala Kannada alpha- 
 bet, at Bombay about 1836''. Dr. Babington had already given an old Tamil alphabet*', 
 and Harkness republished both with some unimportant additions^'. The materials I 
 have used have been collected by myself during several years, and in very different 
 parts of the country, and are (I have every reason to beHeve) fairly complete. 
 
 Plates xii., xiii., xviii. and xix. 
 
 2) Bengal Asiatic Socieiy^s Journal, vi., pi. xiii. 
 
 S) The only copy I have seen had no title, hence I cannot give the exact date. 
 
 *) Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, ii., pi. xiii. 
 
 5) London, 1837. ("Ancient and Modern Hindu Alphabets", by Capt. H. Harkness 37 pp.) 
 
— X — 
 
 Many attempts have been made by Mackenzie, Sir W. Elliot, Mr. C. P. Brown, 
 Mr. H. J. Stokes and others to collect the inscriptions of South-India; but, though the 
 importance of this work has been often acknowledged, few results have followed, as no 
 individual (except perhaps Sir W. Elliot) could hope to be able to finish such a task. 
 When the greater part of the plates and text that follow were already printed (between 
 one and two years ago), this important subject was still viewed with indifference; since 
 then, the Indian Antiquary in Bombay, and the labours of Profr. Kern at Leiden and 
 Profr. Eggeling in London raise hopes that will not be disappointed. The treatment 
 of parts of the A9oka edicts by the former'' marks the epoch of a real scientific study 
 of Indian inscriptions, and his knowledge of Indian antiquities and ways of thought has 
 cleared up what seemed likely to remain for ever obscure. Profr. Eggeling is the first to 
 publish the W. Calukya documents, and to show what they really mean. But the subjects 
 of these researches present many difficulties. If South-Indian inscriptions present 
 comparatively few puzzles, so far as the characters used are considered, they can only 
 be satisfactorily explained by a knowledge of Sanskrit and the Dravidian languages 
 which rests upon a more certain foundation than is now usual. If the absence of notes 
 and abbreviations render transcription easy and certain, there is much in the language 
 of .the documents that will create serious difficulties. The earliest and most important 
 grants for historical purposes are nearly all in Sanskrit, but the scribes were seldom 
 content with leaving th* names of places untranslated, and to restore these names to 
 their Dravidian forms, and thus render identification possible, is often a task beset with 
 difficulties^^ A large number of documents are in Canarese and Tamil, but as the 
 
 1) "Over de Jaartelling der Zuidelijke Buddhisten", 4° Amsterdam, 1873. 
 
 2J The Sanskritizing of Dravidiaa names by official scribes seems to have happened in the following ways: 
 A. Alteration of the whole name. 
 
 1. Gomct tra/nilation. e. 5. Talavrinda=Panaikkadu; Vataranya. 
 
 2. Mis-trcmslations. a. g. Bala(puri) = Kocci (Cochin); Karici(pura)=Kariji (Conjeveram). 
 
 3. Partial trcmslation of the last part of a compound word, and which = town, village, mountain, etc. c. o- 
 Kohkanapura=Konkana-ha]li or rather Konkani-halli ; Kolacala = ? Golkonda. 
 
 C. Mythological perversions of Dravidian names the meaning of which was early lost. e. g. Pandiyan into 
 
 Pandya, hence derived from Pandu; Rashtra from Ratta=Reddi; Tarijavur; Mahabalipura from M5mallai- 
 
 pura; Cribali from QivaJIi. Such perversions are generally intended to localize the N. Indian mythology. 
 
 D. Substitution of an entirely new name, the first part of which is the name of the God worshipped, and the 
 
 second part s t h a 1 a or some equivalent word. 
 
 I hope some time to be able to bring out a map of S. India in which all such names will be entered, as far as I have 
 
 been able to identify them. 
 
— XI — 
 
 orthography fluctuated, and the vocabularies of these languages have been but little 
 studied in a scientific spirit, it is not too much to say that not a single early inscription 
 in either of these languages has as yet been explained in a perfectly satisfactory 
 manner*^ These documents contain the earliest specimens of the Dravidian languages 
 (beyond single words), that we possess; they are, therefore, of capital importance for 
 the comparative study of the South-Indian dialects, but have not as yet been used at all, 
 except by Dr. Gundert. 
 
 These grants will again by their local irregularities of spelling throw great light on 
 the history of the literary dialects of those languages, and especially of Canarese 
 and Telugu. It is certain that the earliest literary culture in the Deccan was purely 
 Sanskritic, and that compositions in the vernacular (except in Tamil) scarcely existed 
 before the i oth century A. D.; but these were always artificial to the last degree, and 
 contained Sanskrit words in profusion, they were in short Kavyas^^; hence for 
 specimens of the language as actually used we must depend on the earlier inscriptions. 
 The Tamil literature has also fallen under Sanskrit influences, but to a less degree; yet 
 as it is scarcely probable that the grammarians had ended their work at the date of the 
 earliest documents, these will furnish important information illustrating the history of the 
 language. * 
 
 I have thus briefly pointed out what we may hope to gain by a study of the South- 
 Indian inscriptions, and, to all aware of the utter uncertainty attending all Indian re- 
 searches, the prospect must be a very attractive one. But there are many difficulties, as 
 I have also pointed out, and there is one obstacle that I must not omit to notice. From 
 the beginning, Indian studies have been infected by a spirit of vague sentimentalism, the 
 cause of which it is difficult to find, and which has reasonably caused prudent enquirers 
 to doubt the value of much that has been done. To all students of Indian literature 
 one can only repeat the words of advice addressed by M. Chabas to the Assyriologists: 
 "Nous invitons les assyriologues s^rieux a pousser de leur cot^ le cri d'alarme, et k 
 
 i)Dr. Gundert's labours on Malayalara, and more recently, those of Mr. Kittel on Canarese wiU soon remove this 
 obstacle; a really good Tamil Dictionary is yet, however, to be written. The best now existing is that printed at Pondi- 
 cherry in 2 vols. 8° ("Par deux missionaires Apostoliques"). 
 
 ^) Cfr. Andhrafabdaciutamani, i., I. "ViyvayreyaA kavyam" which siitra gives the object of the work. The analogy 
 between the South-Indian artificial poems in the Dravidian languages and those in the old Javanese called Kawi is 
 complete, and there can be no doubt that the last thus got their name. AU these compositions are, more or less 
 
 macaronic verses. 
 
— XII — 
 
 maintenir leur science au-dessus de la port^e des enthousiastes qui en abusent"". If 
 an eminent Egyptologist finds it necessary to address his cautious fellow-labourers 
 in this manner, how much more does the warning apply to Indianists? If Egypt 
 and Assyria present merely ruins and broken fragments, these are at least real, 
 whereas Indian literature is, mostly, but a fata-morgana of ruins that have disappeared 
 ages ago. 
 
 I owe my best thanks to the Rev. G. Richter of Mercara for a loan of the Cera 
 grant in his possession. To the Rev. F. Kittel I owe many important references 
 and suggestions, as will be seen by the text and notes. The Basel Mission Press at 
 Mangalore has spared no pains to bring out this Monograph in a complete form; and I 
 am especially indebted to my friend Mr. C. Stolz and the other authorities there for 
 the trouble they have taken, I hope, not in vain. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PROBABLE DATE OF THE INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 WRITING INTO INDIA. 
 
 1)HAT the art of writing was imported into India is now allowed by most Orientalists 
 ^who can claim to be heard, but how and when this occurred is by no means clear^'. 
 The earliest written documents that have been discovered in India are the 'proclam- 
 ations of the Buddhist king Piyadasi or A9oka which are written in two different characters ; 
 and the silly denunciations of writing in which the Brahmans have always indulged, 
 render it excessively improbable that they had anything to do with the introduction of 
 the art. The inscriptions of A9oka are of about 250 B. C, but it seems probable that 
 writing was practised to a certain extent in Northern India nearly half a century before 
 that period. 
 
 Nearchus (B. C. 325) expressly states that the Brahman laws were not written^'. 
 Megasthenes a few years later (c. 302 B. C), mentions that they had no written books, 
 and that they did not know letters (grammata)^^ or use seals, but he also mentions mile- 
 stones at a distance of ten stadia from one another, "indicating the bye-roads and 
 intervals'"^ It is difficult, though not impossible, to suppose that these indications were 
 made by the stones merely, and that there were not any marks on them to tell more than 
 
 1) Kopp (in 1821) first suggested a foreign Semitic source of the Devanagari alphabet. Dr. R. Lepsius followed in 1834: 
 and then with much stronger arguments came Profr. A. Weber (Z. D. D. M. G. x. pp. 389 and ffg. "Indische Sliizzen" 
 pp. 127-150). He has always been the strongest supporter of this theory. But many consider it probable: Profr. Th. Benfey 
 ("Orient und Occident" iii., 170) ; Profr. Max MuUer (A. S. L. 2nded. p. 521). Profr. N. L. Westergaard ("Uber den Sltesten 
 Zeitraum der Indischen Geschichte" p. 37) hesitates. He considers it likely that writing was, originally, in India a secret 
 known to the traders only. I am not able to refer to Bohtlingk's article on the age of writing in India mentioned by Lassen. 
 Profr. Pott ("Etymologische Forschungen, Wurzel-Worterbuch" ii., 2 p. liii.) is not however satisfied (l 870). Mr. E. Thomas 
 (1866) suggested a Dravidian origin of the Indian alphabets. Profr. Lassen repudiates a foreign origin for the Indian alpha- 
 bets (I. A. K. Vol. I. 2nd ed. p. 1008) altogether. Profr. Whitney ("Studies" p. 85) considers a Semitic origin probable. 
 
 2) Frag. F. in "Reliqua Arriani et Scriptorum de rebus Alexandri". Ed. C. Miiller, Paris, 1846 (p. 60.) 
 "<) "Megasthenis Indica" ed. Schwanbeck, Frag, xxvii. (fr. Strabo. xv. I. 53-56) p. 113. 
 
 4) Do. Frag, xxxiv. (from the same source), pp. 125-6. 
 
— 2 — 
 
 the mere position of the stones could do'\ The inscriptions of A9oka are also in them- 
 selves proofs that writing was about 250 B. C. a recent practice, for they present irregu- 
 larities of every kind^'. That these Inscriptions are of a period immediately after the 
 introduction of writing has been insisted on by Profr. Wassiljew, who also remarks that 
 it is not long after their date that the Buddhists refer to their scriptures as written^\ 
 
 On the other hand Nearchus is also represented as statmg that the Indians wrote 
 letters on a sort of cotton cloth or paper*'. 
 
 Again, passages in Megasthenes have been understood by Schwanbeck to imply the 
 use of writing at the period when he visited India. These are: (i) some passages which 
 describe the proclamation at the beginning of the year of a sort of astrological calendar 
 for the coming seasons"'; again, (2) the statement that births were considered for astro- 
 logical purposes®'. But it is obvious that such usages afford but a faint presumption 
 that writing was necessarily employed to enable them to be practised. There are many 
 savage tribes' still existing which are utterly ignorant of writing, and nevertheless do 
 exactly the same things. Thus the description given by Megasthenes might apply to 
 the 'Medicine men' of America, and the Fetish priests of parts of Africa at the present 
 day who are utterly ignorant of any art at all like writing. The Aztecs who, at the best, 
 had only an imperfect hieroglyphic character, were great astrologers. Megasthenes 
 also mentions (3) songs in honour of gods and deceased persons^'; but there is no neces- 
 sity to assume that these were written. The (4) milestones that he describes, I have al- 
 ready mentioned. On the other hand It is expressly stated by Megasthenes that the 
 Indians had no written laws, and strangely enough this is quoted by much later writers 
 like Strabo, who must have been able to correct this statement if wrong at their time. 
 
 i)It is however singular that, as yet, none of these milestones have been discovered. 
 
 2) Thus in the third tablet we find anapitam, and in the fourth anapayisati, but in the sixth anapi". The reduplication 
 of consonants is universally omitted where it should be found (e. g. piyasa, janasa, arabhisante, dukaram, svagam, dighaya, 
 etc.). Nor is the orthography uniform; we find in the Southern inscriptions: etarisam and etadisam also. Again in the 
 Southern inscriptions we have anathesu, but in the Northern (at Kapurdigiri) anathesu. Again the Southern inscriptions 
 have both dasana and dasana. The insertion of nasals before consonants is also excessively irregular. But this may per- 
 haps be attributed more properly to the carelessness of the masons who carved the text on the rocks. The existence of in- 
 scriptions like the Ayoka edicts proves that writing was more or less commonly understood, but it is impossible, looking at 
 the above irregularities and the numerous others that occur, to suppose that writing was then used to express the minute 
 distinctions that we find in the grammarians' rules. For other similar irregularities, see Profr. Biihler's "Three New Edicts" 
 PP- 7i 9. 32. 34 etc. 
 
 '^) "Der Buddhismus" p. 30 (38). It is much to be regretted that this admirable work, which marks an epoch in Indian 
 studies, is not known by an English translation. The author's immense learning has not prevented him from giving his 
 results in the clearest way, and he has evidently worked without any prejudice. See also Haug, "tj'ber das Wesen und den 
 Werth des Wedischen Accents (4°. Munich, 1874) p. 18. *) u. s. p. 64, «. 
 
 6) "Megasthenis Indica" ed. Schwanbeck Fr. I. 42 (p. gi). 
 
 GJ Do. Fr. xxxiv., 5 (p. 126). 
 
 1) Do. Fr. xxvi., i (p. 112). 
 
— 3 — 
 
 The next point for consideration is: whence did these two alphabets come that we 
 find in use in India in the third century before our era? 
 
 During several centuries before that time, the natives of India had opportunities of 
 becoming acquainted with many different systems of writing then current in the West 
 and in Persia. 
 
 The Phoenicians who voyaged for Solomon came to Southern India at least, and ex- 
 ported from thence peacocks which were called in Hebrew by a Tamil name'^ The 
 Persians about 500 B. C. conquered India (that is probably, the Punjab and part of India 
 Proper or Northern India), under Darius; and in the inscriptions at Persepolis and Naksh- 
 i-Rustam India occurs as the 21st and 13th province, respectively, of that monarch's 
 empire^'- According to Herodotus India was the 20th satrapy, and paid as tribute 360 
 talents of gold. To pay such a very large sum a great extent of the country must have 
 been subject. 
 
 Still earlier conquests by Semiramis and Sesostris'^ are mentioned, but the former is 
 certainly mythical*', and the latter rests on the assertion of Diodorus Sicu].us alone. As 
 his statement is not, as yet, corroborated by Egyptian monuments, little weight can be 
 attached to it, but that the Egyptians traded with India, and that from very early times 
 can hardly be doubted. 
 
 Thus, before the conquests of Alexander, the natives of India had ample opportunities 
 to learn the art of writing from others, or to invent a system for themselves, and thus it 
 must be held that they copied, for there has not been found as yet the least trace of the 
 invention and development of an independent Indian alphabet^', while of the two characters 
 in which the inscriptions of A9oka were written, the northern has been conclusively identi- 
 fied (by Mr. E.Thomas) with an Aramaic original, and a number of letters in the Southern 
 alphabet point clearly to a similar source. I shall also show, further on, that there is a third 
 
 ') That the Hebrew tuki is the Tamil t6i(ai seems to be determined. The ideatification is finally due to Dr. Caldyell 
 ("Comparative Grammar" p. 66) and is in every way satisfactory. The remaining foreign terms in the same Hebrew passage 
 appear however to have not been fairly considered as yet, and all proposed identifications of "almug" or "algum" would 
 present the greatest difficulties. What has been proposed is to be found in Profr. Max Miiller's "Lectures on the Science 
 of Language" I. pp. 234-5. The word Tukiim has been last discussed by M. Vinson in Hovelacque's "Revue de Linguis- 
 tique" VI. fasc. 2, very fully. That it cannot be derived from fikhin, the shows. 
 
 2) On the Empire of Darius see Menant "Les AchSmSnides" pp. 167-9. Kossowicz ("Inscriptiones Palaao-Persicae Achseme- 
 nidarum" pp. 72-3 and 76-7.) translates the passages as follows: (Inscriptionof Persepolis) "2. Edicit Darius rex: Voluntate 
 Auramasdae hae sunt provinciae, quas ego tenui cum isto Persiae populo .... mihiqae tributum afferebant : Susiana .... 
 India" etc. (Inscription of Naksh-i-Rustam) 3. Edicit Darius rex: "Hae sunt provinciae quas ego cepi extra a Persia (extra 
 Persiatn). Ego eas meae ditionis feci, mihi tributum afferebant quodque eis a me edicebatur hoc obsequentissime faciebant, 
 lex quae raea est, haec ab iis observabatur : Media ludi" etc. The original Persian word is 'Hi(n)dus'. 
 
 ii) Chabas "Etudes sur 1' antiquity historique" p. 94. Thothmesiii. (? 1500 B.C.) penetrated to 'the country of elephants', 
 but by 2500 B.C. there was regular intercourse with S. Arabia. (Brugsch "Histoire d' ifegypte" I. p. 81.) 
 
 i) La Legende de Semiramis, par F. Lenormant (1872). p. 11 etc. 
 
 5) Max Miiller, Sanskrit Grammar (2nd edition) p. 3. 
 
— 4 — 
 
 alphabet used only in S. India, the Vatteluttu or old Tamil alphabet, which must also have 
 been derived from the same or a Semitic source; but which is apparently, not derived 
 from, nor is the source of the Southern Aqioka alphabet though in some respects very 
 near to it. Perhaps the most important proof of the Semitic origin of these two last 
 alphabets is the imperfect system of marking the vowels which is common to them both. 
 They have, like the Semitic alphabets, initial characters for them, but in the middle of 
 words these letters are marked by mere additions to the preceding consonant. In the 
 Vatteluttu it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the initial i and u are anything more 
 than the consonants y and v. These points are intelligible only on the supposition that 
 the Indian alphabets are derived from the Phoenician, which was formed to suit langua- 
 ges in which the vowels are subsidiary to the consonants, a condition which is not met 
 with either in the Sanskritic or Dravidian languages. The character in which the Nor- 
 thern Inscription of A9oka (at Kapurdigiri) is written, is from right to left, like all the 
 Semitic characters; and the character of the Southern Inscriptions which runs in the 
 contrary direction, yet shows traces of once having been written the same way'\ 
 
 Mr. E. Thomas^' has lately propounded a theory that the Southern A9oka alphabet 
 is originally Dravidian, and then adapted to the N. Indian languages. This could only 
 be the case if we assume the Vatteluttu to be the prototype, but as this is an imperfect 
 expression of the Dravidian sound-system^', it cannot be an indigenous invention, and 
 the theory presents many other objections. One insuperable difficulty is the entire 
 absence of traces of any alphabet having existed in S. India before the Vatteluttu, and 
 that all written monuments now known to exist prove a gradual invasion of the South by 
 Buddhist and Brahmanical civilizations which brought more complete alphabets (derived 
 from the Southern A9oka character) with them in historic times, and meeting the old 
 Tamil alphabet or Vatteluttu gradually supplanted it. It is especially remarkable that 
 
 ') The Southern Inscriptions of A9oka have e.g. yv where vy must beread, (e. g. in katavyo) and the v is put under the 
 right end of the y. Again the vowel e precedes the consonant which in reading it must follow. The peculiar way of 
 marking r to be read before or after the consonant above which it is marked (as was first pointed out, I believe, by Profr. 
 Westergaard) appears to me also to point to the same conclusion. So also the marks which qualify the sign for loo in the 
 cave character, and which are affixed to the right side of the sign. 
 
 2) In the Journal of the R. Asiatic Society, New Series V. pp. 420-3, see p. 420 n. "The Aryans invented no alphabet 
 of their own for their special form of human speech, but were, in all their migrations, indebted to the nationality amid whom 
 they settled for their instruction in the science of writing: {4) The Devanagan was appropriated to the expression of the 
 Sanskrit language from the pre-existing Indian Pali or Lat alphabet which was obviously originated to meet the requirements 
 of Turanian (Dravidian) dialects." Mr. Thomas goes on to connect the advance of Sanskrit Literature and Grammar "with 
 the simplified but extended alphabet they (i. e. the Aryan invaders of India) constructed in the Aryan provinces out of a very 
 archaic type (! ?) of Phoenician, and whose graphic efficiency was so singularly aided by the free use of birch bark." On p. 423 
 he appears to consider that the Dravidians were taught by Scythian invaders who preceded the.-"Vedic Aryans"- It is not 
 clear if Mr. Thomas considers that the primitive alphabet which he assumes to have existed, was invented in India or an 
 importatio n. ^) Below, App. A. 
 
— 5 — 
 
 this last never had separate signs for the sonant letters (g etc.) which must have existed 
 if Mr. Thomas's theory is correct, but though as I shall afterwards prove, the Tamil 
 language had these sounds in the third century after our era, the earliest monuments do 
 not exhibit any marks or letters for them. , 
 
 Very few Sanskrit books are nowadays even supposed to belong to a period when 
 writing did not exist in India, and the only early ones that appear to mention writing 
 are the grammars attributed to Panini and to others. But the age of these works 
 is by no means clear''; and even if it be supposed that the Mahabhashya (or great com- 
 mentary on Panini by Patanjali) has not been since worked over again and again and 
 tampered with (a supposition it is for intrinsic reasons, very difficult to avoid), this com- 
 mentary would only prove the existence of Panini's Sutras in the second century before 
 our era, a time when writing was certainly in common use in India. 
 
 Panini implicitly mentions (according to the Mahabhashya) the writing of the 
 Yavanas. It has not yet been fully determined what was intended. by this term, nor 
 is it clear whether it was in use in India or not^'. It can mean either Persian or Greek 
 
 1) Profr. Goldstiicker considered Panini to have lived before Buddha ("Panini's Place" pp. 225-227) chiefly on the ground 
 that the siitra viii., 2, 50 ("nirvano 'vate) does not provide for the peculiar Buddhist sense of nirvana, and that therefore it 
 is subsequent to Panini. The same identical sutra, however, occurs in the Grammar attributed to J^katayana (iv., I, 249), 
 and is explained by the commentator (Yaxavarman) in a manner that makes it appear as if Goldstiicker's interpretation were 
 too strict— avate kartari | nirvano muniA | nirvana^ pradipaA | 'avata' iti kim | nirvato vataA | nirvatam vatena | 
 
 Profr. Benfey ("Geschichte d. Sprachwissenschaft" p. 48 n. l) puts Panini's Grammar at about 320 B. C. The latest 
 authority is Profr. Aufrecht who says ("Annual Address" by A. J. Ellis Esq. as President of the Philological Society, 1873, 
 p. 22): "Sanskrit Grammar is based on the grammatical aphorisms of Panini, a writer now generally supposed to have lived 
 in the fourth century B. C. at that time Sanskrit had ceased to be a living language." Cfr. Whitney "Studies" pp. 75-7. 
 Lassen I. A— K i., 866; II. p. 477 (2nd ed.) puts Panini at 330 B. C. If his date be put a little later, many difficulties 
 would disappear. See my "Aindra Grammarians" p. 44. 
 
 2) The passages (text and C. Mahabhashya) are: (P. iv., i. 49) "Indravarunabhavayarvarudramridahimaranyayava- 
 yavanamatulacaryanam anuk." On this sutra the Mahabhashya (Benares edition, p. 27 of ch. iv. in Vol. iii.) remarks: 
 "Himaranyayor mahattve" | 'Himaranyayor mahattva' iti vaktavyam | mahad dhimam himani | mahad aranyam aranyani || 
 "yavad doshe'.' | 'Yavad dosha' iti vaktavyam | dushto yavo yavani || Yavanal lipyam | 'Yavanal lipyam' iti vaktavyam | 
 yavananl lipi^ || etc. 
 
 The other Grammar gives the substance of this siitra in several (^akatayana I., 3, 52-57) : — 
 
 52. Matulacaryopadhyayad an ca | 
 
 53. Varunendramridabhava9arvarudrad an | 
 
 54. Suryadevat^yam | 
 
 55. Ad I (This allows siirya also). 
 
 56. Yavanayaval lipidushte | 
 
 On this last sutra Yaxavarman's C. runs : Yavanayavabhyam yathakramam lipau dushte ca 'rthe striyam anpratyayo bhavati 
 yavananam lipiA yavanani | yavananya | dushto yavo yavani | yavanya || 57 Himaranyad urau | etc. This is really modern. 
 The word lipi (which occurs in a sutra of Panini— iii., 2, 21, corresponding to yak. iv., 3, 132, i. e. divavibhaniyaprabha- 
 bhaskararushkartrantanantadinandilipibalicitraxetrajanghabahvahardhanurbhaktasankhyat taft||) is in some respects remark- 
 able; The A9oka edict (where it first occurs) is called a dhammalipi and is said to be lekhita or lekhapita. As in every case 
 writing originally consisted of scratches or incisions on a hard substance (bricks were used in Assyria; bamboos in China, 
 and stone in Egypt ^nmi&eZ?/), one would expect instead of a word from V^lip (= smear), a derivative of V^likh (= scratch); 
 especially as the last is always used in India to express the act of writing on any substance (e. g. in the Manavadharmaf astra). 
 
— 6 — 
 
 writing. If the date of Panini is put before 350 B. C, the first would be the probable 
 meaning, as has been assumed by Profr. Goldstiicker'^; if later than that, it could not 
 possibly mean anything but Greek, for which Profr. Weber has decided^'. 
 
 Bu^Panini's sutras show that writing was known in his time, and many expressions 
 render it impossible to doubt that he used writing, and that to express minute details'' ; 
 and one of his sutras (vi., 3, 115) shows that the figures for eight and five were then 
 used for marking cattle. That writing must soon have come into general use in India 
 for literary purposes cannot be doubted, for without it, it is impossible that the systematic 
 prose treatises which form so large a share of the Sanskrit literature, could ever have 
 been composed*^ 
 
 In all the earlier Sanskrit works there is very little, if any, reference to writing, and 
 the preference for oral teaching exhibited by them is very marked; in fact the Brahman 
 seem to have regarded the writing of any of their sacred or grammatical works as a 
 deadly sin. But in the mediaeval treatises it is evident that this most useful of arts had 
 gained recognition in spite of priestly fanaticism and exclusiveness. Thus the earliest 
 Sanskrit treatise on prosody which is attributed to Pingala contains nothing that can be 
 held to imply the use of writing; the later imitation which describes the Prakrit metres, 
 however, contains a sutra which proves the use of writing at the time it was composed^'; 
 so also does the recent (13th century) grammar, the Mugdabodha. 
 
 Now in the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achiemenides Jipi is the term used for those edicts. Thus in the Behistan inscription 
 of Darius we find (iv. 15) "tuvra kahyaaparam imam dipim vainahy." Thou whoever beholdest afterwards this writing! 
 It seems to me, therefore, not unlikely that lipi has been introduced into India from the Persian dipi. Both Kossowicz 
 and Spiegel refer d'ipi to the Sanskrit V lip, but I see (by a note) that Dr. Hincks took this word to be Semitic. I have lost 
 the reference, so cannot give his derivation, but the root ktb will occur to every one. With an admittedly Semitic ultimate 
 origin of the Indian alphabets, it is natural to expect a foreign term for the art of writing, and I would, therefore, suggest 
 that lipi is not a derivative of V lip, but, a corrupt foreign term. The primd facie derivation from V lip assumes that 
 I. writing is indigenous to India, and 2. that it originally began there with marks not scratched on a hard substance but 
 painted on the prepared surface of a suitable stuff; both which assumptions are strongly negatived by facts, (contra Pott's 
 W. W. v. pp. 180-1). On lipikara= maker of inscriptions, see M. Miiller, in Rigv. iv., p. Ixxiv., n. 
 
 1) "Panini's Place" p. 16. "It would seem to me that it denotes the writing of the Persians, and probably the cuneiform 
 writing which was already known, before the time of Darius, and is peculiar enough in its appearance, and diflFerent enough 
 from the alphabet of the (17) Hindus, to explain the fact that its name called for the formation of a separate word." 
 
 2) "Indische Studien" iv., 89. In the Berlin "Monatsbericht" for Dec. i87i,p. 616 71. he says: "der Name. . . Yavana. . . 
 ist iibrigens jedeiifalls wohl schon vor Alexander's Zeit, durch die friiheren Perser-Kriege niimlich, in denen ja auch Inder als 
 Hiilfstruppen gegen die Griechen mit im Felde standen, den Indern bekannt geworden." Profr. Westergaard is also of opinion 
 {tJber den Sltesten Zeitrauiii p. 33) that Greek writing is intended, and no one can doubt that this is the correct view. 
 
 S) "Panini's Place" pp. 34-61 Profr. Westergaard appears to have arrived independently at the same conclusion. 
 
 *)Cfr. Haug's "Essays on the Religion etc. of the Parsees" p. 129. "In the fragments of the Ancient Literature as 
 extant in the Zend-Avesta, nowhere a word of the meaning 'to write' is to be found. That is merely fortuitous; because 
 systematical books on scientific matters can never be composed without the aid of writing.'' cfr. Whitney, "Studies" p. 82. 
 
 5) "Prakrit Pingala" I., 2. Diho samjuttaparo bindujuo etc. Here bindu can only refer to a written mark o. It is ex- 
 plained by Laxminatha (in his "Pihgalarthapradipa"): 'bindujuo' binduyuktaft sanusvara/j. 
 
— 7 — 
 
 That a literature of considerable extent can exist without being written has been 
 conclusively shown by Profr. Max Miiller in his "Ancient Sanskrit Literature," but it 
 could not possibly include scientific and systematic treatises, though the oral transmission 
 of long epics is quite probable'^ 
 
 The foregoing facts will, I think, prove that the art of writing was little, if at all, 
 known in India before the third century before the Christian era, and as there is not the 
 least trace of the development in India of an original and independent system, it natur- 
 ally follows that the art was introduced by foreigners. 
 
 I have already mentioned the numerous indications that point to a Semitic original 
 of the Indian alphabets, and which are generally received as sufficient; the immediate 
 original is, however, as yet uncertain. Three probable sources may be suggested. The 
 first is that the Indian alphabet came direct from Phoenicia, and was introduced by the 
 early Phoenician traders^'. The second is that the original of these alphabets is to be 
 sought in the modified PhcEnician alphabet used by the early Himyarites of Arabia, and 
 this has been lately put forward as ah ascertained and certain fact". As a third possibility 
 I would suggest that the Indian alphabets may be derived from an Aramaic character 
 used in Persia or rather in Babylonia. 
 
 As regards the first possibility, it seems altogether inconsistent with the evidence 
 regarding the scanty use of writing in the fourth century B. C. already given; for, as 
 Phoenician communications direct with India must have ceased full five-hundred years, 
 if not more, before that date, it is almost incredible that the art should not have arrived 
 at perfection as appHed to the Indian languages in that time, and have been in common 
 use; but this is (as has been already shown) far from being the case. Again it is difficult 
 to understand how the forms of the letters could be retained with so little modification 
 for such a long period as this view would require; for, from the date of the inscriptions 
 of A9oka (250 B. C), documents with undisputed dates show that changes were marked 
 rapid, and the progress of adaptation no less so*'. 
 
 ij Cfr. Grote's "History of Greece", ii., pp. 144-148 on the long period during which the Homeric poems were recited 
 before they were committed to writing. 
 
 2J "Orient und Occident" iii., p. 170. "Dass es einen uralten Zusammenhang zwischeu Indien und dera Westen gab, 
 wissen wir mit Entschiedenheit durch Konig Salomon's Ophirfahrten. Sicherlich waren diess nicht die Siltesten. Die Phoui- 
 cier waren g#wiss schon lange vorher Vermittler des Handels zwischen Indien und dem Westen und wie sie, hochst wahrscheiu- 
 lich, die Schrift nach Indien brachten, mochten sie und vieUeicht ^gypter selbst auch manche andre Culturelemente 
 hiniiber und heriiber bewegt haben." 
 
 3) By F. Lenormant ("Essai sur la propagation de I'alphabet Ph6nicien" Vol. I., pt. I., Table vi.) The author makes 
 the "alphabet primitif du Y6men" the source of both the Himyaritic and Magadhi (H) alphabets. 
 
 *) It is also worthy of notice that all the Southern A9oka Inscriptions from Gujarat to Ganjam (in the Bay of Bengal) are 
 in precisely the same character. This looks as if the art of writing had then first spread over Northern India from the 
 place where it was first used, perhaps Gujarat. In the course of a few hundred years, however, the alphabets used in 
 Gujarat and Bengal had already become so different as to be very little alike in appearance. 
 
— 8 — 
 
 As regard? the second possibility, that the southern A9oka alphabet came from the 
 Himyarites, the great difficulty is to show that the people of S. W. Arabia were in a 
 position to furnish India with the elements of an alphabet so early as the 4th century 
 B. C. It is very remarkable that the Himyaritic character was written from left to right, 
 and t^iat this was an innovation made by the people of Arabia is proved by the boustro- 
 phedon Himyaritic inscriptions that have been recently discovered*^ The difficulty of 
 the direction of the southern A9oka character being from left to right would disappear 
 if the Himyaritic character be assumed to be the original; but it remains to be proved 
 that the civilization of S. W. Arabia had advanced so far already in the fourth century 
 before the Christian era, as to be able to furnish India with a system of writing. It 
 must also be recollected that the Himyaritic alphabet did not mark the vowels, as its 
 derivative, the ^Ethiopic alphabet does. It is to be hoped that the intrepid explorer 
 M. Hal^vy will be able to clear up the very interesting question of the date of the 
 Himyaritic civilization. 
 
 The possibility and probability that the Indian alphabets are derived from an Aramaic 
 type used in Persia, seems not to have been yet considered. The Persian*' or Assyrian 
 cuneiform characters cannot be thought of as a direct source, though the last remained 
 in use up to the first century of our era^' for many purposes; but it is certain that a 
 cursive Aramaic character was already long used, before (in the third century A. D.) 
 it became (in the form of Pahlavi) the most generally used character for the official 
 languages of Persia. The researches of Fresnel and Layard brought to light bricks 
 with inscriptions in cuneiform and also in Egyptian and Semitic characters*', and these 
 go back, probably, to the time of the Achsemenides^'. Whichever of these three probable 
 sources of the Indian alphabets may be accepted, there is a difficulty which seems to 
 have escaped the notice of palseographists — the origin of the manner of indicating vowels 
 in the body of a word. All the three primitive Indian alphabets possess this peculiarity 
 with comparatively unimportant differences, but, though the system closely resembles the 
 
 ') The discovery was originally made by a French traveller some years ago, but has been only recently confirmed. (Letter 
 by von Maltzan in the AUg. Zeitung for March 1st 1871, pp. lo-ll.) 
 
 2) J. Oppert {"Journal Antique" vii^me S6rie, iii. pp. 238 fFg.) has shown that this is the invention of Cyrus, and has 
 given the principle of derivation from the Babylonian cuneiform. • 
 
 3) Oppert in "Melanges d'Arch^ologie ifegyptienne et Assyrienne" fasc. I. p. 27. 
 *) Cfr. Renan, "Histoire des langues S^mitiques," p. 115 etc. 
 
 5) Spiegel, "Grammatik der Huzvaresch Sprache", p. 26: "die spiteren Alphabete Erans verrathea eineu Semitischen 
 Ursprung, und mogen daher vielleicht aus einem friiheren aramSiischen Alphabete stamraen, das. bereits unter dea AchSme- 
 niden neben der Keilschrift ira Gebrauche war." So Sayce ("Principles of Comparative Philology" p. 196): "Clay contract 
 tablets in the British Museum, written in Assyrian cuneiform with Aramaic dockets, indicate that from the reign of Tiglath 
 Pilaser (B. C. 745) downwards Aramaic was the language of commerce throughout the Assyrian world." Lenormant "Essai" 
 I., I. pi. ix., gives specimens of this character which is very near the Phoenician. 
 
— 9 — 
 
 vowel points used by the Semitic races, It seems that there Is not the least evidence for 
 beheving that it was used by these last earlier than at a time when it was ah-eady in 
 use in India. This problem is, perhaps, the most important that awaits solution out of the 
 jnany regarding Indian palaeography. 
 
 A cursory inspection of the alphabet used in the Southern A^oka inscriptions will 
 satisfy any one accustomed to such enquiries, that the character from which it is derived 
 did not comprise a sufficient number of letters, and that new signs were made by altering 
 some of the old ones". This Is, in itself, sufficient proof that the Indian alphabet was 
 adapted, and not an indigenous Invention. Other facts also point to an adaptation from 
 a Semitic character. It Is possible (If the Phoenician origin of the S. A9oka character be 
 admitted) to fix the period when It must have occurred within certain, though wide, 
 limits. The late illustrious scholar Viscount E. de Roug^ has (in his masterly treatise 
 "M^moire sur I'origlne !^gyptienne de I'alphabet Ph^niclen") shown that the Phoenician 
 alphabet was derived from Egyptian signs about the 19th century B. C.^' Another 
 not less eminent Egyptologist has shown that the tribute brought to Thothmes III. (17th 
 century) proves that the Phoenicians had then commercial intercourse with India^^. About 
 the 1 7th century B. C. Is, then, the earliest period at which it is possible to fix the introduc- 
 tion of the alphabet into India. But, again, though the changes in the Phoenician alphabet 
 were, so far as is now known, of a very slight character even during several centuries. 
 It is yet possible, even with the scanty information available, to trace some progress in 
 development, and It Is evident*' that the source of the S. A9oka character must rather 
 be sought In the forms current in Phoenicia in or about the 5th century B. C. or even later 
 than in the earlier forms. The N. alphabet Is, on the contrary, nearer to the older 
 forms, but it in no way concerns the people of S. India. Thus all known facts tend 
 to prove that the earliest date of the Introduction of the Phoenician alphabet into India 
 in what became the S. A9oka character, cannot have been earlier than 500 B. C. and 
 was probably not earlier than 400 B. C. At present, all available information points to a 
 Phoenician-Aramaic origin of the Indian alphabets, but the information Is too scanty 
 to justify a more precise inference. Writing was, certainly, little used in India be- 
 fore 250 B. C. 
 
 1) Mr. Thomas has proved this clearly by his figures on p. 422 of the fifth volume of the New Series of the B. As. Society's 
 Journal. The letters ch, th, dh, th, ph show their origin very clearly. 
 
 2) p. 108. This is now contested by Deecke who considers that the Phoenician alphabet is derived from the cuneiform 
 syllabary. Z. D. D. M. G. xxxi. His attempt is, however, according to so competent an authority as Profr. Sayce {"Academy," 
 xi., p. 557) far from successful. He admits, that the Indian alphabets came from the Phoenician. 
 
 3J Chabas, Etudes, p. 120. 
 
 *) See plate iii. bis, iv., in Lenormant's "Essai" (i). 
 
— lo- 
 in considering the question of the age and extent of the use of writing in India, it 
 is important to point out that the want of suitable materials in the North at least, before 
 the introduction of paper, must have been a great obstacle to its general use. The best 
 material for writing on to be "found in India is the palm leaf; either of the Talipal^ 
 (Corypha umlraculiferd), or of the Palmyra (Borassus flabelUformis). But the former 
 appears to be a recent introduction from Ceylon into S. India, and it is there by no means 
 common even on the West Coast, and is hardly known elsewhere. The palmyra also 
 appears to have been introduced from Ceylon or Tinnevelly into the rest of the Peninsula; 
 it is by no means common out of the South^'. The materials mentioned at an earlier 
 date (excluding lotus leaves and such fancies of poets) almost preclude the existence of 
 Mss. of books or long documents. The 'bhurjapatra' which is understood (apparently 
 on philological grounds — I cannot find out what tree furnishes this singular tissue) to 
 mean the bark of the birch-tree, could not have been available everywhere in large quan- 
 tities, nor would it be very suitable^\ The supposition of those who with Whitney and 
 Bohtlingk assert that writing was, in India, long used only esoterically for composition 
 and the preservation of texts, while the instruction was entirely oral, is, on these grounds 
 almost certainly correct. 
 
 Arrian'^ (quoting Megasthenes) calls the palmyra palm by its proper name (tala)^', 
 but its leaves are not mentioned anywhere by classical writers as affording writing 
 materials used in India. Pliny'^^. indeed mentions palm leaves as used for this purpose, 
 but he refers the practice to Egypt before the discovery of papyrus. 
 
 Paper was probably introduced by the Muhammadans; in all parts of India it appears 
 to be called by some corrupt form of the Arabic name 'kagat'. Its use in S. India is at 
 all events very recent, and even now scarcely ever occurs except among the Mahrati 
 colonists. I have seen a Telugu ms. of a Sanskrit work written about the end of the 
 1 7th century, and Paulinus a St. Bartholemseo notices mss. on paper of the Bhagavata 
 
 1) Voigt. "Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis" p. 640. Roxburgh, however, states that it is "common all over India". 
 (Flora Indica, III. p. 790.) It requires the leaves of many trees to make an ordinary grantha. Palm leaves (there called 
 lontar) were and are used for writing the Kawi or Old Javanese in Java and Bali. When I was in Java I scarcely saw half 
 a dozen of these palms. Cfr. Junghuhn "Java" I. p. 188. 
 
 2) MSS. written on this substance are said to be in existence, but I have not seen any. Cfr. Schlegel's RamSyana I. pp. 
 xv-xvi. A famous MS. on this substance is that of the Paippalada fakha of the Atharvaveda found lately in Cashmere. 
 Dr. Biihler {Journal Bombay As. Soc. No. xxxiv. A. vol. xii. p. 29) calls the tree Baetula Bhojpatra and shows that 
 the bark is common enough in Cashmere. However in considering a question such as this, it is necessary to remember that 
 only indigenous products deserve mention, for in the earlier times commercial facilities did not exist. The oldest MS. yet 
 found in India is on talipat leaves. 
 
 3J "Indica" ed. Dubner, ch. VII., 3 (p. 209). 
 
 *) In S. India the palmyra is called 'tala'; the talipat, 'yritala.' 
 
 5)Ch. XIII., 21. 
 
— 11 — 
 
 (in Travancore i8th century); but the bigoted Hindus of the South still consider this 
 material to be unclean and therefore unfit for writing any book with the least pretence 
 to a sacred character''. 
 
 ->€=5:g_&;?5>^©-f5^::^^-?^<- 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE SOUTH-INDIAN ALPHABETS AND THEII\ 
 
 DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 'P to about the first century A. D. the only written documents which are of a tolerably 
 ^^ certain date, and, thus, of use in S. Indian Palseographical enquiries are the Southern 
 
 Inscriptions of A9oka. Of these three new examples have been lately discovered^', 
 others (of which the existence has long been known) are found at numerous places in 
 India Proper, (which is north of the Vindhya range), from Girnar in Gujarat, to Jogada 
 Naugam in Ganjam'*', the northernmost province of Madras on the Bay of Bengal; but 
 not to the south of the line extending from the one place to the other. What the state 
 of civilization was in the Deccan and Tamil country in the thiird century B. C. it is 
 impossible to say, but Piyadasi addresses his proclamation to kings in the Peninsula 
 in the same sentence with the Greek sovereigns to whom he appeals*'. It is therefore 
 most improbable that the South of India was Buddhist at that time, and it is almost certain 
 that it was not Brahmanized. It is possible to show, historically, how the Brahmans 
 
 l)L. Varthema (who travelled from 1503-1508) remarks that Paper was in his time used in Pegu 'not leaves as at 
 Calicut' (ed. of 1517 f. 61). 
 
 2)Buhler, "Three new Inscriptions of Ayoka", 1877. 
 
 3) 19° 13' 15" N. and 84,° 53' 55" E. The description of the place is given in u report to the Madras* Government re- 
 printed in the Indian Antiquary, I., pp. 219-22I. It was first discovered by Sir W. Elliot (Madras J. VI. N. S. p. 103). 
 
 4) Tablet II. "Evam api samantesu yatha Coda Pa(n)da Satiyaputo Ketalaputa etc.'' The third word is read pacantesu 
 by H. H. Wilson 1), and taken to be for pratyanteshu a word which is not supported by authorities. As p and s, and c and m 
 only differ in a very trifling degree, I venture to read samantesu which is far preferable. Prinsep suggested, and no doubt 
 rightly, that Coda refers to the Cola kingdom in S. India; Profr. H. H. Wilson, however, (pp. 14-15 of his article on the In- 
 scriptions, separately printed from /. B. As. 8. xii.) seems to think that these names refer to the North of India; but as the 
 Cola kingdom of the South was always famous, it does not appear necessary to assume another Cola kingdom in the North 
 as yet unknown. 
 
 The alphabets of these inscriptions are so well known that it is unnecessary to discuss them or give them again here. 
 
 IJ Mr. Burgess's collotype reads paca° 
 
— 12 — 
 
 gradually supplanted the old Buddhist- Jain civilization of the Peninsula, the earliest 
 historical civilization of which there is any record in that part of India; and the fact that 
 the Vedas of the South are the same as those of the North, proves conclusively that 
 thig was done at a time when the Brahmanas and Sutras had been definitely reduced to 
 their present form, or at a time, at all events, not before the Christian era. There is 
 not much historical evidence to prove that there were Brahmans in Southern India before 
 the seventh century A. D., and there is very little to indicate that there were Buddhists 
 or Jains there before that date*'. The exodus of members of both sects from the favoured 
 North to the unattractive South, was, probably, the result of political events in the 
 former country. The Jains as heretics were most likely driven out by the orthodox 
 Buddhists'*, and the Brahmans followed some centuries later, owing to the ceaseless 
 conflicts that had disturbed their original friendliness with the Buddhists, and to foreign 
 invasions. In the South they got the mastery perhaps sooner than in the North. 
 
 At all events, the oldest inscriptions that have been found in Southern India are far 
 from being as old as the A9oka edicts, and the paucity of them — for the only place 
 where they occur is Amaravati — shows that Buddhism cannot have advanced to any 
 considerable extent. The cave hermitages, peculiar to the Buddhists, appear to exist 
 in many other parts of S. India, in the Deccan^' and even near Madras. In a hill about 
 a mile to the east of Chingleput there is a cave now made into a Lihga temple, but 
 which was evidently intended for a Buddhist hermit's cell, and many of the curious caves 
 and monolith temples, at Seven Pagodas appear to have been originally made for the 
 same purpose*'. At Amaravati and at Seven Pagodas'' there are inscriptions of a few 
 words each, which are written in a character precisely similar to that used in the cave 
 inscriptions near Bombay. It is tolerably certain that these last belong to the first 
 century before and the first and second centuries after the Christian era. There is not, 
 however, a S. Indian inscription which can be accepted as genuine with a date before 
 the 5th century of the Christian era, though one or two (without dates) exist which may 
 be safely attributed to the fourth century A. D. The earliest inscriptions belong to 
 
 1) Fa-Hian (A. D. 400) mentions only one Buddhist establishment (? EUora) in the Deccan, and mentions that it was very- 
 difficult to visit S. India in his time. (Seal's "Travels of Buddhist Pilgrims", pp. 139-141.) 
 
 2) Dr. Biihler has ascertained that the Jains are the heretical Buddhists excommunicated at the first Council. I had shown 
 that (in 1872) by 'Nirgranthas' Jains were intended, and Nirgranthas are mentioned in an A9oka Inscription. 
 
 S)J. As. Soc. of Bombay. V., pp. 1 17 ffg. 
 
 *) Hiouen-Thsang appears to have considered Conjeveram [Kien-tchi=Kanci (so also in the Canarese books), which in- 
 scriptions prove to be more correct than the Brahmanical fiction Kanci] to have been the southern limit of Indian Buddhism 
 in his day (c. 640 A. D.). As the Brahmanical system of Qankara sprung up in the next half century, this must have been 
 near the most flourishing period of S. Indian Buddhism, yet Hiouen-Thsang's lamentations over the decayed state of his re- 
 ligion are perpetual. 
 
 5) V. Tripe's "Photographs of the Elliot Marbles etc." (obi. Fc, Madras, 1858), and Trans. R. As. S. ii. 
 
— 13 — 
 
 three dynasties, the Calukya of Kalyanapura in the Deccan, to a as yet nameless dynasty 
 which ruled the country (Vengi) between the Krishna and Godavarl before the middle 
 of the seventh century A. D., and to the Cera dynasties which ruled the modern Mysore, 
 Salem, Coimbatore and part of the Malabar Coast. These three classes of inscriptions 
 present alphabets which, though well marked, are merely varieties of the Cave character, 
 and it is, therefore, impossible to suppose that the civilization now prevailing in S. India 
 but which took its rise in the North originally can really have commenced to work on 
 the South before the earher centuries of the present era. In the tenth and eleventh 
 centuries northern influences commenced again to prevail in parts of the Deccan, and 
 introduced the Devanagari alphabet which has there assumed forms peculiar to the 
 South of India. 
 
 In the S. A9oka inscriptions we find a system of writing precisely similar to that 
 used in later and even the present times, and, as it cannot be of foreign (Semitic^') but 
 must be of Indian origin, it is necessary to remark that the way of writing consonants 
 which follow one another immediately without the intervention of a vowel occurs already 
 in these inscriptions. Thus we find dv, pt, mh, rv, vy, st, stli and sv in the Girnar edict, 
 and the letters are placed above one another just as is done now. In the Rupnath edict 
 vy, occurs. The usage was therefore already general in the 3rd century B. C. Prakrit 
 inscriptions in the Caves show few traces {e.g. st) of this way of writing-', but the Sanskrit 
 inscriptions of the same period furnish many examples. In the Prakrit inscriptions a 
 consonant (as Profr. Kern has shown) is sometimes doubled by a dot before it^'. 
 
 The Cave character chiefly differs from that of the A9oka inscriptions in a preference 
 of angular forms (e. g. in m) where the former has curves. Typical letters are k (in the 
 Cave character, the bottom stroke is lengthened turned up to the left); j which is made 
 very square; 1, v, which are angular compared with the rounded A9oka forms; r is 
 also longer than in the A9oka character. This character was in use over a very large 
 extent of country and accordingly presents slight varieties in form as regards the letters, 
 more in respect of the numerals. If it be necessary to mark this fact, the variations 
 might be (as Dr. Biihler has suggested) distinguished as the Eastern and Western Cave 
 characters. It is not, however, possible at present to utilize fully this distinction 
 in respect of the derivation of the S. Indian alphabets, as the earliest documents in 
 S. India are not of an earlier date than the fourth century A. D., and respecting the 
 course of development during several centuries we have, thus, no information. It was, so 
 
 i)The only primitive system of writing in which letters are ever put above one another is the Egyptian, see Brugsch 
 "Hierog, Grammatik", p. 4. 
 
 2J There are several examples in the Mathura inscriptions. J. B. As. Soc. v. (New Series) pp. 182 flFg. 
 * 3) E. g. in Junnar I. thakapurisa °sa is for °sassa. 
 
14 — 
 
 much may be safely said, very trifling and there is reason to believe that the S. Indian 
 alphabets are derived from the Western Cave character. 
 
 The further discussion of the Cave character would lead me into long details which 
 are beyond my present scope. 
 
 In this chapter I shall consider the different forms of the letters in use at different 
 periods as proved by inscriptions, confining myself entirely to the forms of the letters. 
 But as the history of the expressions of the phonetic elements of the Dravidian is a 
 matter of importance even in palseographical questions, all material that could be dis- 
 covered relating to this subject will be found collected in an Appendix (A). 
 
 The derivation of the South-Indian Alphabets (except the Vatteluttu) may be repre- 
 sented as follows in a tabular form: 
 
 B. C. 250 
 
 S. A9oka character 
 
 I 
 
 A. D. I 
 
 350 
 
 650 
 
 I 
 Cavel) 
 
 Gupta2) 
 
 Oera 
 
 Oalnkya 
 
 Vengi 
 
 Old Grantha Vatteluttu W. Calukya E. Calukya Old Javanese (Kawi) 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I I 
 
 1300 Old Tulu-Malayalam Middle Gr. 
 
 1400 
 
 Transitional 
 
 I 
 Hala-kannada 
 
 Old Telugu 
 
 1600 Tulu Malayalam Grantha Tamil Canarese 
 
 Nagari 
 
 Old Nandi-NSgari 
 
 Telugu Modern Nandi-Nagari 
 
 Javanese etc. 
 
 1) Tke Cave inscriptions and the character used for them etc. are discussed in the Bombay Journal: I. pp. 488-443 (Caves 
 of Beira and Bajah near Karli, by Westergaard) ; II. pt. ii., pp. 36-87 (General Description of all the Caves, by Dr. J. Wilson); 
 III. pp. 71-108 (Bird); IV. pp. 132-4 (Inscriptions at Salsette, by Stevenson); pp. 340-379 (Second Memoir, by Dr. Wilson); 
 V. pp. 1-34 (Kanheri Inscriptions, by Stevenson); do: pp. 35-57 (Nasik Cave Inscriptions, by the same); do: pp. 117-123 
 (Cave-temples etc. in the Nizam's Dominions, by Bradley); do: pp. 151-178 and 426-428 (Sahyadri Caves, by Stevenson); do: 
 pp. 336-348 (Caves at Koolvee in Malwa, by Impey); do: pp. 543-573 (Caves of Bagh in Rath, by the same); VI. pp. 1-14 
 (Kanheri Inscriptions, by E. W. West); do: pp. 116-120 (Kanheri Topes, by the same); do: pp. 157-160 (Excavations at 
 Kanheri, by the same); VII. pp. 37-52 (Nasik Cave Inscriptions, by E. W. and A. A. West); do: pp. 53-74 (Ajanta In- 
 scriptions, by Bhau Daji); do: pp. 113-131 (Junagar Inscriptions, by Bhau Daji); VIII. pp. 222-224 (Bedsa Cave Inscriptions, 
 by A. A. West); do: pp. 225-233 (Cave and Sah Numerals, by Bhau Daji); do: pp. 234-5 (Inscription at Jusdun, by the 
 same). "Indian Antiquary", ii., pp. 245-6. (Ramgarh, Chota Nagpur); iii., pp. 269-274 (Ajanta); vi., pp. 33-44 (Junnar). 
 There is also much on these caves in Mr. Burgess's works on Archaeology. Weber, "Indische Studien" xiv., (explanation 
 of Junnar Inscriptions, by Profr. Kern). Kuda and NanSghat Oave Inscriptions (by Mr. Burgess) 2 sheets folio, circu- 
 lated by the Bombay Government, 1877. Some of these are of a very archaic character and must be not much later than the 
 A9oka edicts. See also Transactions of the Oriental Congress for 1874. 
 
 2) Specimens of this character are to be found in the Bengal Journal and in Cunningham's "Reports". (I. p. 94 etc.) 
 
— 15 — 
 
 The names that I have given to the different characters in use in S. India at different 
 periods, are mostly derived from the names of the dynasties under which they obtained 
 currency; for a change of dynasty in S. India generally brought about a change of 
 even such details as -the form of royal grants, and these constitute almost the entire 
 palaeographic material existing from the earlier times. 
 
 § 1. TELUGU-CANARESE ALPHABETS. 
 
 Of the South-Indian alphabets, the most important from every point of view are the 
 Telugu and Canarese. The parts of the Peninsula where these characters have been 
 developed have been of the greatest importance in the political and literary history of 
 the South, and chronologically they are the first. 
 
 The earliest documents existing belong to the Telugu country comprising the deltas 
 of the Krishna and Godavarl, where also, at Amaravati, the most important Buddhist 
 remains in the South, have been found. The origin of this kingdom does not probably 
 go back beyond the second century A. D., for it is not mentioned in Ptolemy or by the 
 Periplus of the Red Sea by the name found in the inscriptions — Vehgide9a — or even 
 by the later name Andhra used by Hiouen-Thsang (7th century'^). The names and 
 dates of the kings are quite uncertain, for only two grants of this dynasty appear to be 
 in existence, and one of these is almost entirely illegible^'. The dates they bear, are also, 
 like those of all early inscriptions, merely the year of the king's reign, and this is not 
 referred to any era. This dynasty was supplanted in the beginning of the seventh 
 century A. D. by a branch of the Calukyas already established at Kalyana about the 
 beginning of the fifth century A. D. and which is the first historical dynasty of the Deccan. 
 It appears that the Pallava kings of Conjeveram belonged to the Vengi family; probably 
 Conjeveram was a dependent province which became their chief place after the conquest 
 of Vehgi by the Calukyas. 
 
 Taking Fa-Hian's account of the Deccan (400 A. D.) it is excessively improbable 
 that the history of that part will ever be traced back to an earlier date. 
 
 1) There is not the least mention of any Telugu kingdoms in the A9oka Inscriptions. Probably that part of India was 
 not then civilized at aU, but inhabited by wild hiU-tribes. 
 
 2) Mr. Fleet, I regret to say, also gives up all hope of reading the second inscription. 
 
— 16 — 
 
 A. The Vefigi Alphabet. (^Plates i. and xxiv.) 
 
 Compared with the Cave character the Vengi alphabet presents little development, 
 and I think that this fact justifies the date I have assigned to the specimen given in 
 Plate xxiv.'^ 
 
 In a the curl at the foot which distinguishes this letter from the short a is extended, 
 and this is a peculiarity which appears only in this character. 
 
 The perpendicular strokes on the left sides of j and b are here curved, as are the 
 top and bottom lines of n. 
 
 V in the second inscription to which I have referred, is represented by a triangular 
 form disproportionately large compared with the other letters, and thus very near the 
 Cave form. 
 
 The suffixed forms of the vowels differ somewhat from those in the Cave character. 
 
 i which is in the last represented by a semicircle open to the left is here open to- 
 wards the top of the consonant which it follows or is united to it; i which was originally 
 represented by a semicircle open above and attached to the consonant, or by a semicircle 
 open to the right is here represented by a curl which marks the long vowel very clearly. 
 
 u which was originally marked by a semicircle open at the bottom, and under the 
 consonant it follows, is here represented by a highly characteristic curved form which 
 does not appear in any other alphabet. 
 
 In the compound consonants the second and third letters still retain their complete 
 original form. The superscript r still preserves the straight line of the original r of the 
 A9oka inscriptions. 
 
 r is here represented by a form that occasionally occurs in the inscriptions of the 
 
 ' ) That the dynasty, to which the inscription given in Plate xxiv. belongs, preceded the Calnkyas was first pointed 
 out by Sir W. Elliot in the Madras Journal (Vol. xi. pp. 302-6). The capital (Vengi) appears to have entirely vanished; 
 it is said to have been the place now called Pedda Vengi or Vegi in the Krishna District, but there are several places of 
 the same name in the neighbourhood. As in the Telugu Mahabharata which belongs to the twelfth century A. D. Rajah- 
 mundry is called the Nayakaratnam of Vengide9a, the old capital must have been deserted long before that time. Hiouen- 
 Thsang (iii., pp. 105-110) calls the small kingdom that he visited "An-ta-lo' (Andhra) and the capital— 'Ping-k'i-lo'. It 
 appears to me that this is intended for Vengi; the 'lo' being merely the locative suffix '-16' of the Telugu nouns, naturally 
 mistaken by the worthy Chinese pilgrim monk for a part of the word. So the Portuguese called ^alayam — Chaliatta, using 
 the inflected form of the narad. Julien's suggestion 'Viukhila' only fails in there not being the slightest trace of such a place. 
 The -i in Vengi is uncertain; it occurs both short and long in the Sanskrit inscriptions. In Canarese it is certainly short; 
 in Tamil the name appears as Ven^ai (great inscription of Tanjore), and this indicates a short vowel, Vengi seems to be a 
 Sanskritized form of Vengi. cfr. Karici for Kaiisi etc. Vengi seems impossible as a Dravidian word. Vengo also occurs, 
 
 'Andhra' is properly the name of the country between the two rivers, and only became synonymous with 'Telugu' owing 
 to that kingdom being the native place of the writers in and on Telugu in the twelfth and following centuries. 
 
— 17 — 
 
 W. Calukyas up to the end of the sixth century, viz., with a short loop turned to the left. 
 In the E. Calukya deeds the loop is generally turned to the right, if it is not complete. 
 
 Final m is represented by a small m less than the other letters, which is also peculiar 
 to the Vengi character. The existence of a distinct sign for upadhmanlya (o) etc. is 
 especially worthy of notice, as proving that the Sanskrit alphabet was in the fourth century 
 A. D. already adapted to suit the niceties of the grammarians. This character has also 
 a sign X for the vajrakriti {i.e. h before k and kh) as has been indicated by Mr. Fleet. 
 
 As in the Cave inscriptions, so also here, we find that a small cross-stroke or thicken- 
 ing of the top end of the line is made in all cases where the letters begin with a perpen- 
 dicular stroke downwards. The character of the Vengi inscriptions is angular like that 
 of the Caves, whereas the A9oka letters are rounder. 
 
 The cross stroke has, no doubt, arisen from the necessity of marking clearly the 
 end of the line, especially in inscriptions on stone, but, developed in the course of time, 
 it has become the angular mark ^ above some Telugu and Canarese consonants which 
 has been strangely imagined to be the short vowel a. This error was started by the 
 first Telugu Grammar by A. D. Campbell'-', but has been constantly repeated down to 
 the present time without any reason at alP\ 
 
 On the inscriptions in this character in Java, and on the early Kawi (Old Javanese) 
 character, see Appendix B. 
 
 B. Westerr\ Calukya''. {Plates iii., iv. and xxv.) 
 
 The earliest specimen of the Western Calukya character was, hitherto, supposed to 
 be a grant by Pulake9l, dated 9. 41 1 (or A. D. 489), and of which an abstract is given 
 in the Journal of the R. Asiatic Society*'. This has, however, been found by Mr. Fleet 
 
 1) Second edition (1820) p. 3. The error is probably of native origin as this mark is called in Telugu— talakattu. 
 
 2) See the last published Telugu Grammar by the Rev. A. Arden (1873) p. 7 where it is called a 'secondary' form of a. 
 3J The origin of this name (which is also written Calukya, Callukya, Caulukya, Calikya and Calkya) is obscure. A grant 
 
 of 1086 (E. of p. 21 n.) mentions a 'Calukyagiri' where Gauri was worshipped (see next page). But the event to wbich this 
 passage refers, must — if it ever occurred— be put about the 4th century A. D. or some seven hundred years before the date 
 of the inscription which records it! I am unable to find any other traces of this hill; it may be one of the numerous 
 mountains in Central India where barbarous rites (as described by Colebrooke and, in later times, by Forsyth) still prevail. 
 The legend evidently belongs to a comparatively recent period in the history of the family, and when it had become of great 
 consideration in Central India. The family appears to have been known even in Java; in a document of 841 A. D. an 
 interesting list of names of countries occurs: "kling, . . .gola, tjwalika, malyalS, karnake". . .kling=kalinga; gola is correctly 
 copied from the original plate, but it must be for Cola; tjvalika (cvalika) = calukya ; malyala=malayala; karnake may per- 
 haps be read karnataka; anyhow, it is plain what is intended '[Cohen-Stuart, "Kawi Gorkonden," p. 8 (tekst) and 5 b., 4 
 of the facsimile]. A purely mythical explanation of the name has been found (by Mr. Fleet) in an inscription; this derives 
 the name from culuka= a water-pot! I. A. vi., p. 74. Cfr. also Vikramanikadevacarita I., 46, for the same derivation. 
 
 *) Vol. v. pp. 343 fig. Mr. Fleet has sent me a photograph of a leaf. The Tamil inscriptions of the nth century 
 (Tanjore and Seven Pagodas) call this kingdom "iratta-padi (i.e. Reddi-kingdom) seven and a half lakhs." 
 
— 18 — 
 
 to be a recent forgery; the character of the writing, I find, makes this perfectly evident. 
 The earliest I can use is, however, a grant on copper plate, of Mangala of about 
 578 A. D. which is a little before the most flourishing period of the Calukyas in the 
 beginning of the seventh century A. D.'' It is not the earliest known authentic grant of 
 
 1 The defeat of Harshavarddhana, the king of Kanoj, by a Calukya which is satisfactorily established by Cunningham 
 ("Reports" i., pp. 280-282), shows the rapid growth in power of the Calukyas of Kalyanapura. This defeat was not, how- 
 ever, by Vikramaditya (as Genl. Cunningham states) but by Satyayraya, his father, as is proved by several inscriptions 
 One (in possession of a Jain acarya at Hyderabad) has: (^rl-Pulakefimaharajasya prapautraA. . . .^ri-K!rtivarmapri(thi)vi- 
 vallabhamaharajasya pautraA samarasamsaktasakalottarapatheyvara^rJ-Harshavarddhanaparaja(yopala)abdhaparameyvarapa- 
 ranamadheyasya Satyayrayayriprithivlvallabha. .sya priyatanaya^ etc. Another (photographed in the Mysore collection 
 has nearly the same phrase: . . . .Qri-Harshavarddhanaparajayopalabdhaparameyvaraparanaraadheya^ Saty5yrayayriprithivi 
 vallabhamahadhirajaparameyvaras etc. This defeat must be put near the end of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century, 
 The genealogy of the dynasty of these kings was first given by Sir W. Elliot in the London Asiatic Society^s Journal; 
 and his paper was afterwards reprinted with corrections in the Madras Journal (vol. vii., pp. 193-2 11). With a few 
 additional corrections required by inscriptions since discovered, and some of which were pointed out by Lassen (I., A. K. iv.), 
 also omitting the mythical beginnings of the dynasty, the table is as follows: — 
 Pulakeyi-Vallabha or Pulikeyi, Polakeyi or Polakey! 1) 
 
 Klrttivarma Prithivlvallabha I. 
 
 Mangaliya (ascended the throne 566 A. D.2) was reigning in 578) 
 
 I 
 Satyayraya-Qriprithivlvallabha (or S. Vallabhendra Kubjavishnuvarddhana (Eastern Calukyas. See next 
 
 or Pulakeyi) began to reign separately in 610 A. D.3) Table, pp. 19-20) was probably reigning in 607 A. D. 
 
 Candraditya 
 and Vijayabhattarika 
 
 Vikramaditya I. 652-3 — 680. According to the Kon'juOesarajakkal, ^ankaracarya lived 
 
 during this reign, a, statement nearly correct. 
 
 Vinayaditya-Yuddhamalla I. (V. Satyayraya) began to reign in y. 602 = 680 A. D. 
 
 Vijayaditya began to reign in y. 617 (695 A. D.) 
 
 I _ I 
 
 Vikramaditya II. and Lokamahadevi * * * * 
 
 began to reign in y. 655 (733 A. D.) ; 
 invaded Conjeverara (Fleet in /. A. vi. p. 85) 
 
 ICirttivarma II. Kirttivarma III. 
 
 I 
 
 o It is necessary to remark that this genealogy and dates can only be regarded as provisional, not as definite. 
 
 1) A grant of 1086-7 A. D. (referred to as E on p. 21, n.) traces the Calukya family to the Somavamsa through a number 
 of mythological personages and kings of Ayodhya to a Vijayaditya who: vijlgTshaya Daxinapatham gatva Trilocanapallavam 
 adhixipya daivadurihaya lokamttaram agamat. Tasmin samkule purohitena vriddhamatyaig oa sarddham anta(r)vva(ti pa)tnT 
 tasya Mahajavimurilemunamagraharam upagamya tadvastavyena Vishuubhattasomayajlna duhitrinirvvijesham abhiraxita sati 
 Vishnuvarddhanan namdanam asuta; sa ca tasya kumarakasya k(a)lakramopetani karmani k(a)rayitva tarn avarddhayat; sa 
 ca matra viditavrittanto niggitya (? nirgatya) Calukyaglrau NamdabhagavatTm G-aurim aradhya KumarauarayanamatrigauamQ 
 ca eamttarpya 5vet(a)tapatraika9anikhapa»iooamaha5abdadTni kulakramagatiini nix(i)ptani ***** ^^ * samadaya Kadamba- 
 gangadibhumipan nirjitya SetuNarmadamadhyam daxinapathan palayam aaa. Tasya Siddijayadityo Viahnuvarddhanabhii- 
 patiA Pallavanvayajataya Mahadevyij ca nandanaA. | tatsataA PulakejivallabhaA; tatputra^ KTrttivarmma. Tasya tanayaA 
 . . . . Satyagrayavallabhendrasya bhrata Kubjavishnuvarddhano dvadaja varshaul Vengidejam apalayat etc. 
 
 2) This date is due to Profr. Eggeling. 
 
 3) See Mr. Fleet's remarks Indian Antiquary , vi. p. 73. 
 
— 19 — 
 
 this dynasty; for there is an inscription of Mangall9vara d. 9. 500 in the Badami cave, 
 but. this is not accessible to me. The Aihole inscription is ^. 9. 556 as finally read by 
 Mr. Fleet ^'. 
 
 All these inscriptions are in an upright square hand with the letters very well formed; 
 the forgeries (of which there are several) do not imitate this style, but resemble the in- 
 scriptions of their real dates. 
 
 So far the flourishing older dynasty of the Calukyas, which after Vikramaditya II. appears to have been for a time almost 
 overthrown by feudatories such as the Rashtrakuta, Kalabhurya, and Yadava chiefs, and the history of this kingdom is, thus, 
 very obscure for the eighth and ninth centuries. With Tailapa the restorer of the Calukya power in the later dynasty, all 
 once more becomes tolerably certain, especially as regards the dates of the reigns. A very poetical account of the first sove- 
 reigns of this line is given in Bilhana's Vikramankadevacarita; it is often contradicted in details by the Cola inscriptions. 
 
 Tailapa 
 
 Bhimaraja 
 
 Ayyana 
 
 Vijitaditya (Vikramaditya, Satyayraya) m. Bonta Devi (f. 895-919=973-997 A. D.) restorer of the dynasty 
 
 Tailabhupa- Vikramaditya III. 
 
 Satya9raya m. Ambika Devi (Dasavarma m. Bhagavati Devi) 
 
 (? 9. 919-930=997-1008 A.D.) 
 
 I I I 
 
 Vibhuvikrama- Vikramaditya IV. (Ayyana) Jayasimha (Jagadekamalla) 
 
 (? 9 930-940 = 1008-1018 A. D.) (? 9. 940-962 = 1018-1040 A.D.) 
 
 (not mentioned by Bilhana) (mentioned in the Tanjore inscription) 
 
 Some9vara Deva (Trailokyamalla, 
 Ahavamalla) I. (? 9. 962-991 = 1040-1069 A. D.) (took Dhara) 
 
 Some9vara Deva II. (Soyi or Sovi Deva) Vikramaditya V. (Kalivikrama) Jayasimha 
 
 (? 9. 991-298 = 1069-1076 A.D.) (9. 998-1049 = 1076-1127 A.D.) (viceroy in Banavasi) 
 
 Some9vara Deva III. (Bhalokaiualla) 
 (9. 1049-1060 = 1127-1138 A.D.) 
 
 i i 
 
 Jagadekamalla Tailapa II. (Trailokyamalla) 
 
 (9. 1060-1072=1138-1150 A.D.) (9. 1072-1104=1150-1182 A. D.) 
 
 Virasome9vara IV. (Tribhuvanamalla) 
 (9. 1104-1111 = 1182-1189 A.D.) 
 Mr. Fleet has pointed out (Indian Antiquary, vii., p. 20) that the form 'Calukya' was used by this later dynasty. 
 
 ') I owe a facsimile of Mangala's inscription to Mr. Fleet; he has edited it in the Indian Antiquary, vol. vii., p. 161. 
 
— 20 — 
 
 A feature common to all the later inscriptions of the Western Calukyas but which 
 does not occur in any others, is a marked slope of the letters to the right. The Eastern 
 Calukya character is, on the other hand, remarkably square and upright; this distinction 
 is quite sufficient, after 650 A. D., to show the origin of an inscription. 
 
 Somewhat later, about 700 A. D., is the beginning of the change in writing subscript 
 vowels which afterwards formed the chief difference between the Telugu-Canarese 
 alphabets on the one hand, and the Grantha on the other — a tendency to bring the 
 marks for a, e and 6 from the side of the consonant to which they are attached to the 
 top, and again to bring the mark for a subscript form from underneath the consonant to 
 its right side. The character in PI. iv. (690 A. D.) uses almost universally the older form 
 (cfr. ku, tu, etc. in PI. iv.). 
 
 Only the cursive forms of a and a occur in the later inscriptions of the Western 
 Calukyas after about 650 A. D., so far as they are known to me, and this again distin- 
 guishes them from those of the Eastern dynasty which preserve most generally the older 
 forms of these letters up to the middle of the tenth century, though we find both forms 
 co-existing in inscriptions of the eighth and ninth centuries. 
 
 The W. Calukya method of writing r above a following consonant is primitive, like 
 the Vengi, and differs from the Cera form (see PI. ii.); it did not last long, for about 700 
 A. D. the r is made clearer by a slope to the right, and this (between 1 200 and 1 300 
 A. D.) developed into the modern Telugu form, and then, at last, was written separate 
 to the right of the consonant it precedes in utterance. 
 
 Ch appears at the time of the oldest South-Indian inscriptions to have had the form 
 of N (cfr. pi. iv. cch); in the modern alphabets this is quite lost, and this letter has the 
 ordinary form of c with the addition of a small stroke underneath, such as marks the 
 aspirate in q5, ^ etc. 
 
 Interesting as the inscriptions of the Western Calukyas are historically, owing to the 
 synchronisms with events in the history of Northern India that they exhibit, they are 
 but of little importance in the literary history of the South of India; for it is certain that 
 the kings of Kalyanapura always favored the culture of the north ' . 
 
 With the temporary fall of this dynasty the Western Calukya alphabet appears to 
 have gone entirely out of use^*. 
 
 The earlier Kadamba inscriptions are in a character very near what is here 
 described. 
 
 1) Vidyapati of Somefvaradeva (Ahavamalla) I. (1040-1069) was Bilhana, a native of Cashmere. 
 
 2) Several of the inscriptions of this earlier dynasty have already been published in the Journal of the B. Asiatic Society 
 of London, andin the Bombay Journal. (See for the last: Vol. ii., 1-12, pp. 262-3; Vol. iii., pp. 203-213. The first 
 
21 
 
 C. Eastern Calukya. {Plates v., vi. and xxvii., xxviii.) 
 
 In the early history of the Dravidian part of India, this dynasty is of the greatest 
 importance, but as yet no account of it has been pubHshed. It succeeded the Vengi 
 kings early in the seventh century, not long after the famous defeat of Harshavardhana 
 by Satya9raya of Kalyanapura, and was founded by his younger brother '>. In the 
 
 of the grants described belongs to the reign of Vijayaditya, and is dated, f. 627 = A. D. 705. The second is dated in the 
 tenth year of Vijayaditya; the third appears to belong to a feudatory). Facsimiles of some from the sixth to about the 
 fourteenth century are given in the "Collection of Photographic Copies of Inscriptions in Dharwar and Mysore" published 
 by the Committee of the Architectural Antiquities of Western India. See also I. A. i., p. 80 (Tribhuvanamalla 1083 A. D.); 
 p. 141 (? Somejvaradeva ii., 875 A.D.); iii., p. 305 (Mangali9a of 578 A.D.); iv., p. 278 (Jayasimha ii., A.D. 1028); v., p. 
 67 (Pulake9i ii., 585 A. D.); p. 342 (in the reign of Vikramaditya, 1093 A. D.); vi., pp. 72-8 (Satya9raya, 613 A. D. and a 
 doubtful one of Vikraraaditya i., without date); pp. 85-94. (Vinayaditya, 690 A.D.; do: 692 A. D.; do: 695 A. D.); p. 
 137-142 (Vikramadityatribhuvanamalla, A.D. 1096; Jagadekamalla, ? 1 139 A.D.)— nearly all by Mr. Fleet. 
 
 1) The dynasty is given as follows in a number of inscriptions which I have been able to consult; nearly all of which (an 
 unparalleled circumstance in India) give the number of years that the several kings reigned. A. (from Masulipatam) d. 5th 
 year of Vishnuvardhaua II. B. (in the Nellore Sub-Collector's Offi ce on five plates) contains a grant by Yuddhamalla (about 
 950). C. on five plates (? the Godavari Collector's Office) ci. 5. 867 = 945 A. D., being in the reign of Ammaraja. D.agrant 
 of Kulottuhga-Coja-Deva, d. 1085 A. D. E. = a grant by Kulottunga in the 23rd year of his reign (= 1087) from Pittapur. 
 F. a grant by Kulottunga (Viracoladeva) son of Vikramacoladeva, d. 9. 1056= 1134 A. D. 
 
 The number of years each king reigned follows in ( ) his name. Those names which are not of actual sovereigns of Vengi 
 are in spaced type. 
 
 KirttivarmS (see above, p. 16 n.) 
 
 Satyayrayavallabhendra Kubjavishnuvardhana I. (18) about 620 A. D. 
 
 Jayasimhavallabha I. (30)!) 
 
 Indrabhattaraka (Indraraja D.) 
 
 Rajanandana-Vishnuvardhana II. (9)^) 
 
 Mahgi(-yuvaraja D.); E. omits the name and h as only tatsnnur mma (sic) yuvarajafe (25) 
 
 (I) Jayasimhavallabha n. (E. Jayasimha) (13) 
 
 (2) KokkiU (Kokili, Kaikkili) (6 months) 
 
 (3) Vishnuvardhana HI. (37)8) 
 
 (5aktivarma)Vijayadityabhattaraka I. (18; 16 according to E.) 
 
 I) B. D. S. F. make Jayasimha reign 33 years. 
 
 ^) A. "QrikTrttivarmana^ pranapta QrTvishuuTarddhanamaharajaBya napt(a) Qrijayasimhavallabhamaharajasya 
 
 priyabhratur anekayuddhalankiitajarirasye 'ndrabhattaiakasya priyatanaya^ jriman Yishnnvarddbanamaharaja^" etc. D. F. 
 make Indrabhattaraka reign for seven days. 
 
 3) D. has: "tasya (i.e. Kokkile^) jyeshto bhrata tam ncchatya saptatrim^at. 
 
— 22 — 
 
 inscriptions of this dynasty their territory is often called Vengi, and it forms the second 
 and last Vengi dynasty. 
 
 Vishnuvardhana IV. (30)1) 
 
 I 
 VijaySditya-Narendra-Mrigaraja II. (48 according to E. 40) 
 
 Kalivishuuvardhana V. (l year 6 months) 2) 
 
 Gunanka-Vijayaditya (E. Gunaugavijayaditya) 
 
 III. (44; but according to F. 40 only) 
 
 Vikramaditya Yuvaraja 
 
 Calukya-Bhima (30) 
 
 Y u d d h a m a 1 1 a 
 
 Kollabhiganda-Vijayaditya (6 mouths)^) 
 Ammaraja (7) 
 
 Vijayaditya 
 
 Vikramaditya (11 months) 
 
 Raja-Bhima (I2)5) 
 
 I 
 Ammaraja II. (25) 
 
 I 
 Dananripa (?) (3)^) 
 
 ? * * * * (25) 
 
 Tarapa (i month)*) 
 
 ° I 
 
 Yuddhamalla (7) 
 
 Time of anarchy ? 
 
 ^aktivarma (12) 
 
 Vimaladitya (7) 
 
 Vimaladitya was succeeded by Rajaraja Cola owing (it is stated) to an intermarriage of the Colas and Kalinga Calukyas, 
 which really occurred. His son Kulottunga succeeded him in 1064 A. D. (Madras Jov/rnal, xiii., Pt. 2, p. 40), and as 
 Rajaraja reigned 41 years (D. E. and F.) this makes the date of the end of Vimaladitya's reign to be 1023 A. D. Both 
 D. and E. explicitly term Rajaraja son of Vimaladitya. For the passage in E. see note 4 below. The Tamil inscriptions 
 (e.g. the inscription at Tanjore) state that VenginSdu was conquered; Indian history shows that such marriages as the one 
 mentioned above, were always the result of a conquest. 
 
 1) D. F. make his reign last 36 years. E. makes it 26. 
 
 ^) C. F. have: dyyardhararshani; B. — Ashtadasa niasa(n); D. — dvyardhaTarsham. E. has: adhyardhavarsham ; is this 
 a mistake in copying an older document? 
 
 3) E. has eleven months. 
 
 4) D. B. — Tadapa. E. omits the length of this reign. 
 
 5) D. tam uoohatya di§ad Ammaraj(a)nujo EajabhTma^ dvadafa varshani. 
 
 6) In D. only the years are clearly legible. B. has after Ammaraja II. ta(j)jyejhto Dana* * as trimgat; tatputra(A) §aktl- 
 varma dvadaga; tadanujaVimaladityas sapta; tatputro Rajarajadeva ekacatjarlmgat; tatputra(A) (riKuIottungacodadeva 
 ekonapanoa§at etc. E. has: tatsnnur Ammaraja^ pancavimgatim; tasya dvaimaturo Dananripa/i trini; tatas saptavimgativar- 
 Shani devadurihaya Tengimahir anayika 'bhavat; tato Danannavasuta/i Qaktlvarmanripo dvada(5a) varshani bhum apalayat; 
 tatas tadanujas sapta vatsariin bhutavatsala/i Yimaladitya (sic) bhnpalayamasa medinT(m) | tattanayanayagali jayalaxmT- 
 dhama KajanarendraA catvaritngatam abdan ekam ca punar mahim apalayad akhilam etc. The causes of the time of anarchy 
 at the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th century are not known, but may be fairly attributed to the Cola invasions. 
 At the beginning of the 11th century (see Tennent's "Ceylon" i., p. 402) the Colas had conquered that island, and not long 
 after they must have effected the successful invasion of Bengal which is recorded in the great inscription at Tanjore. 
 
— 23 — 
 
 This dynasty is of the greatest importance so far as S. India is concerned, for it can 
 be traced with some certainty, and affords clues to the dates of important events. 
 
 The earliest inscription I have seen, is a grant by the first sovereign Vishnuvardhana 
 I.; it is on copper-plates, and was found in the Vijayanagaram Zamindary in 1867 (PL 
 xxvii.). Except in regularity and neatness, the character of the writing of this document 
 differs very little from that already described as the Vehgi character, and does not ex- 
 hibit any cursive forms; these first appear in the latter part of the seventh century. 
 
 The chief distinctions between the characters used for the Western and Eastern 
 Kaliiiga'^ inscriptions have already been given. As the two countries were under 
 branches of the same royal family about the same periods, it is convenient to call the 
 respective characters after the two dynasties of the Calukyas; but it must be recollected 
 that there is no real connection between them palaeographically, except so far as their 
 common origin through the 'Cave character' is in question. 
 
 The decided tendency of the Eastern Calukya character to preserve archaic forms, 
 clearly distinguishes it from the character used under the Western dynasty. This last 
 seems to have been affected by the North-Indian early Nagari, as it almost copies 
 
 C. carries the genealogy down to Ammaraja, and it is dated 945 A. D. in his reign. The grants D. and E. would make 
 the beginning of his reign four and six years respectively after this date. The discrepancy is not, however, sufficient to 
 throw doubts' on the list given above, and is probably owing to the uncertainty of the ^aka era. It is obvious that the 
 number of entire years of most reigns only being given, the list cannot be absolutely correct. 
 
 The total of the reigns of sovereigns of this dynasty amounts to about 403 years, which brings the first year of Kubja 
 Vishnuvardhana to about 620 A. D., and as his elder brother Satyajraya reigned in Kalyanapura about 600 A. D., this date 
 is by no means improbable. It is nevertheless impossible to suppose that the Kalinga Calukyas were established in the old 
 Vengi kingdom for some years after that date. Thus the grant printed in pi. xxvii. was found far north (in Vizagapatam), 
 and it seems probable that the Calukyas first seized the northern part of the Telugu sea-coast, and then conquered the south. 
 The eclipse mentioned in the earliest known grant of this dynasty (see App. C. and plate xxvii.) shows that Vishnuvardhana 
 was reigning in 622 A. D. 
 
 1) Kalinga, or rather Tri-kalinga is a very old name for the greater part of the Telugu Coast on the Bay of Bengal. The 
 latest mention I know, is in the grant of Yuddhamalla (already referred to as B.), which says of this king (about 950 A. D.) 
 "Vehgibhuva^ patir abhu(t) TrikalihgakotteA" (4 line 3). Hiouen-Thsang also mentions Kalinga (7th cent.). Pliny (vi., 67 
 of the edition published by Teubner) says : "Insula in G-ange est magnse amplitudiais gentem continens unam, nomine Modo- 
 galihgam." Dr. Caldwell (Comp. Gr. pp. 64-5) took this to be for the old Telugu, 'Modoga and linga' and to mean 
 "three-lihgas", and, thus, accepted the native etymology of 'Telugu'. There can be no doubt that it is merely Mudu-Kalihga 
 or Three Kalihgas, and has nothing to do with linga. The native etymology of 'Telugu' first occurs, I believe, in the 
 Karika of AtharvanScarya who copied and quotes Hemacandra, and therefore could not have lived before the thirteenth 
 century. In his second edition, however. Dr. Caldwell gives up this explanation (p. 32). 
 
 'Telugu' is evidently from a common Dravidian root V tel or V tel') which means 'to be clear or bright', and the 
 Trilihga theory is certainly not supported (as Dr. Caldwell appears to think) by Ptolemy's Triglypton or Trilingon (vi:., 2, 
 23), which is most probably a copyist's error for Trikalingon. At all events a derivative of 'glypho' could never mean 
 linga. Cunningham ("Ancient Geography of India," p. 519) recognizes three Kaliugas, and rightly doubts the name 
 having anything to do with linga. 
 
 1) Tamil: l=Tel: 1; Dr< Caldwell "Comp. Gr." p. 194. A. D. Campbell suggested this derivation: Tel. Gr. p. vi. 
 
— 24 — 
 
 the horizontal stroke at the top of letters used in the latter. It also uses cursive forms 
 to a large extent. 
 
 The Plates iii., iv. and v., if compared, will show how correct is the account by 
 Hiouen-Thsang (about 640 A. D.) of the writing used in his time in the Deccan and 
 on the sea-coast. He says'^: "La langne et la prononciation different beaucoup de 
 celles de I'lnde centrale; mais la forme des caracteres est en grande partie la meme." 
 
 All unquestionable grants by kings of both the Calukya dynasties that I have met 
 with are in Sanskrit. The later they are, the greater is the neglect of the minute rules 
 for orthography laid down by the Sanskrit grammarians, especially as regards the use 
 of the bindu. I shall give a summary of the results that I have ascertained, further on, 
 in describing the modern alphabets used in the Telugu and Canarese countries, (p. 29.) 
 It is, perhaps, to be regretted that editors of Sanskrit texts, in these days, are in the habit 
 of restoring exactly the orthography of the earliest grammarians; if we rightly do so in 
 the case of Vedic texts where the MSS. justify this course, as well as the fact that we 
 have here to deal with relics of a time when Sanskrit was a living language, the case of 
 most texts is quite different; they were written long after Sanskrit had become a 
 dead language, and represent no real pronunciation; to complicate the orthography 
 of such texts is unmeaning p edantry, and can lead to no good result^' . It is certain that 
 their authors (often profound grammarians) never followed the primitive orthography — 
 why should foreign editors in the present day? The oldest inscriptions (e.g. Girnar) 
 use the bindu for m in the cases where- it does not represent m before h, and this is the 
 only exception. 
 
 I may, however, here properly call attention to the remarkable practical results of 
 the minute studies of the early Indian grammarians as regards the analysis of Sanskrit 
 phonetics. When the Brahmans from the North of India introduced literary culture 
 to the Dravidians (except probably the Tamil race) and to the Polynesians, they came 
 armed with the results of these studies which might seem of not the least practical value, 
 but it would be difficult to find a clearer instance of the ultimate practical utility of the 
 most recondite scientific research; for they were thus able, in what was certainly a very 
 short space of time, to furnish a number of foreign and uncultivated languages with 
 admirably exact phonetic systems of writing, and to this alone is to be attributed the rapid 
 growth of indigenous literatures among those peoples. The merit of this work will be 
 more apparent, if one compares it with early attempts of Europeans in the same way. 
 
 1) "Voyages des Pterins Bouddhistes," iii., p. 105. In 103 1 A. D. Albiruni mentioned this character which he called 'andri'. 
 
 2) 0/r. Whitney's remarks: "Atharvaveda Prati9akhya," p. 140 on the 'characteristic tendency' of the Hindu Gramma- 
 rians 'to arbitrary and artificial theorizing'. 
 
— 25 — 
 
 The monstrosities of the English are, unhappily, too well known, but there is a singular 
 example in a book written by an Italian of learning and culture, who was one of the first 
 in modern times to travel in Western India — L. Varthema. He knew Malayalam well, 
 and gives several specimens of it; the following sentence will do for my purpose: "Matile 
 matile: gnan ciatu poi". This he explains by "non piu non piu chio son morto,'"' and it 
 represents the Mai. asnl a©)) svwooi juss^ eojocal ma&i maSi nan cattu poyi. A knowledge 
 of the Italian pronunciation would perhaps enable any one to utter this in a way intelli- 
 gible to the natives of Malabar, but the value of the native letters being once known, 
 no difficulty could occur. So if we take Father Estevao's transcriptions of Konkani^\ 
 and the Dutch way of writing Malay'^ both of about 1 600 A. D., their inferiority to the 
 Indian adaptations is evident, though all are really very well done. Nor were the men 
 who adapted the Sanskrit alphabet to the Dravidian languages and the Javanese, mere 
 mechanical workmen, they could add the necessary new signs to some extent as will 
 appear in the course of this work. They often, however, used Sanskrit letters to 
 express others which are, phonetically, different, though similar. (App. A.) 
 
 D. Transitional. (Plates vii., viii. and xxix.) 
 
 What I have termed the transitional period, or from 1000- 1300 A. D., marks the 
 rise and most flourishing period of the North Dravidian literatures. During tha whole 
 of this time the older kingdoms decayed rapidly, feudatories became more or less 
 independent, and changes in the limits of territory subject to the different sovereigns 
 were perpetual. The encouragement of literature was, however, general, and this period 
 is also marked by the rise of several religious sects. The result, palceographically, was 
 that by 1300 A. D. the old Telugu-Canarese alphabet which was in use from the coast 
 of Canara to Rajahtnundry, presented scarcely any varieties or differences of form of 
 the letters sufficient to justify a distinction being made*'. From 1300 A. D. up to the 
 present time, however, a marked divergence has arisen between the alphabets used by 
 the Telugus of the coast and the Canarese people; and this divergence has been much 
 increased since the introduction of printing in the course of the present century. 
 
 Fol. 75 a. ed. of Venice, 1517. I have correctly divided the words printed: gnancia tu poi. 
 2) See my "Specimens of S. Indian Dialects" No. i. pref. pp. 11-13 (2nd ed.). 
 8) See the Dialogue in De Bry's smaller voyages (E. Indies) Pt. ix. pp. 33. ffg. (Latin). 
 
 *) Al-BirSni, however, (Eeinaud, "Memoire", p. 298) distinguishes in 1030 between the Karnata and Andri 
 characters. 
 
— 26 — 
 
 The feudatories which overthrew the Western Calukya kingdom appear to have been 
 partial to the N. Indian culture, and used the Nagar! character for their grants*'. 
 The Colas (who succeeded the Eastern Calukyas) preserved the indigenous character 
 and used Sanskrit for the northern part of their territories, but soon gave these up for 
 Tamil. Thus, at the time of the Muhammedan invasions and settlements in the peninsula 
 about the beginning of the fourteenth century, the use of the South-Indian alphabets 
 was confined to the extreme south of the peninsula, and did not extend much beyond 
 the present northern limits of the Madras Presidency. That the Telugu and Canarese 
 alphabets and literatures did not become entirely obsolete, is owing to the considerable 
 power of the Vijayanagara^' dynasty in the 14th, 15th and early part of the i6th 
 centuries, and to the steady patronage of South-Indian Hinduism by the kings of this 
 dynasty during that period of time^*. It is owing to this influence that many inscriptions 
 from about 1500 to 1650 A. D. in the North-Tamil country and even still further South 
 are in the Telugu character. This is especially noticeable in the old Tondainadu (or 
 neighbourhood of Madras), and it is to the same influence that must be attributed the 
 numerous settlements of Telugu Brahmans over greater part of the Tamil country, and 
 especially in Tanjore. 
 
 The transitional type of the Telugu- Canarese alphabet differs from the Kalinga- 
 Calukya by the admission of a number of new forms which eventually became permanent; 
 they are used, however, concurrently with the older forms except in a few instances. 
 
 The exclusive new forms of letters are: i) c, in this the top is opened out; 2) dh., 
 in which the old square form is now provided with a ^ at the top, 3) and bh. This last 
 was evidently written in the alphabet of 945 A. D. by two strokes, the second being 
 made from the first, and prolonged down in a curved form; in the transitional alphabet 
 which began in the next century these two strokes are separated. 4) C has a more 
 cursive form than in the alphabet of the previous century. 
 
 As in the alphabet of 945 A. D. there is little distinction between the long and short 
 i superscript. In the older alphabets the long i is marked by a curl in the left end of 
 the circle which marks this vowel, e.g. £2 (i) and ®.(i), but from the tenth century this 
 distinction is almost lost. 
 
 1) I shall for this reason notice them when describing the varieties of the Nagari character used in the South of India. 
 
 2) Or Vidyanagara. The last (Mr. Kittel tells me) occurs in the C. Basava-Purana, ch. Ixiii., 2-3 (1369 A. D.). Both 
 forms seem equally authentic, but the first seems to be the earliest, and occurs in a grant of 1399. Cfr. Colebrooke's Essays, 
 ii. p. 263. Couto's explanation (Dec. vi. f. 92 b. of orig. ed.) shows that about 1600 'Vijayanagara' was the accepted form. 
 He says that the name signifies: "Cidade de vitoria." 
 
 3) The Telugu poet Bhattamurti was encouraged by Narasaraya, and AUasanni Peddanna by Krishnaraya. ("Madras 
 Journal," v. pp. 363, 4.) 
 
— 27 — 
 
 In the eleventh century the modern form of the subscript u begins to appear, and is 
 used far oftener than the old form written underneath the preceding consonant; but the 
 reverse is the case with the long u which rather preserves the old form. In the next 
 century the modern form of u (to the right of the preceding consonant) prevails nearly 
 universally, but the old form of the short u is by no means entirely disused., The 
 secondary forms of e and ui and ai are very nearly the same as in the alphabet of 945 
 A. D., i.e'. written at the top of the preceding consonant, whereas in the earlier forms 
 they are on the left side. and au are also very little changed in form. 
 
 It is necessary also to notice the changes in the way of distinguishing ph from p. 
 In the earliest form (PI. i.) this is done by the upper end of the stroke on the right side 
 being curled round to the left; in the later alphabet of the tenth century there is a loop 
 on the middle of the inner side of this stroke. In the alphabet of the next century this 
 loop has become a slanting stroke across the upright stroke, and finally about a century 
 later this is underneath the middle of the letter. 
 
 It is necessary here to notice the use of a sign for c, and also the signs added to 
 the original Sanskrit alphabet to express the Dravidian letters 1, r, etc. 
 
 A sign for c does not occur in the S. A9oka and Cave inscriptions, but only sh and 
 s. In the Sah, Vengi, and later characters we. have a distinct sign. Now in some of 
 the earliest Ceylon inscriptions M. Rhys Davids detected two sibilants: one the ordinary 
 Sj the other a^, and the two are indiscriminately used for s'\ and this has been assumed 
 to be quite peculiar to Ceylon^^ The importance of the discovery in respect of phone- 
 tics is very great, but I think it will eventually be admitted that this letter is merely 
 the Sanskrit sign for c. If the sign for this letter in the earlier S. Indian inscriptions be 
 referred to, it will be seen to be almost the same. It is certain, at all events, that this 
 sign was early in general use, for we find it in the earliest Javanese (Kawi) inscriptions"''; 
 but the Ceylon form is evidently the earliest and, I think, will help to show the real origin 
 of the sign for the Sanskrit c. In the later Phoenician and in the Aramaic character*' of 
 from the seventh to the fourth century B. C, the letter 'shin' has the form 4^ or UJ or \/ ■, 
 
 '/ Indian Antiquary, i. p. I40. 
 
 2) See the late Dr. P. Goldschmidt's Beport (of 1876) p. 4 in which he says: "A graphical pecuharity of the most 
 ancient inscriptions is the use of two « (one the common s of A9oka's inscriptions, the other one resembling a Greek 
 Digamma, a form unkown in India), which it would be difficult to account for without the supposition that the pronunci- 
 ation of s in Ceylon must have struck the Hindu introducers of the art of writing as somewhat different from their own." 
 See also Academy, xi. p. 139. 
 
 3) See especially '^riman"' in the Tjaroenten inscription (? middle of the 5th century A. D.). It occurs in several in- 
 scriptions of the 8th century A. D., e.g. in the ^aivite one from Brambanan (Cohen-Stuart, No. xxiii., lines I-4 etc. re- 
 peatedly), also in the Sumatra inscriptions. 
 
 *) See pi. ix. of vol. i., pt. i of Lenormant's "Essai". 
 
 4* 
 
— 28 — 
 
 and this is obviously the original of the sh. of the earlier southern inscriptions, which is 
 U {^■i-) in the Mathura (or E. Cave) character'^ In the northern character this is inverted 
 to express sh, and it appears to me that this same letter, but inverted, is used in the S. 
 alphabets to express c. Such divergences between the N. and S. Acjoka characters exist, 
 and prove an independent development. The N. and S. (A9oka) signs for s are, however, 
 clearly derived from the later form of 'Samech'. 
 
 s The sign for 1 in the Telugu and Canarese alphabets is a development of the sign 
 for d; it is very nearly the same up to about 1200 A. D.; a little after it appears with 
 the tail turned to the left, and thus has become a distinct sign^'. 
 
 The Telugu and Canarese languages also required an additional sign for r, this is 
 represented by aj or es. The origin of this sign is not clearly ascertained; it occurs 
 in early, inscriptions in Canarese but later in Telugu. 
 
 There is also the form w which represents the S. Dravidian 1 (ie) and which does 
 not occur in Telugu. The origin of this is also unknown; it is used often to express the 
 Sanskrit sh before p, e. g. in pushpa, and may be intended for ^ and to suit the vulgar 
 pronunciation pufpa. 
 
 It seems likely that these additional signswere the invention of people from N. India — 
 the first Jain or Brahman pioneers in the South — whose attention would at once be 
 attracted by these strange sounds; for though the Canarese-Telugu alphabets are mere 
 adaptations from the Sanskrit, they were not complete and wanted signs for h and 6. 
 Now to this day, the people of N. India cannot distinguish or pronounce properly 
 the Dravidian e, e, 6 and o, and it, therefore, follows that the adaptation was by northern 
 people. 
 
 The transitional stage continued till the end of the thirteenth century A. D., and 
 includes a period of great literary activity not only as regards the Telugu and Canarese 
 languages, but also in Sanskrit. The reforms of the Vedantist Ramanuja belonged to 
 the twelfth century, and he obtained great influence in Mysore where he converted the 
 sovereign (a Yadava of the southern dynasty of Dwarasamudra) from the Jain persuasion. 
 This king appears to have encouraged Telugu literature (because, no doubt, it was 
 thoroughly brahmanical and orthodox), as much as his immediate predecessors had 
 encouraged the Canarese'^; and Nannaya Bhatta (a native of the east coast) composed 
 under his patronage (about 11 80 A. D.) a Telugu Grammar in Sanskrit, and began a 
 
 ') /. iJ. As. Hoc. New Series, vol. V. pi. i. Both /S' and U occur in the Kangra inscription. See Prinsep's "Essays'" 
 ed. Thomas, i. p. 159. (pi. ix.) 
 
 -J In the inscriptions from the Telugu country we find Cola always written Coda, but the Telugu d = ! is probably a late 
 degeneration; 1 seems to be a primitive Dravidian sound. 
 
 3.1 See Mr. Kittel's preface to his edition of Ke9iraia's Canarese Grammar. 
 
— 29 — 
 
 translation of the Ramayana which was finished by another Brahman, also a native of 
 the east coast, a little later'^ These events are nearly contemporaneous with the final 
 ruin of the Western Calukya dynasty which fell in 1 182, and then the Yadavas became 
 independent both in the North (Devagiri) and South, and thus shared the greater part of 
 the old Cera and Calukya kingdoms. 
 
 E. The old and modern Telugu-Canarese Alphabets. 
 
 (Plates ix. and x.; 
 
 The next stage in the development of the northern Dravidian alphabets is the Hala- 
 kannada and old Telugu, between which it is impossible at present to establish any 
 distinction. This alphabet dates from the end of the thirteenth century, and the distinc- 
 tion between it and the character I have termed transitional consists merely: i) in the 
 disuse of the few remaining older forms which I have described in the last section as 
 being found in that alphabet, and the exclusive use of the new forms; 2) in the absence 
 of distinction between d and dh, p and ph and some other aspirates; 3) in the absence 
 of marks to distinguish i and i^'. Between this alphabet and the modern forms the 
 differences are but trivial. 
 
 As will be easily understood in the case of an alphabet like this which was in use 
 from the Canara coast to the mouths of the Krishna and Godavari, there were several 
 slight varieties or hands, but it would take far too much space to notice here more than 
 a few points, even though such details are of interest as partly subsisting up to the 
 present time. 
 
 The earliest important variation, I have noticed, is in the form of t. About 1300 this 
 letter appears in inscriptions on the west (or Canara) coast with a double loop ^, that 
 to the left is only partly closed, whereas on the east coast and the central territory 
 between the two, the form ^ with a single loop is preferred^'. In the modern Telugu and 
 Canarese alphabets, this is exactly reversed. In the inscriptions in the Canarese country 
 visarga is represented by a circle large enough to occupy the same space as the other 
 letters, in the eastern country a very small circle only was in general use. Again the 
 
 1) This poet (?) was named Tikkanna; he died in 1 198 A. D. (Brown's "Cyclic Tables," Madras edition, p. 58). Nagavarma, 
 the author of the Canarese Prosody, was also a Telugu from Vengi ; his date is, however, uncertain. (Mr. Kittel's ed. p. xxv.) 
 
 2) See Mr. Fleet's remarks on an Inscription of A. D. 1510. Indian Antiquary, v. p. 73. 
 
 3) For the Canarese forms I use an inscription on stone at Mangalore, d. f. 1225 = 1303-4. I have an excellent 
 photograph (by Messrs. Orr & Barton of Bangalore) from an estarapage-impression by Mr. Kittel, and have examined 
 the original ; Mr. Kittel has also kindly given me a transcript. 
 
— 30 — 
 
 Canarese form of k (^) was originally the most general one*', whereas the modern 
 Telugu ^ was confined in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuriies to the northern 
 part of the present Nellore district, where a very round hand has always prevailed. 
 Owing to that part of the Telugu country having been one of the earliest British 
 possessions in Southern India, this hand was adopted as the model, on the introduction 
 of Telugu printing in the beginning of this century at Madras. At present, the 
 Canarese is especially distinguished from the Telugu alphabet by the method of marking 
 the long vowels i, e and o, by the addition of a separate sign ( — ?) following the 
 consonant with the usual short vowel affixed; this is entirely wanting in Telugu. The 
 earliest instance I have noticed is in a palm-leaf ms. of the first half of the sixteenth 
 century A. D., but it does not occur in any old Sanskrit mss. in the Canarese character 
 at all, nor commonly in Canarese mss. till much later. The Telugu method of marking 
 the short and long e and o does not appear till the seventeenth century. About this 
 period apparently owing to the revival of Sanskrit studies for a time, the distinction 
 between aspirated and unaspirated letters becomes again usual, and has continued up 
 to the present, though really alien to the Dravidian languages. It began much earlier 
 in Telugu than in Canarese, and even in the Sanskrit mss. on grammar written in thq 
 latfer character, it is but seldom made; a fact, which, by itself, proves the prevalence 
 of oral teaching^'. 
 
 From the earliest inscriptions down to the latest, the gradual extension of the use 
 of the bindu (o) is very remarkable, and appears a tolerably safe test of the age of a 
 document. I shall therefore give briefly the results I have gathered. 
 
 In the early inscriptions the Cera bindu is above the line, the Calukya on the line^'": 
 but after the twelfth or thirteenth century it is always, and in all S. Indian characters, 
 written on the line. This is even the case in the Nandi-nagari, though here, it, by being 
 in this position, renders the writing unsightly. 
 
 As regards the employment of the bindu, the broad rule is: the later the inscription, 
 the more incorrect and indiscriminate is its use. In the earlier inscriptions it is seldom 
 used for n, n, n, and m before a consonant of the same class in a word ; but it is used 
 for all these nasals except n, by the fifteenth century; and from that time to the present 
 one occasionally finds mA.. The common practice of using the bindu to express all the 
 
 1) See pi. xxxi. 
 
 2) Cfr. the alphabet given in pi. ix. I have already given a facsimile of a Canarese Sanskrit MS. of about i6oo 
 A. D. in my edition of the Vamyabrahmana. The difference between the writing of ^iISS. of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries is very slight ; the body of the letters in the latter is not so large, or so round and close together. 
 
 3) Irregularities however are found; see Mr. Fleet's remarks in Indian Antiquary, iv. p. 85. 
 
— 31 — 
 
 nasals, even including a final m, which some editors in Europe have copied from the 
 more modern mss. from N. India, is, therefore, a very old practice in the South, though 
 it is most certainly erroneous according to the chief grammarians, and, therefore, as 
 Profr. Whitney contends, is to be rejected, though convenient in practice' ^ It is 
 hardly necessary to remark that the hindu is properly the sign of the unmodified nasal 
 or anusvara. 
 
 I have not noticed in any inscription the nasalized semi-vowel; it sometimes occurs 
 in Telugu Vedic mss. and then has the form of F. Nor have I met with the ardhanusvara 
 to which some Telugu grammarians allude^'. The £3 (r) of the Telugu inscriptions is 
 now disused^^ 
 
 The use of visarga is generally Incorrect in the inscriptions; it is seldotn converted 
 according to rule. In S. India the alternative allowed by the grammarians of assimilat- 
 ing visarga to a following sibilant is almost universally accepted, and the reduplication 
 of the sibilant then omitted. This is a common source of error in reading S. Indian 
 inscriptions and mss. The separation of the superscript r from the following consonant 
 (as pronounced) above which it is written, begins about 1300 A.D. After 1350 it is 
 always on the right hand, e. g. rka is written ^r (kr). By 15 50- 1600 A.D. the modern 
 secondary form of e is always used, e. g. ve is written 'S. (For the older form see PI. viii.) 
 In the fifteenth century both forms co-exist; in the fourteenth the modern form begins 
 to appear. 
 
 Allusions to the current alphabets are almost as rare in the S. Indian mediaeval 
 works as in the Sanskrit. Atharvanacarya (who cannot be earlier than the end of the 
 twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century) describes the transitional alphabet just 
 as it was changing into the earliest modern form ("Karika^" 29-32)": 
 
 29. 6. paricavargadayo varnaA 9ahkha-(a e£))9arnga-(j 7s)disamnibhaA || 
 
 30. tiryagrekhayujay co 'rdhvam dandarekhanvita adhaA iy and I ) | 
 ta eva ca dvitiya(/j) syur urdhvam rekhadviranvitaA (sic) \\ 
 
 31. prathamas tu tritiya{A) syus tritiyante caturthaka^ | 
 rekhadvayadhodandena yukta(/i) syur anunasiklA {| 
 
 32. miladdandadvayopeta/i prathama paya*smritaA | 
 purnendiisadri(aA purnas tv ardhas tv ardliendusanmbhaA || 
 
 There is much here very unintelligible, but the description of some of the letters 
 clearly points to about 1200 A.D. The Canarese "Basavapurana" (of 1369 A.D.) 
 
 1) Profr. Max Miiller (Hitopadeya, p. viii. and S. Gr. pp. 6-7) allows it as a convenient way of writing. 
 
 2) ». App. A. 
 
 3) This letter is etymologically of sig^iificance; and, therefore, cannot be neglected. 
 
 4) I follow a transcript of the unique and very incorrect MS. in Mr. Brown's collection at Madras. 
 
— 32 — 
 
 mentions the Telugu, Canarese, Grantha, Tamil (Dravila), Lala («. e. Lata or Gujarat) 
 and Persian alphabets'', and this would seem to indicate that there was then a greater 
 distinction between the Canarese and Telugu alphabets than we actually find. 
 
 Nor is it quite clear what letters the mediaeval grammarians considered to belong to 
 the alphabet. Al-Blruni of Khwarizm (who lived from 970-1039 A. D.)^' puts the 
 number of Sanskrit (Nagari) letters at fifty^'; Nannaya Bhatta, in his Telugu Grammar 
 (and of the twelfth century), also puts the Sanskrit letters at fifty, the Prakrit at forty, 
 the Telugu at thirty -six*'. The commentators are, however, not agreed as to whether 
 both X (ksh) and 1 are intended to be included among the Sanskrit letters^'. Lassen 
 ("Indische Alterthumskunde" iv. p. 796) takes the Rigveda 1 to be the fiftieth letter 
 of Al-BirunI; it may reasonably be doubted if that was the view held in India. The 
 Canarese Grammar includes both x and F*. 
 
 The Vajrakriti and Gajakumbhakriti of Vopadeva (i.e. h before k and kh, and 
 before p and ph) very rarely occur in modern mss.; they have the form of X and 00. 
 The last occurs as in only one old inscription, so far as I know. (PI. i.) The northern 
 form (o) is also used in mss. sometimes. The Vajrakriti has been identified by Mr. Fleet 
 in the same inscription (PI. i. See above p. 1 6). He has also found an instance of avagraha 
 (s)'*, and of a new form of the sign for virama*' much like a subscript u. This is the 
 N. Indian form as we find in Nagari; the S. Indian virama is written above the letter. 
 
 The chief general differences between the modern Telugu and Canarese characters 
 and the older ones is, that in the former the vowels attached to consonants are, relatively, 
 of but small size compared with the body of the consonants; in the later character they 
 are so much larger, as almost to be out of proportion^\ 
 
 1) I owe this reference to Mr. Kittel; it occurs in cli. v. 
 
 2) Elliot, "Muhammedan Historians of India" (by Dowson) I. p. 42. ii., pp. 1-9. 
 
 3) Reinaud, "MSmoire,"' p. 297. 
 
 ■*) "Audhrafabdacintamani", I. 14. adyayaA panca9ad varnaA. 15. Prakrites tu te da9onaA syah. 16. Shattrinicad 
 atra te. 17. Anye ca 'nupravi9anti yabdayogavafat. (i. e. in Sanskrit or Prakrit words used in Telugu). 
 
 5) Ahobala (i8th century) says in his C. on the first of the Sutras quoted in the last note: "Atra kecid a, a ■ 
 
 xalavar^asahitS ushmanay ca hala ity ucyante | militva pancayad varna bhavanti 'ti vadanti | keshancin mate 
 
 Javarnasya 'grihanam ca sammatam ||" (MS.) 
 
 6) ''^abdamanidarpana" (by Mr. Kittel) p. 11. See Appendix A. 
 
 ■?) Ind. Antiquary, ii., p. 299. 
 
 s) Do. vi., pp. 136-7. 
 
 9J A good specimen of Canarese writing of tha eud of the i6th century exists at Karkal (S. Caaara) in a stela with a 
 grant to the Jain temple there, d. 9. 1508=1587 A. D. 
 
— 33 — 
 
 § 2. THE GRANTHA-TAMIL ALPHABETS. 
 A. Cera. (Plates ii., xi. and xxviJ 
 
 The Grantha, Modern Tamil, Malayalam and Tulu alphabets all have their origin in 
 the Cera character, a variety of the 'Cave character' which was used in the Cera king- 
 dom during the early centuries A.D. From the third to the seventh century appears to 
 have been the most flourishing period in the modern history of this kingdom; it then 
 extended over the present Mysore, Coimbatore, Salem, Tondainadu, South Malabar and 
 Cochin. It was, however, one of the three great old Dravidian kingdoms and existed 
 already in the third century B. C. What civilization it had before the period referred to, 
 there is no information; nor is there the least trace as yet of any inscription before the 
 early centuries A.D.'^ The existing inscriptions show that about the fourth or fifth 
 century A. D. the rulers of this kingdom received the Jains with great zeal, and made 
 most liberal endowments to them in the territory that constitutes the modern province 
 of Mysore. 
 
 The Cera alphabet changed but little during a considerable time; the earliest and 
 latest authentic inscriptions which are in existence, and which belong to a period of 
 about four centuries, show very few innovations. Two varieties of this character must 
 be distinguished; the first, which was in use in that part of the Cera country which 
 constitutes the modern Mysore and Coorg up to the final end of the kingdom which 
 was conquered by the Colas about 877 A. D., and which then fell into disuse being soon 
 supplanted by the Western Calukya and transitional characters; and the second, which 
 was used in Tondainadu (the neighbourhood of Madras) which was a feudatory of the 
 Cera kingdom till about the end of the seventh century when it fell under the Colas. 
 This last alphabet then became under the new dynasty the medium of introducing 
 brahmanical culture to the Tamil country^^ 
 
 1) The history of the Cera kingdom is excessively obscure, and will, probably, always remain so. Like in most Indian 
 kingdoms that have preserved an existence for several centuries, there were, in all probability, many revolts of feudatories 
 and changes of dynasty; it is thus very little use to accept the "KonTjudesarSjakkal" as an authority, for it bears evident 
 signs of being a very recent compilation from grants and local traditions most clumsily put together. It is translated in 
 the Madras Journal, vol. xiv. pp. 1-16. The most important investigation (as yet) respecting the Cera kingdom is by 
 Profr. Dowson (in Journal of ike B. A. S. of London, vol. viii. and also printed separately). 
 
 2) In the third century B. C, the A9oka Edicts show that Kerajaputra {i.e. the Cera sovereign) was one of the three 
 great powers of the South. Ptolemy (2nd century A. D.) and the Periplus of the Red Sea (3rd century A. D.) prove (§ 34.) 
 that, this was still the case. According to the former (vii., i, 86) Karur was then the capital. Hiouen-Thsang (about 640 
 A. D.) does not mention this kingdom, but under the name of the kingdom of Koukanapura (the present Konkana-halli) he 
 describes a part of it ("Pfelerins Bouddhistes" iii. pp. 146-9). The dynasty which the inscriptions mention extends from 
 
— 34 — 
 
 The earliest unquestionable inscription as yet known is that of which the alphabet is 
 given in PI. ii. and which has been published in facsimile in the Indian Antiquary^'*; the 
 date is about 467 A. D. A later inscription of the same dynasty is also given in the same 
 Journaf. Its date is, though not clearly put, as there is an obvious error of the engraver 
 in omitting a letter in the date, beyond doubt. This runs (v. I. 8) : "ashtanavatyuttareshu 
 tchateshu 9akavarsheshv atiteshu". The t in tchateshu is clear, and though 'sha(t)' is 
 entirely wanting, yet as 'shat' is the only possible numeral It must be read 6g8 (=777-8 
 A. D.) The difference in character between the alphabets of the two inscriptions is so 
 slight that I have not thought It worth while to give both. 
 
 In PI. xi. I have given the alphabet of a Cera inscription which. If genuine, would be 
 (being dated about 247 A. D.) one of the oldest Indian grants known; it is, however, a 
 forgery^\ As nevertheless even forged grants have their value as evidence, if not of 
 
 the early centuries A. D. down to the ninth, but it was probably in these later times a feudatory revolted against the older 
 dynasty to which Ayoka and the classical authors refer. The Mercara grant (Mr. Richter's) gives the kings as follows: 
 Kohgani Kongini or Konguni (i.) The eighth king of the so-called chronicle! (about 350 A. D.) 
 Madhava (i.) 
 
 Ari-(i. e. Hari)varma (The grant d. 247 A. D. is attributed to him!) The true form of his name appears from 
 the grants of 9aka 435 (ii. a, 6.) "yrimaddharivarmmamahadhirajasya," and less plainly in that of 9. 276 (i. 6., 2). 
 Vishnugopa 
 
 Madhava (ii.) in 454 A. D. 
 Kongaui (ii.) in 467 A. D. 
 The Nagamangala grant continues: 
 
 Durvinita (? From 478 A. D. was reigning in 513 A. D.) 
 Mushkara 
 ^rivikrama 
 Bhuvikrama 
 
 Prithivl Kongani (? A. D. 727-777). 
 Rajamalladeva (?) 
 
 Satyavakya (987 A. D.) Mr. Kittel has edited 3 important Canarese inscriptions of this king of 780 (?), and 
 809 y. s. ; the third having no date (I. A. vi., pp. 101-3); I have photographs of these through his kindness. 
 The great Inscription at Tanjore (nth century) mentions a Seramare, but also a king of Karuvai (or Karur) and a 
 Govindacandra (king of Kannada). 
 
 There are, however, many difficulties about the genealogy and succession which remain to be cleared up. It would be 
 well to term this 'the later Cera dynasty'. 
 
 U Vol. I. The transcript needs some corrections. Jinalakke is clearly "for the Jinalaya" (Jain temple) and not "for 
 the destruction of the Jains", as the whole inscription is Jain in style (cfr. the mention of the Vasus). I have been able to 
 examine the original plates of this very valuable document, through the kindness of the Rev. G. Bjchter of Mercara. 
 
 2) Vol. II. 155 ffg. See especially Dr. Eggeling's remarks (iii. pp. 154). 
 
 3) The reasons are: i. C and bh open at the top as here do not occur before the tenth century. 
 
 2. U, kh, gh, h and j are also modern forms of the letters, and of about the same date. 
 
 3. Subscript u is written in two ways, a practice comparatively recent. 
 
 4. The stroke in ph to distinguish ph from p is also late (about loth-iith century), 
 c. The historical iata contradict more or less those of other inscriptions. 
 
 6. The 9aka era was not used in S. India so early as the third century. In the fifth century it is very unusual. 
 
 7. Lastly (to judge from an impression) the plates are far too well preserved ; the letters are all sharp and clear; 
 this would not be the case if the grant was engraved in the third century A. D. There are other grounds, but these are, 
 I think, sufficient for rejecting this grant. 
 
— 35 — 
 
 facts, yet palseographically, I allow this one a place. It shows the condition of the 
 N. Cera character about the tenth century, which was then fast becoming assimilated to 
 the Calukya and transitional alphabets of the North. This was, no doubt, owing to the 
 conquest of the Cera kingdom by the Colas in the ninth century, and the separation 
 which followed between the two divisions of the Cera kingdom, that above, and that 
 below the Coimbatore Ghauts. The first became assimilated to the northern kingdoms, 
 the later had a new development under the Cojas. Thus the old Cera alphabet of the 
 North became superseded by the Telugu-Canarese, and that of the last developed 
 into the Grrantha-Tamil. This tendency appears to have existed in the eighth century; 
 the fall of the Ceras rendered it much more rapid. The chief distinction between the 
 Cera and Calukya characters is the tendency of the former to preserve the old subscript 
 forms of u etc. when attached to a consonant, whereas in the latter these are gradually 
 moved up to the right side of the preceding consonant. 
 
 Eastern Cera. (Plate xiij 
 
 What I have termed the Eastern Cera is of interest as being the source of the Cola 
 Grantha, and hence of the modern S. Indian Sanskrit alphabet. I have used the term 
 "Eastern Cera" rather to indicate the source from which it was derived, than with 
 reference to the reign of the Ceras over the sea-coast of the North Tamil country, 
 a fact hardly doubtful, though, as yet, not fully supported by the evidence of ins- 
 criptions. 
 
 This alphabet was confined to the old Tondainadu or Pallava kingdom of Conje- 
 veram'', and is an offshoot of the early Cera before the full development of the horizontal 
 
 ij The account of the divisions of this kingdom by F. W. Ellis [in his Paper on Mirasi Right (pp. 51-9) edited by 
 C. P. Brown, Madras, 1852] is still unquestionably the most valuable contribution to S. Indian Ancient Geography that 
 has been written. It is much to be desired that Mr. Ellis's papers be collected and published in an accessible form, so as 
 to be a lasting memorial of a truly great scholar. About the time that Bopp laid the foundations of the comparative 
 philology of the Aryan languages, Ellis did the same for the Dravidiau family [preface to Campbell's Telugu Grammar (1816) 
 and "Dissertations"]; he was the first to decipher and explain the grants to the Israelites of Cochin, and he did this in a 
 way that is still a model. (See Madras Journal, vol. xiii. part ii., pp. i-ii.) His labours to promote the study of Hindu 
 Law and of Tamil (annotated edition and translation of the Kural left unfinished, etc.) are still of the highest value. He 
 was also the first to collect the S. Indian inscriptions. He died (accidentally poisoned through the carelessness of a native 
 servant) while on an archaelogical tour in the Madura Province. His monuiaent (at Ramnad) has an inscription in English 
 and Tamil, the former of which runs : "Sacred to the memory of Francis Whyte EUis Esq. of the Madras Civil Service 
 whose valuable life was suddenly terminated by a fatal accident at this place on the 9th March 1819 in the 41st year of his 
 age. Uniting activity of mind with versatility of genius he displayed the same ardour and happy sufficiency on whatever 
 his varied talents were employed. Conversant with the Hindoo Languages and Literature of the Peninsula, he was loved 
 and esteemed by the Natives of India with whom he associated intimately!), and his kind and playful disposition endeared 
 
 i) S. Gordon, "Researches in South-India 1823-8" (London 1834), says (p. 54): "The natives are grateful for this favor 
 (permission for a procession) to Mr. Ellis, then Collector of Madras, who was poisoned at Kamnad, on his way toRamiseram; 
 lie assumed the native dress, and adopted their modes." (P!) 
 
 5* 
 
— 36 — 
 
 line at the top of the letters of that alphabet; it is, therefore in origin, very near the 
 Cave character; and the introduction of this alphabet into Tondainadu is, probably, to 
 be placed about the fourth century. In the second century A.D. (as we know from 
 Ptolemy) this country was inhabited by nomads. In the seventh century Hiouen-Thsang 
 found a small kingdom of which Kaiisi (or Conjeveram) was the capital. He calls it 
 Ta-lo-pi-tcha or Dravida'\ The name of the family of kings of which inscriptions occur 
 at Seven Pagodas (Mamalaippuram, the old port of Conjeveram) was Pallava, and they 
 appear to have been formidable enough to have been attacked by the Western Calukyas 
 about the middle of the seventh century. Still later (about the eighth or ninth 
 century) the country was conquered (according to Ellis) by the Co}as who had revived 
 again after a long eclipse. 
 
 Of these Pallavas but little is known. The general use of the title 'varman' is 
 common to them and the Vengi kings; and this and some other facts make it most 
 probable that they belonged to one family. They had numerous contests and alliances 
 by marriage with the Cera, Cola and Calukya families, but in the nth century they 
 were mere feudatories of the Colas, and on this account were, apparently, repeatedly 
 attacked by the Western Calukyas. They disappear about the 14th century A.D.^^ 
 
 him to his own countrymen among whom he was distinguished no less by his capacity as a public servant than by a mind 
 fraught with intelligence and alive to every object of interest or utility. The College of Fort St. George which owes its 
 existence to him is a lasting memorial of his reputationl) as an Oriental Scholar, and this stone has been erected as a 
 tribute of the affectionate regard of his European and Native friends." 
 
 So little interest in science is there in S. India, that this eminent man is chiefly recollected among the Native Roman 
 Catholics by some quasi-devotional poems in Tamil which are attributed to him. 
 
 1) Al-Biruni (l Ith century) mentions Dravida but as distinct from Karisi, though a Cola province (Reinaud, "Fragments", 
 p. 104). I see there is a paper by E. Burnouf on Dravida in the /. As. for Oct. 1828, pp. 241, ffg., but it is not accessible 
 to me. 
 
 2) The genealogy of two inscriptions was first given by Profr. Eggeling {I. A. ii., p. 272; iii., p. 152) and has been 
 finally extended and settled by Mr. Fleet (do: v., p. 154). The dates are not known, but it is safe to attribute these 
 sovereigns to the 5th and 6th centuries. 
 
 Skandavarma 1. 2J 
 
 I 
 Vlravarffla 
 
 I 
 Skandavarma II. 
 
 I I 
 
 Simhavarma Vishnugopavarma or Vishnuvarma 
 
 I 
 Simhavarma II. 
 
 As regards the name 'Pallava', Mr. Kittel ("Nagavarma", p. xxi. n.) connects it with poUava and Tel. palle = a rustic. 
 The Pallis (a cognate Tamil caste) are now very degraded, but they may not have been so always. The Colas and Pandiyas 
 were merely KaUar or 'Robbers', a low caste at the present time. 
 
 The 'Palakkada' of the first of these inscriptions must be the modern Pulicat. In the nth century the Pallava 
 
 1) It lasted but a short while; the Madras University is a different institution and does not even continue old traditions 
 of scholarship. 
 
 2) If this Skandavarma or his grandson be the prince of that name who is mentioned in a Cera grant of 513 A. D. (?) 
 as is likely, it may yet be possible to establish a synchronism. The references in the earlier Calukya grants are all vogue. 
 
— 37 — 
 
 The character used In the two inscriptions of this dynasty that are in existence is a 
 slightly developed form of the Vehgi. character, in the direction of the florid form found 
 in the Seven Pagodas inscription (PI. xii.). The secondary form of i is the same as in 
 the Vengi, but is clearer in the Pallava inscriptions. The letters m, 1, v, 9 and h are 
 nearer to the Grantha forms. C and the secondary form of u are identical in the Pallava 
 and later character found in the Seven Pagodas inscription. 
 
 There can be no question that the caves and monoliths at Seven Pagodas, and in the 
 neighbourhood, are of Buddhist-Jain origin'^; the sculptures on the so-called rathas 
 (monoliths) show (if anything at all) a slight admixture of ^aiva notions, such as appear 
 in the later Buddhism. Over several of the figures are, however, Vaishnava names 
 (e. g. 9riNarasiw2ha^) which ill-agree with the representations. In some of the caves are 
 pure Vaishnava and ^aiva mythological scenes. Taking into consideration the fact that 
 this place is not mentioned by Hiouen-Thsang together with the nature of the sculp- 
 tures, the original work is to be attributed to Jains of about the fifth century, and the 
 alphabet of the inscriptions corresponds with this date. But as the caves now exist, 
 they have been subsequently extended and adapted to the worship of ^iva^\ or to 
 the combined worship of Vishnu and ^iva in the same temple, which is so remarkable 
 a feature in the older and unaltered temples in- the neighbourhood of Madras'^ and 
 which can only be attributed to the influence of the Vedanta doctrine as preached by 
 ^ankaracarya^\ It is to the period of the adaptation that the dedicatory inscription, 
 from which the alphabet in PI. xii. is taken, belongs. The king under whom it was done 
 is termed 'lord of the Pallavas' (Pallave9vara) with the epithets "victorious in battle" 
 
 capital was Conjeverara (Tamil inscriptions and BUhana's Vikramankadevacarita). The later CSlukyas never then attacked 
 Tanjore, the real capital of the Colas, but only Conjeveram and (according to Bilhana) Gangakunda which is clearly 
 GanKaikkondansolapuram to the north of the Coleroon, and which was a great Coja town. 'Dayanapura' (=Tooth-town) 
 as Mr. Fleet pointed out, must be a translated name, and it appears to me that the original must be Palakkada. 
 For pallu=tooth; kada=place. Is this, then, one of the places where there was a tooth-relic of Buddha? There was 
 such a place in Kalinga according to the Pali "Dathavamso." 
 
 ') Mr. Fergusson long ago stated this. {'Bisiory of Indian and Eastern Architecture," pp. 175, 327 ffg.) 
 
 2) Mr. Kittel has kindly informed me that according to the C. Basava Purana (ch. iv. 3-6) th^ first linga was found in 
 Kerikala Cola's time or c. 950 A. D. None of the great ^iva temples of S. India can be traced back beyond the nth 
 century A. D. (See Caldwell, "Dravidian Grammar", p. 86). This statement is fully supported by the inscriptions, and it is 
 now certain that the linga worship is an importation from the North into S. India in, comparatively, recent times. See also 
 Kittel's "Lingakultus", p. 16. ffg. 
 
 3) An often engraved temple of this description is the one at Seven Pagodas on the sea-shore which is washed by the 
 waves at high tide; another is on the northern bank of the Palaru also near the sea and a few miles south of Seven Pagodas. 
 These are the best examples that I know, but there are many others (often more or less altered) in the same neighbourhood. 
 In the first, the Vishnu cell is behind that in which the linga is found; in the others I know, the two cells are side by 
 side. There is a correct plan of the first temple in No. 6 of the large map in Major Carr's book, and an incorrect one in 
 pi. xxiii. 
 
 *) gankaracarya must be put at about 650-700 A. D. See my "Samavidhanabrahmana" vol. I. pref. p. ii. n. He 
 preached at Conjeveram, it is said, but the tradition has little to recommend it. 
 
— 38 — 
 
 (ranajaya^), or "very, fierce in battle" (atiranacandaA), and had, therefore, come under 
 the northern brahmanical influence'^ 
 
 The inscriptions in question are not dated; the earlier ones (which consist of merely a 
 few words in explanation of the figures on the so-called rathas) are in a character very 
 near to the Vehgi and early Cera, but distinguished from them by a few important 
 variations. The first of these is the use to a considerable extent of secondary forms 
 of a, e and o separated from the consonant to which they belong and follow in pronun- 
 ciation^'; thus ra, va, ca and ha occur in these words with the a separated only, and in ka, 
 bha and ra both united to the consonant and also separate. To and no occur with the 
 o separate. Besides these variations some of the letters, and especially c, show an 
 approach to the Grantha form. These and the two Pallava inscriptions represent the 
 earlier stage of development. 
 
 A still further development in the direction of the Grantha forms is to be found in 
 the inscription on a monolith at Seven Pagodas, now used as a Gane9a temple; and also 
 again in a still more developed form at Saluvankuppam. There can be no doubt that 
 these inscriptions must be put at about 700 A. D. The first four lines of the Gane9a 
 temple inscription describe ^iva in a way that was only possible after ^aiikara's develop- 
 ment of the Vedanta; and as the rest states that a Pallava king built "this abode of 
 ^ambhu", the inscription cannot be later than the eighth century; for the Colas about then 
 conquered Tondainadu^' , and rendered such an inscription in praise of a king of the old 
 dynasty, impossible*'. Again, decidedly archaic forms of letters occur; e. g. the secon- 
 
 1) The Qambhu of these inscriptions is shown by the sculptures to be Mahadeva-yiva; one inscription mentions Parvatl. 
 
 2J See plates l6, 17 and 18 In R. A. S. Transactions ii. and in Major Carr's Collection of Papers relating to the Seven 
 Pagodas (Madras 1869, 8vo.). I put at the editor's disposal my copies of the inscriptions at Seven Pagodas and also at 
 Saluvankuppam, as well as the results of excavations which I had made in 1867, and some of these are printed by Major 
 Carr (pp. 221-225). 
 
 3) According to Ellis. (Madras Lit. Trans. I.) I cannot find the authority. 
 
 *) Major Carr has given my transliteration of this inscription (in Nagarl) on pp. 221-2; as, however, it is not quite 
 correct, I give it again here. (I mark the half-yloka by ;, ). 
 
 1. Sambhavasthitisamharakaranam vitakarana^; bhuyad atyantakamaya jagata(t>2) kamamardana^ ||| 
 
 2. Amaya9 citramayo 'sav aguno gunabhajanaft; save (?) nirantare jiyad ******** 
 
 3. Yasya 'ngushthabharakrSntaft kailSsaA sadayananaA ; patalam agaman ma * yrlnidhis ta ***** ||| 
 
 4. Bhaktiprahvena manasa bhavam bhushanalilaya ; doshna ca yo bhiim(au) * * jJyat sa yribharay ciram 1 1 1 
 S- Atyantakamo nripatir nirjitarStimandalaA; khyato ranajayafe yambhos tene 'dam veyma karitam ||| 
 
 6. * * * prSuanishkalaA vijayata yankarakama (rda) naA ||| 
 
 7. Rajarajo navarayraay cakravartijanarddanaA; tarakadhipatiA svastho jayatat taranankura^ 11| 
 
 8. ^rimato 'tyantakamasya dvishaddarpapaharinaA; yrinidheA kamarajasya hararadhanasangina^ ||| 
 
 9. Abhishekajalapiirne citraraktambujakare ; Sste viyale sumukha^ yirassarasi yaiikara^ |{| 
 
 10. Tene 'dam karitam yambho-(r bhavanm bhutaye bhuva/i kailasa-)mandira9ubham prajanam ishtasiddhyartham 
 
 11. shashti yivam yesha(m) na vasati hridaye kupathagativimo— 
 
 12. xako rudraA ||| atyantakamapallaveyvara yrl— 
 
 See pi. 14 in Major Carr's Collection of Papers, and in Dr. Babiugton's article (Trans. R. A. S. ii.). The translation 
 given by the last (pp. 266-7) ^'"^ reprinted by Major Carr, is not satisfactory. For Major Carr's "known as Ranajaya" 
 (p. 224), "famed, victorious in battle" should be substituted. Line 10 is completed from the Saluvankuppam inscription. 
 In Dr. Babington's transcript the last lines are mixed up. 
 
— 39 — 
 
 dary form of a which is occasionally turned up instead of down, and which early dis- 
 appeared in the Calukya and Cera characters. That again this inscription is later than 
 those on the so-called rathas, follows from the words "atyantakamapallave9vara 9rtha(!?) 
 ranajayaF being written in this character over a nondescript figure on one of them. 
 Were all these explanatory labels over the figures of one date or of about the same date, 
 such a difference in the writing would not have occurred. There is another circumstance 
 which corroborates the date I have assigned to this inscription — the existence of a 
 Nagari transcript of some verses selected from it with additions at Saluvankuppam. 
 The Nagari is precisely that of the eighth or ninth century, and it is accompanied by a 
 transcript in old Grantha very near to that of the eleventh century as given in PI. xiii. 
 
 It will be seen that I have put together the Cera and Pallava characters on the 
 ground of their original similarity, and after-development in the same way. 
 
 B. Cola-Grantha and Middle Grantha. {Tlates xiii. and xiv.) 
 
 The development of the early stages of the Grantha character is very difficult to 
 trace, for the reason that the N. Indian civilization, when it got as far down in the 
 peninsula as the Tamil country, found there a people already in possession of the art of 
 writing, and apparently a cultivated language'^ Thus Sanskrit did not regulate the 
 Tamil phonetic system, nor did it become more to the people than a foreign learned 
 language; it thus remained almost exclusively In the knowledge of the Brahmans, and 
 the Grantha alphabet Is nothing more than the character the Tamil Brahmans used and 
 still use, for writing their sacred books In a dead language. As there are no old mss. 
 written In this character, the records we possess of its early stages are most imperfect, 
 and consist chiefly of Sanskrit words which casually occur In Tamil Inscriptions. I am 
 aware of the existence of only a few Sanskrit Inscriptions in the Grantha character more 
 than three centuries old, and these are not dated, except one of 1383. 
 
 The only Interest this character possesses is the -proof It affords of the derivation 
 of the modern Grantha alphabet from the Cera, and thus from the Southern A9oka 
 character. The first traces, I have found of it, are a few words in the grant B. to the 
 Persian Christians, and which are, therefore, to be referred to the early part of the ninth 
 century A. D. The letters are somewhat carelessly formed, but are almost Identical 
 with the Cera of the same period (cfr. PI. xxvi.). To the fall of the Cera kingdom In 
 
 1) This is proved by the entire absence of oM inscriptions in the Tamil country in the Grantha or Grantha- Tamil 
 characters, all such are in the Vatteluttu. See § 3 (below). 
 
— 40 — 
 
 the ninth century must be attributed the sudden appearance of brahmanical culture in 
 the Tamil country and Malabar^\ 
 
 The letters in the upper part of PL xiii. are taken from two sources: i. the inscrip- 
 tion round the shrine of the great temple at Tanjore (which belongs to the end of the 
 eleventh century A. D.^'; and 2. an undated inscription near Muruyaman'yalam (in the 
 Chingleput district) which is evidently of about the same date. 
 
 The only point to which it is necessary to call attention is the advance made in about 
 two centuries in the separation of the secondary forms of a, e, ai and o, as shown by 
 these inscriptions. In 825 A. D. only the g (e) was clearly separated from its consonant; 
 about 1 100 A. D. a is also generally separated (cfr. PI. xii., ka, ta, na, pa, ma, ya, ra, ha); 
 the form in which it is attached being rare (cfr. ca, ca). The modern Grantha alphabet 
 dates from about 1300. 
 
 Owing to the long occupation of Ceylon by the Cola kings, the Grantha character 
 probably affected the modern Singhalese alphabet'^ 
 
 1) The succession of the Cola kings is as follows: 
 
 KerikSla-Cola (? about 950 A. D.) 
 
 Rajaraja-Coja alias Narendra^J (40 or 41 years) 1023 to 1064. 
 
 Vira-Coja (D.) alias Kulottuuga-Cola (i.) alias Rajarajendra (Rajaraja) Koppakesarivarma^l (49 years) 1064 to 
 1113. His abhisheka took place in 1079. 
 
 Vikrama-Cola (15 years) 1113 to 1128. 
 
 I 
 Kulottunga-Coja II. 1128 to ?'^) Ruled over the whole Tamil country (CaldwellS p. 135) for, at least, 30 years. 
 
 Vikramadeva, reigning in 1235*). 
 In the following century (1310) the Cola and Pandya kingdoms were conquered by Muhammedans (Elliot, iii. pp. 51, 
 90, 203, etc.) and then by Vijayanagara; the inscriptions of the latter dynasty claim this, and grants in the S. Arcot 
 district prove that it was the case so early as 1 380, but even before the Muhammedan invasion the Cola kingdom had much 
 declined, and the Madura kingdom was the chief one in the South, though it, with part of Cola, had been (as Mr. Rhys 
 Davids proved) conquered by Ceylon (about 1173 A. D. Tumour, Mahavamso p. Ixvi. Bengal As. Soc. J. No. 2 of 1872). 
 
 2) Letters taken from this are marked * - This immense inscription was photographed by Capt. Tripe in 1859 and 
 published by the Madras Government. There is little Sanskrit in it except an introductory verse (Svasti frih | eta- 
 viyvarupafrenimaulimalopalabhitam | 9asanam Rajarajasya Rajakesarivarmana^ II ) which belongs to a part of the inscrip- 
 tion dated in the 26th year of the king's reign (=1090 A. D.), and a few words in the Tamil text. 
 
 3) The Singhalese put the invasion of Ceylon by the Colas in 1023, and state that it was in 1071 the revolt began. 
 (Tennent's "Ceylon" i., pp. 402-3.) This can hardly be correct, though it is according to Tumour. 
 
 1) F. (see above, p. «.) calls Mm Kajarajanarendra; E. Kajaraja-Cola; D. Narendra. This king must have restored 
 Tanjore which according to Al-Birum was in ruins at the beginning of the 11th century (Eeinaud, "Fragments", pp. 92, 121 ; 
 "MSmoire", p. 284). This fact confirms the earlier Calukya boasts of conquest, and was certainly owing to them. 
 
 2) That Koppakesari v. is the same as Rajarajendra is proved by the inscriptions at Tanjore and at the Varahasvami 
 temple at Seven Pagodas. (See Madras Journal, xiii., pt. 2; p. 36.) He seems to have been a great patron of Brahmans and of 
 gaivism, but he must also have been liberal to Buddhists, for Buddhamitra (the author of a Tamil grammar) called his 
 work \lrasoliyam after him. 
 
 3) He was reigning in 1134 A. D. the date of E. In his time there must have been a great many Buddhists in Tanjore, 
 as Parakrama Bahu (king of Ceylon 1155-1186)_f6tched_hisj)rie8t from there according to the Mahavamso: 
 
 Atha 'pi ColadeQiyam ninabhasavisaradam | 
 
 Takkagamadharam ekam mabatheram susannatam || 
 
 Baja rajagurutthane thapitva tassa santike j etc. (Ceylon J. 1867, p. 26). 
 
 4) Inscription near Seven Pagodas. (Madras Journal, xiii., pt. 1 ; pp. 50-1.) Kaliiiga was lost in 1228 A. D. 
 
41 — 
 
 C. Modern Grantha'' (E. Grantha) and Tulu-Malayalam 
 (W. Grantha). {Plates xv., xvi. and xxxiii.) 
 
 The materials for the history of this section of the S. Indian alphabet^ are also 
 excessively defective. These alphabets were up to quite recent times in very limited 
 use, and except in Malabar, are still applied merely to write Sanskrit. The name 
 'Grantha' by which the E. coast variety has been known for some centuries^\ indicates 
 that it was merely used for 'books' or literary purposes. This being the case, it is 
 hopeless to look for old specimens, as palm leaf mss. perish rapidly in the Tamil country 
 where they are mostly written on leaves of the 'Borassus flabelliformis,' far inferior to 
 the Talipat leaves in beauty and durability. The oldest ms. I have been able to 
 discover is Tanjore 9,594 which must be of about 1600 A.D. Autographs of mediaeval 
 authors who must have used this character {e.g. Appayya Dixita in the sixteenth century 
 K. D.) appear to be no longer in existence. 
 
 There are at present two distinct Grantha hands. The brahmanical or square hand 
 (cfr. PI. xiv.), and the round or Jain hand which has preserved the original features of 
 the early Grantha far better than the other. The first is used chiefly in the Tanjore 
 province ; the last by the Jains still remaining near Arcot and Madras. 
 
 By far the largest number of Grantha mss. now existing are brahmanical, and the 
 lesser or greater approach of the writing to the angular Tamil forms, is a certain test 
 of the age of a ms. Such a hand as that shown in PI. xxxiii. became quite obsolete by 
 1 700 A. D. The only modern ms. that I have seen at all like it, came from Palghat 
 (Palakkadu); but occasional Malayalam forms of letters show its origin'^ 
 
 The Tulu-Malayalam alphabet is a variety of the Grantha, and like it, was originally 
 applied only to the writing of Sanskrit; it is, therefore, the Grantha of the West, or the 
 original Cola- Grantha as modified in course of time in a country secluded from all but 
 very little communication with the east coast of the peninsula*'. The importation of 
 this alphabet into the S. W. coast must obviously have occurred after the Grantha had 
 
 1) The first complete representation of the E. Grantha alphabet is in "A Sanskrit Primer" by Harkness and Visvambra 
 Sastri, (sic) (4°, Madras, College Press, 1827); the letters are, however, badly formed. The type now in use at Madras 
 is very little better in this respect. 
 
 2) See the reference to the Basava-purSna (1369 A. D.) on p. 31. 
 
 3) MSS. in all these hands, and of different ages occur among those I presented to the India Office Library in 1870. 
 
 *) The history of the west coast is very obscure. There were, it appears, in the earliest times as down to the present, 
 a number of small kingdoms given as twenty-five by the Portuguese. In the I Ith century the west coast was more than 
 once invaded by the Coja king, and it is termed Malanadu in the Tanjore inscription, though it is not clear to what extent 
 of country this name should be applied. 
 
— 42 — 
 
 assumed its characteristic forms, or about the eighth and ninth centuries A. D.'^ But it 
 is remarkable that the Tulu-Malayalam character preserves older forms which were 
 modified at later times in the Grantha. (cfr. the Grantha 'mu' of the nth century with 
 the modern Grantha (2>t. and the Malayalam ^ etc.) 
 
 Up to about 1 600 A. D. the Tulu^' and Malayalam alphabets (as shown by Sanskrit 
 Mss.) are identical, and hardly differ from the modern Tulu hand given in PI. xiv. MSS. 
 from Malabar proper are generally written in a very irregular sprawling hand'', those 
 from the Tu}u country are neater. This character was termed in Malabar Arya-eluttu, 
 and was only applied to write Sanskrit works up to the latter part of the seventeenth 
 century when it commenced to supplant the old Vatteluttu hitherto used for writing 
 Malayalam. In the Tulu country it cannot be said ever to have been used for writing 
 the vernacular language — a Dravidian dialect destitute of a written literature. 
 
 The application of the Arya-eluttu to the vernacular Malayalam was the work of a 
 low-caste man who goes under the name of Turijatta Eluttacchan, a native of Trikkandi- 
 yur in the present district of Malabar. He lived in the seventeenth century, but his 
 real name is forgotten; Turijatta being his 'house' or family-name, and Eluttacchan 
 (=schoolmaster) indicating his caste. It is probable that there was a scanty vernacular 
 literature before his time*\ but it is entirely owing to him that the Malayalam literature 
 is of the extent it is. He translated the Sanskrit Bhagavata, and several similar 
 mythologico-religious poems, leaving, however, a large infusion of Sanskrit, and writing 
 his composition in the Arya character. His translations are often erroneous, and 
 beyond adopting the Vatteluttu signs for r, 1 and 1, (o, iP and a) he did nothing whatever 
 to systematize the orthography which till lately was most defective^', or to supply 
 signs for letters (e. g. u) which are wanting in most of the other Dravidian languages. 
 The Sanskrit literature was, after this, no longer a secret, and there was perhaps no 
 part of S. India where it was more studied by people of many castes during the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 1) See the words (from the grant to the Persian Christians), given in pi. xiii. 
 
 2) I have been told by a Brahman of the Madhva sect that the founder (Anandatirtha, t 1 198 A. D.) wrote his works in 
 this character on palm leaves, and that some are still preserved in a brass box and worshipped at Udupi. It is probable, 
 but I have not been able to get any corroboration of this story. The MSS. (if still existing) must be reduced by time to 
 the condition of tinder; for the oldest MS. that I have seen in S. India which was of the isth century, could not be 
 handled without damage to it. 
 
 3) The types used in printing the iirst edition of the Malayalam Gospels (at Bombay in 1 806) exactly represent it. 
 
 *) Dr. Gundert considers the Malayalam Ramayana to belong to a period of perhaps some centuries before the arrival 
 of the Portuguese. 
 
 6) The distinction between e and e, and o and 5 was first made within the last thirty years by Dr. Gundert. In a new 
 fount of types used by the Carmelites at Kunamavu (Cochin territory) an attempt is made to separate the secondary forms 
 of u and ti. 
 
— 43 — 
 
 Turijatta Eluttacchan's paraphrases were copied, it is said, by his daughter. I have 
 seen the ms. of the Bhagavata'' which is written in a round hand sloping to the left (or 
 backwards), and thus precisely agrees with the current hand used in Malabar proper, 
 and which was imitated in the types cut to print Spring's Grammar in 1836. The 
 modern types vary considerably. The Travancore hand is more angular^^. 
 
 The Sanskrit mss. in this character (inscriptions there are none to my knowledge) 
 present a peculiarity which deserves notice — the substitution of 1 and 1 for a final t or 
 t, when these letters unchanged precede other consonants, or are final. Thus for tatkala 
 we find (tnobc&oej (talkala), and for tasmat (tnor^ 00?) (tasmal). This practice is totally wrong 
 according to all authorities, and probably arises out of the tendency of the people of 
 Malabar to slur over all surd consonants^^ 
 
 Apart from this singular practice, the Sanskrit mss. from Malabar are among the 
 best that can be had in India. Up to quite recent times the study of Sanskrit literature, 
 and especially of the mathematical and astrological treatises, appears to have been 
 followed in Malabar with more living interest than anywhere else in the South. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to remark that the Arya-eluttu or modern Malayalam alphabet 
 is necessarily affected by the old Tamil orthography as far as it is applied to the writing 
 of Dravidian words. So in a Malayalam sentence ccn, except if initial, should be pro- 
 nounced 5 in a Malayalam word, but t in one that is Sanskrit; cz) should also be pro- 
 nounced % and g in the same circumstances. This, however, is but little observed, and 
 Sanskrit words are commonly Dravidianized. 
 
 The Tamil and Canarese grammars give rules for Dravidianizing Sanskrit words*', 
 but the subject deserves more attention than has yet been paid to it. These influences 
 unquestionably affect the orthography of Sanskrit mss. written in S. India. 
 
 J) This is preserved at Pulakkale, a village in the Cittur TalBk^f the Cochin territory, and not far to the south of 
 Palghat (Palakkadu). The MS. was much broken and injured by damp vfhen I saw it in 1 865. The author's stool, clogs 
 and staff are preserved in the same place; it thus looks as if Tunjatta Eluttacchan was a sanyasi of some order. 
 
 2i There are some MSS. in this hand, among those I presented to the India Office Library in 1870; including one of 
 the Madhaviya Dhatuvritti. The types used to print books at Trevandrum follow this model. The first printed specimen 
 of the Arya-eluttu that I have seen is in the preface of vol. i. of Rheede's "Hortus Malabaricus". But Malayalam was 
 printed already in 1577 when J. Gon9alves, a Spanish lay-brother of the Jesuits, cut type with which a Catechism was 
 printed at Vaypicota near Cranganore. (Sousa, "Oriente Conquistado", ii., p. Ilo). The complete alphabet was printed by 
 the Propaganda at Rome in 1772, 8°. "Alphabetum Grandonico-Malabaricum." 
 
 3) P. Paulinus a St. Bartholemeo followed this practice in his "Vyacaranam"'. (Sanskrit Grammar), and was in conse- 
 quence ridiculed, but most unjustly, by Leyden and the Calcutta Sanskrit scholars of the last century. 
 
 4) Nannul, iii. siitras 19-21. "gabdamanidarpaua" pp. 46, ffg. cfr. also the introduction to the excellent Tamil-French 
 Dictionary, published at Pondichery (in 2 Vols. 8vo.) "par deux Missionnaires Apostoliques". 
 
— 44 — 
 
 D. Grantha-Tamil.'^ (Plates xviii., xix, and xxxiii.; 
 
 The earliest inscriptions in which this character occurs are of the tenth century, 
 and belong to the earlier kings of the revived Cola kingdom; they are at Conjeveram 
 and in the neighbourhood of Madras and in the Kaverl delta. South of Tanjore, there 
 are few old inscriptions in this character^'. 
 
 The origin of this Tamil alphabet is apparent at first sight; it is a brahmanical 
 adaptation of the Grantha letters corresponding to the old Vatteluttu, from which, 
 however, the last four signs (1, 1, r and n.) have been retained, the Grantha not possessing 
 equivalents. The form of in is also rather Vatteluttu than Grantha. ^ankaracarya 
 is said to have preached with much success in the Cola kingdom; that it was the seat 
 of a great brahmanical mission in the tenth century is shown by the inscriptions. This 
 alphabet, accordingly, represents the later brahmanical Tamil culture as opposed to the 
 older culture of the Jains of Tanjore and Madura, and the Buddhists of Tanjore; but 
 the earliest stage of the history of this alphabet is very obscure before the i ith century. 
 
 Inscriptions in this character abound in all the Northern Tamil country, where there 
 is scarcely a temple of any note which has not acres of wall covered in this way. I need 
 only mention the great temples of Conjeveram and Tanjore. It is, however, very unusual 
 to find any with dates that can fully be identified, most being only in the year (andu) of 
 the king's reign (or life?), and genealogical details being very rarely given in them. As 
 the list of the Cola and Pandya kings is uncertain, it is thus impossible to procure 
 
 1) The first specimen printed in an European book that I know of is of 1625 (Purchas' "His Pilgrimes" vol. i., Bk. 1., 
 p. 185.) But this was not the first: In 1578 Father Joao de Faria cut Tamil types, and printed on the "Pescaria" 
 (Tinnevelly) coast in the same year: "O Flos Sanctorum., a doutrina Christaa, hii copioso confessionario, & outros livros" 
 (Sousa, Oriente Conquistado. ii., p. 256.) I give the exact words as several different accounts have been given which are 
 incorrect. F. de Sousa S. J. compiled his work from MSS. (not now in existence) at Goa in the 17th century. It was 
 printed in 1710, and he died at Goa in 1713. Tamil was printed also in the 17th century at a place in the Cochin 
 territory called Ambalakkadu where the Jesuits had a house. F. Paulinus says C^India Or. Christiana"): "Anno 1679 
 in oppido Arribalacata in lignum incisi alii characteres Tamulici per Ignatium Aichamoni indigenam Malabarensem, iisque 
 in lucem prodiit opus inscriptum: Vocabulario Tamulico com a dignificagao Portuguetia composto pello P. Antem de 
 Proenga da Comp. de Jesu, Miss, de Maduri." This writer was born in 1624, went to India (Madura) in 1647, and 
 died at Tottiyam (Madura district) in 1666. Barbosa Machado ("Bibliotheca Lusitana" i., p. 182.) from whom I have 
 taken the dates of F. da Proenya's life, did not know of his Tamil Dictionary, and since Profr. de Gubernatis has made 
 a fruitless search in the library of the Propaganda, there is little hope that a copy will be discovered. If any exist, it 
 must be in the 'Mission House' at Halle, or at Goa. The first (engraved) Tamil alphabet that I know of, is in Baldaeus 
 (1672) "Beschrijving der Oost-Indische Kusten Malabar en Choromandel" p. 191 ifg. The first printing press in India 
 was that of I. de Endem at Goa — 1 563. 
 
 2) The old Grantha-Tamil alphabet was given by Babington in PI. xiii. of vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Royal As. 
 Society of London; he apparently took it mostly from the inscription of Saluvankuppam, which is probably of the year 
 1038 A. D.; but he added letters from other inscriptions of later times and from other places. I have examined, this 
 inscription which is very roughly cut, and therefore preferred that at Tanjore which is of various dates chiefly from 1073 
 A. D. to 1089. It includes a large number of grants with many clauses in each. 
 
— 45 — 
 
 a series of palseographical standards, and I, therefore, give only three specimens''. 
 These will show how very little alteration and development occurred between 1073 and 
 1 600 A. D. A very near approach to the modern Tamil character must already have 
 been reached about 1350 A. D. (cfr. Plates xiv. and xix.). The most important point 
 is the conversion of the curve at the top of k, s, t, n, and r into an angular stroke, 
 thus ^ ^^, and this feature appears in an inscription of about 1200. The last letter 
 to finally assume the modern form was k about 1500. The greatest development has 
 occurred in this present century owing to the increased use of writing, and to the 
 arbitrary alterations of the type founders^'. 
 
 The Grantha- Tamil differs from the Grantha-alphabet in precisely the same way as 
 the Vatteluttu, as far as the reduplication • of consonants and the expression of the 
 absence of the inherent vowel (virama) are concerned. The pulli or dot above the 
 consonant which serves the purpose of the virama, does not occur in any of the 
 inscriptions I have seen, and it is omitted in the earliest printed books''- The famous 
 Jesuit C. J. Beschi (in India, 1 704-1 744?) is the author of a great improvement in modern 
 Tamil orthography — the distinction between the long and short e and o. This he 
 effected by curving the top of the s-- used to express the short e, thus g, and the same 
 sign serves (in the compound for o) to express the long d*'. Before then, he states, 
 
 ') Our information about the Cola kings is confined to the nth and I2th centuries (see above, p. 39, note). As regards 
 the old Pandya kings we know still less. (See "The Madura Country" by J. H. Nelson, 1868). It is possible that the 
 mention of some of these kings by the Ceylon annalists, Marco Polo, and the Muhammedan Historians may eventually furnish 
 a clue. What information there is, has been last collected and discussed by Dr. Caldwell, "Dravidian Grammar" pp. 139-146. 
 536. According to an inscription at Chillumbrum (SiSambaram), Vikrama Pandya was succeeded in the nth century by 
 his son Vira PSndya who was conquered by Koppakesari the Cola. He established his younger brother on the throne 
 there. This prince's name was Gahifai-kkonda Cola, but he took the name Sundara Pandya Coja (Inscr. at Karuviir). In 1 173 
 Madura was conquered by the Singhalese who put a Vira Pandya on the throne, and about 1310-1315 by the Muhammedans, 
 under whom it continued till about 1370 when it fell under Vijayanagara. From about 1 100 down to 1310 there is much 
 confusion, and it is impossible to identify the kings; this is probably to be explained by contests of the Pandyas and 
 Pandya-Colas for the throne. Dr. Caldwell gives the last Pandyas as follows: 
 
 Parakrama Pandya (1516-1543) 
 
 Vikrama Pandya (1543-1565) 
 
 Vallabhadeva, Ativirarama (1565-1610) 
 He was alive in 1605 ; in literature, he is chiefly remarkable as a diligent translator or patron of translators from 
 Sanskrit. I have a grant by a Sundara Pandya d. Rudhirodgari thirteenth year of his reign; this can only be 1623. Valla- 
 bhadeva, therefore, died in 1610. But all these Pandyas had no, real power. 
 
 2) The first edition of the N. T. in Tamil (4°. Tranquebar, 1714) is printed with type that exactly reproduce the 
 character of the Tamil inscriptions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
 
 3) It appears to have been known to the Tamil grammarians. 
 
 *) "Grammatica Latino-Tamilica, in qua de vulgari Tamulica lingua" etc. (Tranquebar, 1739, 12°). — "longis (e et o) 
 nullo notatis signo brevibus superscribendum decent illud signum(-). Attamen nuUibi hssc signa praterquam pauois aliquot 
 
 dictionibus ex inertia fortasse amanuensium superscribi vidi unquam addo excogitasse me alium et faciliorem modum 
 
 distinguendi e et o longa a brevibus: scilicet, cum utrique inserviat littera s combu dicta; si hsec simplici forma scribatur, 
 crit e breve et o breve: si autem inflectetur in partem superiorem, ut infra dicam de i-longo, sic (S, e at o erunt longa." 
 
— 46 — 
 
 the short a and o were occasionally distinguished by a stroke (the Sanskrit prosodial 
 mark) above them. In the alphabet as given by Baldseus (1672) the same character 
 stands for e and i, 6 and o; but he notices the fact that these letters are long and short. 
 
 Beschi omits to mention the information given by the Tamil grammarians which is 
 of some interest. The Tolkappiyam (i., 1,16) states that a dot is to be put over e and 6. 
 This practice was, therefore, recognized by the grammarians about the 8th century. 
 In the nth century the Virasoliyam of Buddhamitra (i., 6: "eyaravoyarameyyJi- pulli 
 meyvum") repeats this rule, and so does the Nannul in still more recent or, as Dr. Pope 
 considers, in quite recent times. Of this also, I have not been able to find the least 
 trace in the inscriptions. 
 
 The angular form of this Tamil character is owing to a wide-spread practice in the 
 South of India, of writing with the style resting on the e?td of the left thumb nail; in 
 Malabar and the Telugu country the roundness of the letters is to be attributed to the 
 practice of resting the style on the left side of the same thumb. 
 
 The map shows a great extension of the Grantha-Tamil alphabet to the North 
 extending over the deltas of the Krishna and Godavari; this occurred under the Cola 
 rule in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Inscriptions in Tamil and in the form of 
 character given in PI. xviii. still exist (or existed till lately) in some of the islands of the 
 Godavari delta, and the village accountants were originally all Tamil Brahmans'\ The 
 ritual of many temples was also in this language. This however did not continue long, 
 for in 1228 the Colas lost Kalihga which was conquered by the Orungal king'^ and 
 by the beginning of the fourteenth century, Telugu inscriptions and grants only 
 appear. 
 
 Tamil is remarkable among the Southern languages for using a number of abbrevi- 
 ations for common words such as month, year, fanam etc. These appear in common 
 use at the beginning of the 1 6th century^\ 
 
 In the 1 6th and rarely in the 1 7th century, an abridged style of writing Tamil is not 
 unusual in which the long a is connected with the preceding consonant; thus rT]=ra*\ 
 Other letters e.g. \]_ (=tt) are also joined in a similar way; this manner of writing 
 exists now in the cursive hand only. 
 
 IJ This remarkable extension of Tamil to the north was first pointed out by F. W. Ellis ("On the Law-books of the 
 Hindus" in Madras Lit. Trans, i.) ; I was able to verify it for myself in the Nellore province. 
 
 2) "About the year . . . A. D. 1228, the fourth prince of this [the Orungal] line drove the Sh6zha Raja entirely out 
 of Calinga; this fact and date being proved by a remarkable inscription on a stone now standing on the westernmost point 
 of the island of Dive" . . . Ellis, u. s. 
 
 3) They are to be found in most Tamil Grammars. 
 
 4) See inscription of 9. 1454 (=1532-3 A. D.) on the Gopura of the Pillaiyar Temple in the Fort at Tanjore. 
 
— 47 
 
 §3. THEVATTELUTTU. {Plates xvii. and xxxii.) 
 
 This is the original Tamil alphabet which was once used in all that part of the 
 peninsula south of Tanjore, and also in S. Malabar and Travancore where it still exists 
 though in exceedingly limited use, and in a modern form. It may, therefore, be termed 
 the Pandyan character, as its use extended over the whole of that kingdom at its best 
 period; it appears also to have been in use in the small extent of country below the 
 ghats (South-Malabar and Coimbatore of the present day) which belonged to the Cera 
 kingdom. As it was only gradually supplanted'' by the modern Tamil character be- 
 ginning about the eleventh century under the Colas, it is, therefore, certain that the 
 Tolkappiyam, Kural and all the other early Tamil works were written in it, under the 
 most flourishing period of the "Pandya" (or Madura) kingdom, or before the eleventh 
 century when it finally fell under the Colas. 
 
 But though it is certain that the beginning of the Tamil literature may be safely 
 put about the ninth century, there is nothing to show that there was in any way a 
 literature before that time. The legend of Agastya's settlement in the South is, of 
 course, historically worthless ^\ and though the three Dravidian kingdoms^' were un- 
 doubtedly ancient, we have nothing about their condition till Hiouen-Thsang's visit 
 to the peninsula about 640 A. D. He says of the inhabitants of Mo-lo-kiu-tch'a 
 (Malakuta) *^ : "lis ne font aucun cas de la culture des lettres, et n'estiment que la 
 poursuite du lucre"^\ He mentions the Nirgranthas or Digambara Jains (ascetics)®' 
 as the most prominent sect in the South, and this corresponds with the actual 
 
 U Tolkappiyam, i., 14 mentions the V. forms of p and m. * 
 
 2) According to the Virasojiyam, a highly Sanskritized Tamil Grammar of the I Ith century, Agastya got his knowledge 
 from Avalokita! But the author's name Puttamittiran (Buddhamitra) shows his religion plainly enough. 
 
 5) The Pandya kingdom {e.g.) is mentioned in the Ayoka inscriptions (250 B. C.) by Ptolemy (vii., I, II, vol. ii., p. 143. 
 ed. Nobbe) in the second century A. D. and by the Periplus in the third century A. D. The Mahavamso (ed. Tumour) makes 
 Vijayo (543 B. C!) marry the daughter of the king of Dakkhina Madhura called "Panduwo" (p. 51), I do not find any 
 subsequent mention of the Pandyas in this very monkish chronicle. I put the date of the Periplus at the third century A. D. 
 following Reinaud. 
 
 *) Malakiita is mentioned in the Tanjore inscription, and there can be little doubt that the Cola kingdom of Tanjore is 
 to be understood by it and not Madura as has been supposed. 
 
 6) "Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes" iii., p. 121. 
 
 6) I proposed the identification of the Nirgranthas with the Jains (in /. A. i., p. 310, n.) on the ground that in the 
 Jain Atthapahudaka (i. e. Ashtaprabhritaka) Nirgrantha is constantly used as an epithet of the true (Digambara) Jains, and 
 that, therefore, it could not be referred to the Brahmans as had always been done hitherto, and also on the ground of 
 probability, as e. g. Hiouen-Thsang's account (iii., p. 27) of the Nirgranthas is much more likely of Jains than of 
 Brahmans ; but I have since got additional information which makes my identification certain, and can leave no doubt that 
 Jain ascetics are intended by the word 'niggantha' (nirgrantha), though the word is now not understood by the Jains. 
 
— 48 — 
 
 remains of the early Tamil literature which are in fact Jain, but he would have 
 hardly said what he does if the grammars and the Kural then existed. The earliest 
 apparent or probable mention of writing in S. India is the passage in the Periplus of 
 the Red Sea which describes Cape Comorin. Among other facts the author mentions 
 that "it is related (lotopelrai) that a goddess bathed there". Considering that this 
 log-book was composed in the third century, and that, therefore, the Greek is very late, 
 it is quite possible that this word hmpslxa.1, may mean that the legend was written, 
 and the earlier editors and translators of the text took it in this sense"\ but the passage 
 is by no means beyond doubt in this respect^^ The earliest Tamil Grammar by 
 A'yattiyan (Agastya) clearly refers to writing, if we may trust a quotation (preserved by 
 a commentary on the Nannul) which compares the relation between a letter and the 
 sound it stands for, with the relation of an idol to the deity it represents. The age of 
 this is unknown. 
 
 The Vatteluttu was gradually supplanted by the modern Tamil after the conquest 
 of Madura by the Colas (eleventh century), and it appears to have entirely gone out of 
 use in the Tamil country by the fifteenth century^\ In Malabar it remained in general 
 use up to the end of the seventeenth century among the Hindus, and 'since then, in the 
 form of the Koleluttu, it is the character in which the Hindu sovereigns have their 
 grants drawn up. The Mappilas of the neigbourhood of Tellicherry and in the Islands 
 
 Thus in the Digambara cosmogony called 'Trilokasara' the gathas 848-850 describe the persecution of some Jain ascetics 
 by Kalki (a king said to have lived 394 years after the ^akaraja). These run: 
 
 848. So ummaggShimuho caiimuho sadadivasaparamau calisarajjao jidabhumi pucha'i samattiganam | 
 
 C. Sa Kalki unmargabhimukhay caturmukhakhyaA saptativarshaparamayushyaj catvarimyadvarsharSjyo jitabhumi^ 
 san svamantriganam pricchati. 
 
 849. Amhanam ke avasa? niggantha atthi! kidisayara? niddanavattha bhikkhabhoji jahasattham idi vayaue | 
 C. Asmakam ke avafa? iti. mantrina^ kathayanti: nirgrantha^ santi 'ti. punaA pricchati: kidrifakara? iti. 
 
 nirdhanavastrS yatha9astram bhixabhojina iti mantrina^ prativacanam yrutva— 
 
 850. Tam paniiide nipaditapathamapindam tu sukkam idi geyam niyame sa jJvakade cattahara gaya munino | 
 
 C. Tesham nirgranthanam paniputanipatitam prathamapindam 9ulkam iti grahyam iti rajrio niyamena jivena 
 kritena tyaktaharaA santo munayo gatSA. 
 The Niganthas (i. e. Nirgranthas) are frequently mentioned in the Pali "Dathavamso" (of the 12th cent.) as heretical 
 enemjes of the Buddhists who vforshipped Vishnu (see iii., 23); thi? answers to Jains, but certainly not to ^aiva Brahmans. 
 The Nirgranthas are already mentioned in an A9ok* edict. 
 
 1) See the edition in Hudson's "Geographi Graeci Minores" vol. i. p. 33, where the passage is translated: "Literis 
 enim memoriaeque proditum est deam olim singulis mensibus ibi lavari fuisse solitam". The latest and more critical editor 
 (C. Miiller) has on the other hand: "Dea aliquando ibi commorata et lavata esse perhibetur". ("Geographi Grseci Minores.'' 
 p. 300 of vol. i. of Didot's Edition). It is therefore uncertain. 
 
 2) I pass over the statement of lambulus ("Diodorus Siculus," ed. Dindorf, ii. 59 in vol. i., p. 222) as it is impossible 
 to explain it by any Indian alphabet as yet known. 
 
 3) I owe the fact of the existence of the Vatteluttu up to so recent a time in the S. Tamil country, to the Right 
 Rev. Dr. Caldwell. 
 
— 49 — 
 
 used this character till quite recently; it is now being superseded by the modified 
 Arabic character which has religious prestige on its side'\ 
 
 The ultimate origin of the Vatteluttu is again a difficult problem in Indian Palaeo- 
 graphy. In the eighth century it existed side by side and together with the Grantha^'; 
 it is, therefore, impossible to suppose that the Vatteluttu is derived from the S. Acjoka 
 character, even if the conclusive argument of the dissimilarity between the phonetic 
 values of many of the corresponding letters be neglected^'. Again the S. A9oka 
 character would have furnished a more complete representation of the Tamil phonetic 
 system than either the Vatteluttu or the modern (Grantha) Tamil alphabet does*'; it 
 must, therefore, follow that the alphabet was formed and settled before the Sanskrit 
 grammarians came to Southern India, or we should find as accurate a representation as 
 they effected for Telugu and Canarese. The Tamil grammarians, however, evidently 
 found the language already written when they began their labours, and thus this part of 
 their grammars is comparatively imperfect'^'. Again as the Vatteluttu is an imperfect 
 alphabet, it cannot be the origin of the S. Aqoka character; for, if it were, the evidence 
 of the extension and adaptation must be far greater than it is. It is plain that many of 
 the aspirated letters in the S. A^oka character are formed from the corresponding 
 unaspirated letters, but if that alphabet were formed from the Vatteluttu, it would 
 have shown traces of a similar formation in the letters g, j, d, d and h for which there 
 are no forms in the Vatteluttu. But these letters appear to be primitive in the S. A9oka 
 character. The only possible conclusion, therefore, is that the S. A9oka and Vatteluttu 
 alphabets are independent adaptations of some foreign character, the first to a Sanskritic, 
 the last to a Dravidian language. There are, however, resemblances between the two 
 that point to a- common Semitic origin; and these extend perhaps to two-thirds of the 
 
 I J See No. ii. of my "Specimens of South-Indian Dialects". 
 
 2) Cfr. the grants to the Israelite and Christian communities in Travancore. These were first attempted (like most 
 branches of S. Indian archaeology) by Dr. John Leyden (see his Life by Morton, Calcutta, 1823, p. 52). Even in a 
 treatise like the present it may not be out of place (as so little is now known about this distinguished scholar) to 
 give an unpublished piece of information about him, viz., his epitaph at Batavia. It runs: "Sacred | to the memory of | 
 John Casper Leyden, M. D. | who was bom | at Teviotdale in Scotland, and who died 1 in the prime of life | at Molenvliet 
 near Batavia | on the 28th August 1 81 1 | two days | after the fall of Cornells | | The poetical talents and superior literary | 
 attainments of Dr. Leyden rendered him an | ornament of the age in which he lived— | His ardent spirit and insatiable 
 thirst after | knowledge, was perhaps unequalled: | And the friends of science must ever | deplore his untimely fate— | 
 His principles as a man were pure and spotless | And as a friend he was firm and sincere. | — Few have passed through 
 this life I with fewer vices or with a greater | prospect of happiness in the next". I owe this copy to the kindness of 
 Dr. Stortenbecker, the first Colonial Secretary at Batavia; when I was there, I was unable to seek out Leyden's tomb, 
 but I doubt not that it is well cared for by the Dutch. In Java, at least, cemeteries are not allowed to be desecrated 
 and become the abomination and disgrace that they so often are in British India. 
 
 3) See Appendix A. 4) See Appendix A. 
 
 5) The Telugu and Canarese grammars explain the respective phonetic systems by a steady reference to that of Sanskrit; 
 the Tamil grammars do not refer to the Sanskrit at all in this way. 
 
— 50 — 
 
 Vatteluttu letters; the others differ totally, yet several of these sounds (1, 1, r) exist in 
 the other Dravidian languages, and distinct letters have been invented to express them. 
 Thus the Tamil-Malayalam 1 is expressed by iP, the Canarese identical letter by &j. 
 Again the Telugu- Canarese r is expressed by ef), whereas the same letter in Tamil is 
 written <d, so the Telugu- Canarese and Tamil 1 which are identical in sound are written 
 quite differently. There is also a peculiarity in the popular Tamil way of naming the 
 letters; in Sanskrit (excepting repha=r) names of letters are formed by adding -kara to 
 the letter in question; in Tamil -na is affixed to short and -vena to long syllables, every 
 consonant being named with some vowel following it'\ 
 
 There is another peculiarity in the Vatteluttu system of writing, which might appear 
 also common to the early Prakrit (Cave) inscriptions in India, and to those of Ceylon; 
 but there is, in reality, a difference. This peculiarity consists in the writing of consonants 
 which follow one another without the intervention of a vowel, on the same line, not 
 perpendicularly, as is done in the other Indian alphabets. Instances of this occur in the 
 Vatteluttu documents in numbers in every line, and it is the chief feature in this system 
 as compared with those of the other Indian alphabets. In the Cave inscriptions this 
 practice does not really exist; the duplicated letters (which constitute the bulk of the 
 instances of . consonants directly following one another) are either not marked, or marked 
 by a Q-'. In the Ceylon inscriptions, the practice Is to omit reduplicated letters, and 
 Instances of the Sanskrit system occur'^ 
 
 The neglect to mark the duplication of consonants is a primitive Semitic practice*^ ; 
 but in Pahlavi (so far as can be ascertained) the duplication of consonants was marked, 
 as we find in the Vatteluttu; one example is, beyond doubt, viz, the duplication of n. 
 
 It Is thus evident that the Vatteluttu differs greatly from the Canarese and Telugu 
 alphabets; but If one compares the forms of i, k, t, r, and even a and a, in both, it is 
 hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that they are derived from the same source. 
 That an alphabet should have been imported independently into Northern India (pro- 
 
 1) The order I have given to the Vatteluttu corresponds vpith that of the Tamil alphabet, and is that of the Sanskritizing 
 grammarians. There is, however, a siitra in the Nannul which appears to me to indicate that this was not the case when 
 the grammarians began their labours. It runs: "Sirappinum inattinun serinft'ind' ammuOanadattarane muraiy a'jum" 
 (ii., i8). 4. e. "The series of letters beginning with 'a' (and) arranged according to their priority and relationship, is here 
 their order''. indu=here (atra), i. e. in this grammar. If this order were the usual one, this explanation would have been 
 unnecessary: I am unable to find any trace of this other arrangement of the Tamil alphabet. The Kural (i., l) mentions 
 'a' as the first letter. The Nannul (ii., 71) directs -a-jaram for the names of consonants, -karam for short vowels, -kSn for 
 the foreign ai and au, and -karam for the long vowels etc. This is clearly an imitation of the Sanskrit. Again the same 
 work (ii., 43) mentions the toUai vadivu or 'old forms' of the letters. 
 
 2J See above p. 13. 
 
 3) I gather this from remarks by Mr. Rhys Davids and Dr. P. Goldschmidt. 
 
 *) The signs now used to supply this defect are all of modern origin. 
 
— 51 — 
 
 bably Gujarat) and also into the Tamil country much about the same time, seems strange; 
 but it is nevertheless most likely, considering the circumstances of foreign trade with 
 India as reported by the classical authors. The Periplus, for example, mentions a 
 large trade with Ariake, i.e. Bombay and the country of the Prakrit-speaking peoples; 
 there is then a gap, and again large trade with Limurike. Now this is simply the Western 
 Tamil country or Malabar", and between the two provinces there was the Pirate Coast 
 which preserved its evil name till within recollection of many. There would be no 
 trade there, and the Western and S. Western Coast would thus be in fact distinct 
 countries. Again there could not have been any communication by land, for Fa-hian 
 (400 A. D.) mentions the Deccan as uncivilized and inaccessible; it is, therefore, more 
 likely that the S. A9oka character and the Vatteluttu are totally distinct importations, 
 than derived the one from the other. 
 
 What was this source? There is quite as much reason for supposing a Semitic 
 original in this case, as in that of the S. A9oka character, resemblances to some of the 
 Phoenician and Aramaic letters being equally apparent in both^\ Of all the probable 
 primitive alphabets with which a comparison of the Vatteluttu is possible, it appears to 
 me that the Sassanian of the inscriptions presents most points of resemblance^^ The 
 number of letters also in both, narrowly agree. At present the difficulty is to find 
 certain and dated examples of the Aramaic characters used in the early centuries B. C. 
 and also similar specimens of the Vatteluttu; there is also the difficulty of deciding 
 which of the many derivatives from the Phoenician alphabet, but of which it is possible 
 this S. Indian alphabet may have been formed, was actually used for this purpose. 
 
 Another remarkable feature in the Vatteluttu is the system of marking the secondary 
 vowels. This is intermediate between the systems of the Northern and the Southern 
 
 1) The Periplus and Ptolemy have XtaopiXTJ, but as the Peutingerian Table, the Ravenna geographer and Guido have 
 liimirice; there can be no doubt that the copyists have mistaken _/^ for ^, an exceedingly easy error in Greek. Dimurike is 
 thus Tamil + ike ; now MaUyalam vras called Tamil formerly, and at the time of the classical writers (beyond doubt) the 
 languages in no way differed. It is thus impossible to identify Dimurike with Canara, (as was done by Vincentl) following 
 Rennell for quite illusive reasons), but it must be taken to mean S. Malabar, and the three great ports Tundis, Mouziris 
 and Nelkunda (Nincylda) are Kadal(t)undi (near Beypore), Muyirikkodu (Kishankotta opposite to the site of Cranganore) 
 and Kallada (inland from Quilon up a large river). The Vatteluttu must, therefore, have been imported at one of these 
 places. The reasons for this new identification would take too much space here, and must be given elsewhere. (See Col. 
 Yule's remarks on the map of Ancient India in Smith's "Ancient Atlas", 1875.) 
 
 2) I must, however, point out that Profr. Max Miiller is not satisfied in respect of the S. Afoka character (Sanskrit Gr. 
 p. 3). He quotes Prinsep's "Essays" by Thomas, ii., p. 42. 
 
 3) The development of the Pahlavi from the early Aramaic character is traced by M. F. Lenormant in the '■Journal 
 Asiatique" for August and September 1865 (pp. 180-226). The resemblance between some of the Vatteluttu letters and 
 the corresponding Proto- and Persepolitan Pahlavi forms (as given by F. Lenormant) is very striking. Cfr. a; Pahlavi d 
 with t; 1; 1 (r); m; n; p; k; s with s etc. There is ample evidence as to trade between Persia and the W. Coast of India. 
 
 1) "Commerce and Navigation of the Indian Ocean", ii. p. 456. 
 
 7* 
 
— 52 — 
 
 A9oka alphabets, and thus connects both. I was led by this striking fact to suggest in 
 an article on the Vatteluttu*' that the Northern alphabets had, in this respect, copied 
 from it. At present it appears to me that it is best to consider the Aqoka alphabets 
 and the Vatteluttu as independent; the evidence afforded by the few facts that are 
 satisfactorily known in respect of these characters is too imperfect to allow of more 
 precise conclusions being drawn. Vatteluttu is the modern Malayalam name of this 
 character, and means 'round hand' apparently to distinguish it from the Koleluttu or 
 'sceptre hand'; it appears to be the best name for this alphabet as it prevents all con- 
 fusion with the modern Tamil. 
 
 §4. THE SOUTH-INDIAN NAGARI ALPHABETS. 
 (Plates XX., xxi., xxii., xxx. and xxxi.^ 
 
 The South-Indian form of the Nagari character as current in modern times, usually 
 goes by the name of Nandinagarl, a name it is quite as difficult to account for, as 
 Devanagarl^^ The Nandinagarl is directly derived from the N. Indian Devanagari of 
 
 1) In the Indian Antiquary Vol. i., p. 229. This article is, I believe, the first to call attention to this alphabet. 
 Specimens of the character occur in the preface to Rheede's "Hortus Malabaricus" (1678), and in Fryer's "New Account" 
 (1698) p. 33. The author gives it as Telugu, but the specimen on p. 52 is Telugu and not Malabar (Tamil) as he states; 
 he has made a mistake between them. 
 
 2J The word 'Naga(ri)' first occurs, it seems, as the name of an alphabet in the Lalitavistara, a life of Buddha that is 
 in its original form perhaps two thousand years old; but as it exists in Sanskrit and Tibetan, it would be very unsafe to put 
 it at an earlier date than about the seventh century A. D. The Tibetan version (of which Profr. Foucaux has published 
 a most excellent edition and translation) was made in the ninth century by three natives of India named Jinamitra, Danajila 
 and Munivarma with the assistance of a Tibetan Lotsava named Bande Ye-ses-sdes ; this fact is stated in the Tibetan index 
 to the great collection called Bkah-hgyur (Kandjur) in the description of the work in question (Rgya-tcher-rol-pa 
 i. e. Lalitavistara), and is to be found on p. 16 (No. 95) of this index as reprinted at St. Petersburg. Naga(ri) occurs 
 as the name of an alphabet in ch. js.. (v. p. 113 of vol. i. of Profr. Foucaux's edition) which describes how the young 
 prince, afterwards known as Buddha, was taken to a school and completely posed the pedagogue. Sixty-four alphabets are 
 mentioned some of which are, no doubt, mythical, but others are real (e. g. Dravida, Anga and Banga), though it is against 
 all the evidence of the inscriptions that they existed as distinct alphabets before the ninth or tenth century A. D. If 
 therefore the framework of the Lalitavistara be old, this passage is certainly an interpolation, though very valuable evidence 
 regarding the ninth century A. D. But this Tibetan version by no means bears out the meaning usually assigned to the 
 word Devanagari— "nagari of the Gods or Brahman", nagari being usually referred to n a g a r a and being supposed to mean 
 •writing used in cities'. The Tibetan text has here the ordinary name (in that language) of the NSgari character — 
 "klu-'i yi-ge" (as a translation of the Sanskrit 'naga-lipi') and this is also literally "writing of the nagas"- {Cfr. Jaeschke's 
 "W. B. p. 7.) It is evident, therefore, what the natives of India understood nSgalipi or nagari to mean in the ninth century 
 A. D., and it only remains to be seen if this derivation is possible. I think this question must be answered in the affir- 
 mative, as not only Prakrit but also Sanskrit words exist which are formed in the same way. (Bopp's Comp. Grammar, 
 ed. Brfol, § 940.) There is yet another possible explanation of 'nagari'— that it means the writing of the Nagara or 
 Gujarat Brahmans. (Cfr. 'nagara' in Molesworth's Mahr. Dictionary.) Albiruni (Reiuaud, "MSmoire", p. 298) mentions 
 the 'nagara' character as used in Malva, and the 'arda-nagari' (i. e. ardhanagari) as used in Scinde. 
 
— 53 — 
 
 about the eleventh century, but it is from the type that prevailed at Benares and in the 
 West, and not from the Gaudi or Bengali. This last is chiefly distinguished from the 
 other types by the way of marking the secondary e and o, which is done by a perpendi- 
 cular stroke before the consonant in the case of e, and by a similar stroke before 
 and another after the consonant in the case of o, and this is, very nearly, the actual 
 Bengali system. The other type marks these vowels in the same way as is done by 
 the ordinary Nagarl alphabet. Thus the S. Indian Nandinagari is derived from the 
 Siddhamatraka character, used, according to Albirunl (1031 A. D.) in Benares, the 
 Madhyade9a and Cashmere'^ It now differs greatly from that type or from the N. Indian 
 DevanSgari, and is remarkably illegible; but this deterioration took place very slowly, 
 and is unquestionable owing to the practice of writing on palm-leaves. The Nagari 
 inscriptions in S. India are all, with one exception, subsequent to the tenth century; this 
 exception is at Seven Pagodas in the temple of Atiranacande9vara near Saluvaiikuppam, 
 and is in nearly the same character as a dated inscription of the seventh century found 
 near Nagpur and published in the' Bombay Journal^K As this inscription is given in 
 two different characters, this must have been done for the benefit of pilgrims from the 
 North. It has already been published^'. 
 
 A few inscriptions in a variety of this character have been found near Jayapura (in 
 the Ganjam district), they are of the tenth century''^ This character appears, there, to 
 have been the origin of the Oriya alphabet. 
 
 Inscriptions in the same character, both" Hindu and Buddhist, occur in considerable 
 numbers in Java. Grants^', explanatory remarks^', inscriptions on rings and Buddhist 
 
 1) He (see Reinaud's "M6moire", p. 297)- says: "les traits sout horizontaux et ne debordeut ui au-dessus ni au-dessous 
 de la ligne; chaque lettre est surmontfe d'une ligne horizontale au-dessous de laquelle elle se developpe. On compte 
 plusieurs 6critures dans 1' Inde. La plus r^pandue est celle qui porte le nom de siddha-matraca ou substance parfaite; 
 elle est usit^e dans le Cachemire et i Benares, qui sont maintenant les deux principaux foyers scientifiques du pays." 
 
 2) Vol. I. pp. 148 ffg. 
 
 3) "Transactions of the R. As. Society", II., pi. 15 (in Dr. Babington's Paper on Seven Pagodas). For the position 
 of the place see the map in Madras Journal, xiii., and in Major Carr's reprint of papers on this subject. I had this little 
 temple cleared of sand in 1867, and took copies of the inscriptions which I gave Major Carr. 
 
 *) The dynasty to which these belong seems to have been established by fugitives of the Veugi family in the 7th 
 century. (See p. 22 n.) During the anarchy from 977 to 1004 A. D. these kings again rose to power for a time, and appear 
 to have resided at Kalihganagara. The succession is : 
 
 Jayavarmadeva 
 
 Anantavarmadeva (in 985 A. D.) 
 
 Rajendravarmadeva 
 6) There is a stele with a long grant (?) in this character in the Museum at Batavia; it is, unfortunately, very illegible. 
 6) On statues in the Batavia Museum. These have been partly published by Friederich'Over Inscriptien van Java en 
 Sumatra" pi. i. Some such are visible on sculptures figured in Raffle's "Java"- 
 
— 54 — 
 
 confessions^' of faith have all been found in this character; it is, therefore, of some 
 importance, and I, accordingly, now give the alphabet. (PI. xxii.) 
 
 It is thus plain that the examples which occur of this character in S. India and 
 Java must be due to emigrants from the North who saw fit to leave their own country 
 in considerable numbers. It may be not impossible to discover the causes of this 
 emigration, which, in later times, is probably to be attributed to the Muhammadan 
 conquest. In earlier times, religious disputes may have been the cause. 
 
 There is little trace of development of this character. 
 
 In the Deccan, Nagari inscriptions begin to commonly appear during the tem- 
 porary fall of the Kalyana Calukyas^^ and this character appears to have been 
 much used by the revolted feudatories^'. On the revival of the original dynasty the 
 
 1) See plate xxii. From a bronze statuette in the Batavla Museum. 
 
 2) For a specimen see the grant under Akalavarsha d. y, 867 (=945 A. D.) in the Indian Antiquary, i., pp. 205 flfg. 
 
 3) The chief of these feudatories (often independent) are as follows : 
 
 i. RSshlrakuta, or Ratta. General remarks on, and genealogy of this dynasty occur in Bombay Journal, i., p. 211 
 and iii., p. 98; '^Indian Antiquary, i., pp. 207-g. do. iv., p. 274 and 279. For inscriptions see As. J. v., {d. 973 A. D.) 
 Bombay Journal, i., pp. 209-224 (d. 9. 930=1008 A. D. in Nagari); ii., p. 272, n. pp. 371-6 (d. 9. 675=753 A. D. also 
 N5g. ! ?); iv., p. 104 {d. 9 855=A. D. 933 also in Nag.) Rashtra seems to be merely a brahmanical perversion of the Telugu 
 "Reddi". Mr. Fleet has succeeded in restoring the complete genealogy. See Indian Antiquary, iv., 280. 
 ii. Kalabhuri. (KSlacuri seems to be erroneous). 
 
 Madras Journal ("Hindu Inscriptions" by Sir W. Elliot) vii., pp. 197, 211-221, and 224-225. Indian Antiquary 
 iv., 274; v., 45. 
 
 The most important of the three kings whose names occur is Vijjaladeva the first; he conquered Tailapa ii. (of 
 Kalyanapura), and during his reign (1 156-1 1 65) the revolt of Basava and the Liugayats broke out which cost him eventually 
 his throne and life. 
 
 iii. Kadamba (neighbourhood of Goa). Probably an old branch of the Calukyas. "Notes on Sanskrit Copper-plates 
 found in the Belgaum CoUectorate" by J. F. Fleet {Bombay Journal, ix., pp. 231-246). "Some further Inscriptions relating 
 to the Kadamba Kings of Goa" by the same (do. pp. 262-309). See also Sir W. Elliot's article in Madras Journal 
 vii., pp. 226-9. Indian Antiquary, iv., 208. v., p. 15. 356. Ti., pp. 22-32. 
 
 iv. Sindavamya. For the genealogy as established by Mr. Fleet, see Indian Antiquary, v., p. 174. 
 The new dynasties which replaced, the older Calukyas in the Deccan from the 13th to the 14th centuries are: 
 i. Devagiri Yadavas. See Lassen (I. A. — K. IV. pp. 945-6). 
 ii. Dvarasamudra Yadavas. (do. IV. pp. 972-3). 
 iii. The Kakateyas of Orukkallu (Oruhgal). From the twelfth century to 1 3 1 1 . 
 
 I have not been able to find any inscriptions of this dynasty. 
 iv. The Rayas of Vijayanagara ; from about 1320 to 1565. 
 The following is the list as I have been able to correct it from several sources (see my "Vamyabrahmana," p. xvi.); the 
 dates, however, are only approximate'). 
 
 Sangama of the Yadava family and Lunar race!! 
 
 Hariyappa (1336-135°) 
 
 1) Faria y Sousa ("Asia Portuguesa" ii. pp. 189-190) gives a list of the kings down to 1545, but with much confusion 
 in parts. The European writers and travellers of the 16th and 17th centuries, however, give much valuable information. See 
 especially: Couto, Deoada vi., 5, 5 (f. 92 of the first edition, 1614). There is much confusion in all the accounts of the 
 earlier times after Tira and down to Krishnaraja, and inscriptions fail for this period. This is owing to the first conquest of 
 Vijayanagara (about the end of the 15th century) by the Muhammadans. 
 
55 — 
 
 use of this character continued, as the sovereigns betrayed a great partiality to 
 N. Indian literary men. There is not, apparently, the least trace of any patronage 
 
 Bukka i. (1350-1379) m. Gaurambika 
 
 Harihara (1379-I401) 
 
 Bukka ii. (1401-1418) «i. Tippamba 
 
 Devaraja, Viradeva or Virabhupati (1418-1434) KrishnarSja 
 
 married Fadmamba and Mallamba 
 Vijaya(? 1434-1454) and others? 
 Praudha Deva ( ? 1456-1477) 
 Mallikarjuna (1481-1487) 
 Ramacandra (1487) 
 Virupaxa (1488-1490) Narasimha (1490-1508) 
 
 (Yiranarasimha) 
 
 Krishnaraja (1 508-1 530) 
 
 Acyuta (1534-42) 
 
 Sadlfiva (made an alliance with Viceroy J. de Castro in 1 546) 
 (This Sadayiva succeeded as a child: "thirty yeares was this Kingdorae governed by three brethren which were Tyrants, 
 the which keeping the rightful! King in prison, it was their use euery yeere once to show him to the people, and they at 
 their pleasures ruled as they listed. These brethren were three Captaines belonging to the father of the King they kept in 
 prison, which when he died, left his sonne very young, and then they tooke the gouernment to themselves". (C. Frederick 
 in: "Purchas His Pilgrimes". ii., p. 1704. cfr. Couto, Dec. vii., 5, 5; f. 93 b.). 
 
 Virappa Nayak) 
 
 Ramaraja') (killed in 1565) Timma (Tirumala Bomma). (Transferred Bengatre (sic in Purchas. He was killed 
 
 the seat of government to Pennakonda in 1565. According to Couto, Decada vii., 
 
 in 1567, Purchas, ii. p. 1705) 2, 8. His name was Venkataraya) 
 
 R ahgaraja 
 
 (? 1572-1585) 
 
 VenkatapatiS) (? 1 585-1614) at Candragiri (Purchas, ii. 1746) 
 Virarama. (?) This name occurs in inscriptions, but Venkatapati was the last of his race. 
 The earlier kings of this dynasty had conquered all S. India before the end of the 14th century; but they left many of 
 the original kings {e. g. the last P5ndyas) undisturbed for a time; in the i6th century they had their deputies (called 
 Nayak) at Madura (from about 1540), Tanjore and Gingee (Sinji). In the 17th century these Nayaks acted as independent 
 sovereigns; the last Nayak of Tanjore Viraraghava (e. g.) granted Negapatam to the Dutch by a grant on a silver plate, 
 now in the Museum at Batavia. These predatory chiefs and the rabble they brought with them are the "Badagas" of 
 whom the early Portuguese Missionaries complain so much. They did not reach the extreme South till about 1544. 
 (Lucena, "Vida do Padre F. Xavier", p. 115 b; Sousa, "Oriente Conq." i., p. 231.) There is a good account of the 
 condition and relations of these Nayaks at the end of the 1 6th century by Pimenta (a 'Visitor' of the Jesuits) who was 
 on the Coromandel Coast in 1599. Purchas (vol. ii., pp. 1744-1750) gives ,an abridgement of it; as also does Jarric 
 ("Thesaurus", i. pp. 625-690). Venkatapati was then at war with the Nayak of Madura. 
 
 1) According to Ferishta, Ramaraja was ruling in 1535. ~~ 
 
 2) This genealogy rests on the VillapiCkkam grant of 1601 and similar documents. 
 
— 56 — 
 
 bestowed by them or by their successors the Yadavas of DevagirP' on vernacular 
 culture. 
 
 The Muhammadan invasion of the Deccan in 1 3 1 1 , and the destruction of the old 
 kingdoms, brought about the establishment of the Vijayanagara dynasty, under which 
 not only the Sanskrit, but also the vernacular literatures were much cultivated. The 
 early inscriptions of this dynasty are either in the Hala-kannada or Nandinagari 
 character; the latest (of the 15th and i6th centuries) are almost exclusively in the last. 
 In the South, Grantha was occasionally used. They constitute by far the largest class 
 of S. Indian inscriptions, for the sovereigns of this dynasty at the end of the 15th 
 and beginning of the i6th century repaired or endowed most of the large temples 
 in the South^^ 
 
 The S. Indian Nandinagari alphabet calls for very little remark, as from the earliest 
 examples of the fourteenth century up to 1 600 A. D. there is scarcely any development. 
 It is certainly one of the most illegible characters in use in all India. 
 
 MSS. in this character are not uncommon, as it is the favorite alphabet of the Madhva 
 sect, which counts an immense number of adherents in S. India, especially in Mysore, 
 the neighbourhood of Conjeveram, and Tanjore. All members of this sect are Brahmans, 
 and all learn more or less of the books on their dogmas written by Anandatirtha 
 (Madhvacarya) and his successors. The Nandinagari is used nearly exclusively for 
 writing on palm-leaves; for writing on paper, the ordinary Mahratha hand of Deva- 
 nagarl is used, and the writing is often exceedingly minute. All the inscriptions on 
 copper-plates, and mss. on palm-leaves that I have seen are numbered with the ordinary 
 Telugu-Canarese numerals. This character was evidently at the beginning of the 1 6th 
 century the official character of the Vijayanagara kingdom, for in it is written the 
 name of Krishnaraja on the coins which gave rise to the name "pagoda"^'. 
 
 The modern Nagari (or Balbodh) character was introduced into S. India by the 
 Mahratha conquest of Tanjore in the latter part of the seventeenth century'", and was 
 
 1) The well known law-book the Mitaxara was composed in the reign of Vikramaditya v. (1076-1127); but it is not 
 known of what .country the author was a native (Bombay Journal, ix., pp. 134-8). The Vidyapati of this king was a 
 Cashmere Brahman named Bilhana. (See letter from Dr. Biihler in Indian Antiquary, iii., p. 89, and his edition of 
 Bilhana's "Vikramankadevacarita"). 
 
 2) Many examples are already published. "Bengal As. Soc. Transactions," iii., pp. sgffg.; also in vol. xx. Colebrooke's 
 "Essays", ii., pp. 254-267. '^Indian Antiquary", ii., p. 371, and following vols. 
 
 3) See the Glossary of Anglo-Indian Terms, by Col. Yule and myself, now in the press, s. v. 'Pagoda'. 
 
 *) The date of the final conquest of Tanjore by Ekoji, and the end of the Nayak (Telugu) princes is far from certain. 
 Orme in the last century could not be sure about the date, though he had all the Madras Government records at his 
 disposal. Anquetil Duperron ("Recherches sur 1' Inde", I. pp. 1-64) has gone into the question very elaborately, and puts 
 the date at 1674-5, which appears to be as near as can be expected. 
 
— 57 — 
 
 chiefly used in Tanjore, where it is still current among the numerous descendants of the 
 Deccan Brahmans attracted there by the liberality of the Mahratha princes. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 S. India had long been frequented by foreigners before the Europeans effected 
 settlement there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries'^. Some of those early 
 colonies still subsist, but the people while retaining more or less of their nationality 
 have, however, lost the colloquial use of their own original tongues, and adopted 
 S. Indian vernaculars which now are generally written with foreign characters. The 
 most important of these foreign colonists are : — 
 
 A. Arabs. 
 
 The descendants of the early Arab colonists, though very numerous in S. India, are 
 perhaps not in any case of pure descent. In Malabar and the south-west they are 
 called 'Mappila'; in the east (or Tamil country) their name is 'Labbai' or 'Lebbai.' 
 There does not appear to be any trace in the Telugu country of a similar race. True 
 Muhammadans they are^^, but few have any knowledge of Arabic; their books and 
 letters are now written in Malayalam or Tamil with a modified Arabic character. This 
 has, however, been introduced only in recent times. I have given an account of the 
 system already elsewhere'^ 
 
 b. Persians and Syrians. 
 
 The earliest Christian settlements in S. India were Persian, and a few inscriptions in 
 Pahlavl still remain which belong to that period*^ They were, however, supplanted by 
 the so-called Syrians who are now in appearance exactly like all the other inhabitants 
 
 1) A great many inscriptions by foreigners must have disappeared quite recently, such (e.g.) as the Chinese stone with 
 (apparently) an inscription; mentioned by Garcia de Orta (1563) as takeii from Cochin by the Zamorin ("CoUoquios da India", 
 Varjihagen's reprint, f. 58J and 59). So also Marignolli's pillar (c. 1347) see Yule's Cathay", p. 344. 
 
 2) They all affect the S. Arabian costume especially the 'Qalansuwah' (a stifF cap of variegated silk or cotton. See Dozy's 
 "Dictionnaire des noms des vetemeuts chez les Arabes", pp. 365-371) if they can afford it. The Muhammadan Arabs ap- 
 pear to have settled first in Malabar about the beginning of the ninth century; there were heathen Arabs there long before 
 that in consequence of the immense trade conducted by the Sabeans with India (according to Agatharchides. i., p. 64 of 
 Hudson's ed. Cfr. also the Periplus of the Red Sea). 
 
 3; "Specimens of South-Indian Dialects", No. ii. 
 
 i) Cfr. my Essay "On some Pahlavl Inscriptions in S.India" (4° Mangalore, 1873). The most important of these 
 inscriptions is the miracle-working cross of St. Thomas at the Mount near Madras ; unfortunately for the credulous, there 
 can be no doubt that this is of heretical (Nestorian) origin. 
 
— 58 — 
 
 of Malabar, and use Malay alam as their language; this they often write with Syriac'' 
 (Karshuni) letters to which they have added from the Malayalam 'Arya' character the 
 letters deficient in the former. Syriac is merely used in the churches, though apparently 
 it is pretty generally understood by the more intelligent members of the community. 
 A few tombstones and similar relics in Travancore show that the Syriac-Malayalam 
 alphabet is of recent introduction, and that the Syrians originally used only the Vatteluttu 
 character. Buchanan^' mentions bells with inscriptions in Syriac and Malayalam, but 
 I have not seen or heard of any^'. 
 
 As both these alphabets belong (so far as my information extends) to recent times, 
 it is useless to do more than mention them here. 
 
 From the 1 7th century on, it is remarkable that different peoples of S. India, though 
 long settled in other and, to them, alien parts, have most obstinately preserved the use 
 of their own characters. Thus the sacred books of the Vaishnavas, which are in Tamil, 
 have been lately printed (at Madras) for the use of the Telugu Settis in the Telugu 
 character with some ingenious additions to mark the Tamil sounds which do not exist 
 in Telugu. Among the Tanjore mss. are several with marginal notes in the Nagarl 
 character but which are in the Telugu or Tamil language. 
 
 1) Z. d. D. M. G. xxii., p. 548 (from Land's "Anecdota") copied in Lenormant's "Essai sur la propagation de 1' alphabet 
 Phfinicien", ii. pp. 24-5 (pi. vi.). 
 
 2) "Christian Researches", p. 112. 
 
 3) The Tanjore inscriptions (nth century), prove that utensils, bells, articles of jewelry, copper and stone images were 
 usually dedicated in Pagodas in great numbers (cfr. Hemadri's 'Danakhanda'). 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SOUTH-INDIAN NUMERALS. 
 (Plate xxiiij 
 
 DHE history of the numerals used in India is of the last importance, as on it, partly, 
 'depends the solution of a very important question — the origin of the European deci- 
 mal systems of notation by which the value of the numbers depends on position and 
 which also involves the use of the cipher. The facts furnished by the S. Indian inscrip- 
 tions unfortunately are of little more value than to throw doubts on the speculative 
 conclusions arrived at by Woepcke originally'', but which are now commonly asserted in 
 popular manuals"'. These are: that the early Indian numeral signs and ciphers are derived 
 from the initial letters of the words denoting the same; that these numeral figures were 
 brought to Europe by two distinct courses — firstly, about the early centuries of our era 
 by Neo-Pythagoreans through the intercourse between Alexandria and India; and 
 secondly, by the Arabs, who adopted them about the ninth century^'. The last proposi- 
 tion is the only one of the three which rests on any historical evidence; the rest are 
 inferences drawn by Woepcke with some probability, and have been so far accepted 
 by the most eminent Indianists*'. Whether the inscriptions that have been discovered 
 
 1) Woepcke, "MSmoire sur la propagation des chifFres ludiens" (separate impression, 1863) pp. 2-3. The author 
 mentions the imperfect evidence, and then aslcs if all attempt to draw conclusions must be abandoned. His own opinion 
 he states as follows: "Je ne le pense pas, pourvu qu'en t^chant de construire un ensemble, on fasse consciencieusement 
 connattre les parties conjecturales pour las distinguer d'avec les parties certaines, et pourvu que Ton ne pr6sente les ex- 
 plications hypoth^tiques auxquelles on est oblige de recourir que comme la resultante la plus probable des faits conuus dans 
 le moment; pourvu en fin que I'on soit toujours prSt i modifier ses conclusions dans le cas oil la d^couverte de documents 
 nouveaux en rendrait la u6cessit6 ^vidente." It appears to me that the explanation of the Cave numerals, and the ascer- 
 tainment of the complete series of units, as well (as I shall show) that these numerals were used over greater part of 
 S. India, now warrant a difFereut conclusion to that of Woepcke as regards the origin of the current figures. 
 
 2) A. Braun (Die Ergebnisse der Sprachwissenschaft, p. 26.) says: Dass einige dieser Ziffern eine grosse Aehnlichkeit 
 mit den unsrigen haben, sieht man sofort. In der That verdienen unsere Zahlzeichen es eigentlich auch nicht, arabische 
 genannt zu werden, deun sie stammen urspriinglich aus Indian; die' Araber waren nur die Ueberbringer, nicht die Erfinder 
 derselben". 
 
 3) For the first proposition see pp. 44-52 of Woepcke's "M^moire"; for the second, pp. 123-6; as regards the third, the 
 Indian Embassy to Al-Manfur was in 773 A. D. It seems very probable, however, that the chief scientific information 
 that the earlier Arabs got from India came entirely through Persia. Cfr. Dr. Haas's valuable Paper on Indian Medicine, in 
 the Z. d. D. M. G. vol. xxix., and the quotation from the Diukart in Haug's "Essay on Pahlavl," p. 146. 
 
 i) Max Miiller, "Sanskrit Grammar" p. 9 (2nd ed.); "Chips from a German Workshop," ii., p. 295. Also by Profr. 
 Banfey in his "Geschichte d. Sprachwissenschaft", p. 802. 
 
 8* 
 
— 60 — 
 
 since these conclusions were arrived at, as well as some facts as yet unnoticed, do or 
 do not support them, is now a matter for serious enquiry. 
 
 The earliest known examples of Indian numeral figures occur in the A<;;oka inscrip- 
 tions which have already been often mentioned, and which belong to the middle of the 
 third century B. C. In the Kapurdigiri inscription the number 'four' is expressed by 
 four upright lines, thus II 1 1''. Later inscriptions in the same character furnish other 
 examples; the most important is one from Taxila, which is of the first century B. C. and 
 in which the number 78 is expressed by 3x20+1x10 + 2x4; the figures for 20, 10 
 and 4 being distinct signs. The figures for 'four' in these two inscriptions (III I and +) show 
 a considerable development between the third and first centuries B. C. It is, therefore, 
 certain that the method of denoting numerals, which prevailed in the early centuries 
 B. C. in the Panjab and Ariana, began with the use of strokes equal to the number to 
 be expressed, and that this primitive system had, by no means, become perfect in the 
 first century B. C. 
 
 The Southern A9oka inscriptions, which, as I have already said, are alone of 
 importance for South-Indian palaeography, do not contain any numeral signs except the 
 Khalsi inscription which has X for 'four,' and those recently discovered at Rupnath and 
 Sahasram which have figures for 256, but which are, probably, somewhat more recent. 
 But there are inscriptions from Mathura, which are in nearly the same character, 
 belonging to the first or second century A. D., probably, which show a well-developed 
 system entirely distinct from that which is found in the Arianic inscription of Taxila of 
 about the same date. In this the first three numerals are expressed by one, two and 
 three horizontal strokes, the rest (four, etc.) have distinct figures ; and there is a distinct 
 figure for each of the orders of numbers (ten, twenty, etc.) up to one hundred which 
 has, as well as one thousand, a sign to itself. The intermediate units are expressed 
 by .simply adding their signs; for example, 'twenty- five' is expressed by the sign for 
 'twenty', followed by that for 'five'. There is not the least trace of the use of the cipher 
 in this system. It is obviously an independent and ingenious development of much the 
 same elements as were used in the Arianic system, but far more perfect. It is quite 
 impossible to derive these signs from the initial letters of the words for the numbers, as 
 they bear no resemblance at all to the Southern A9oka letters which begin the corres- 
 ponding words, nor excepting the signs for 'eight' and 'nine' do they bear any resemblance 
 to the same letters in the Kapurdigiri character; and the likeness in both these cases 
 is very superficial. This system of numerals was used in the Cave inscriptions of 
 
 1) The late illustrious scholar who deciphered this inscription. (Mr. E. Norris) told me that this gave him the clue by 
 which he recognized it as an Afoka edict, and was thus able to decipher it. 
 
— 61 — ■ 
 
 Western India, and in many other parts of India during several centuries; owing to the 
 combined researches of several scholars this system is now fully understood. The 
 latest Inscription in N. India appears to be of the fourth century'-, but nearly the same 
 numerals occur in inscriptions of the early Vehgi dynasty of Kalinga which must be 
 referred to the fourth and fifth century, and the sign for 'ten' occurs in a Cera inscription d. 
 466 A. D. The system of numeral figures, still used by the Tamil people, forms a step 
 in advance, the distinct signs for 'ten', 'hundred' and 'thousand' only being preserved, and 
 those for 'twenty' up to 'ninety' being discarded. Apart from this still existing system, 
 there is no evidence as to the use of these 'Cave numerals', as they are usually termed, 
 after the fifth century, for inscriptions with dates in figures are, as yet, wanting from 
 that time till about the tenth century in Northern India, and till about the year 1000 
 A. D. in S. Indla^'. At these dates, we find, in the respective countries, the exclusive 
 use of numeral figures with a value according to position and the cipher; and the 
 figures have much the same forms as are now current '\ and which so closely resemble 
 the Gobar numerals, also in use and with the same value according to position in Europe 
 also about the eleventh century. Though it has often been asserted that the modern, . 
 or Nagari, numerals are mere abbreviations of the initial letters of the words denoting 
 the corresponding numbers*^ I think that a comparison of the later forms of the Cave 
 numerals with them, will render It perfectly clear, that, this is not the case, but that, all 
 the indigenous numerals used in the various parts of India are simply derived from the 
 Cave numerals which are not, as I have already shown, derived from the initial letters 
 of the corresponding words. This derivation is also the only one which satisfactorily 
 explains the forms of the numerals used in the North as well as in the South of India''^ 
 and Java. 
 
 It therefore appears that, neglecting all possibilities, in favour of which evidence 
 does not exist, (such as the simultaneous existence of the more modern system of notation 
 with the older in the fifth century A. D. or even earlier), the only possible conclusion is 
 that, the great improvement of using numerals with a value according to position, and 
 consequently the use of the cipher, first occurred in Central India about 500 
 A. D. Now though the inscriptions fail us as yet for this period, the acuteness 
 
 1) The Kalra plates. See Prinsep's "Essays" by Thomas, I. p. 257. 
 
 2) A Kawi inscription of the gth century, however, bears a date (763 9.) in figures. See pi. ii. of Dr. Cohen Stuart's 
 "Kawi Oorkonden." About 880 A. D. the cipher (o) was in common use in Java (do: pi. ix., xi., xiv., xv.). 
 
 3 According to Albiruni (Reinaud, "MSmoire", p. 299) the numeral figures ahka used in different parts of India in the 
 I ith century varied in form, but value by position was generally known. 
 
 4) Woepcke, "MSmoire" pp. 44-53. 
 
 5) See pi. xxiii. 
 
— 62 — 
 
 of Woepcke detected some evidence in the works of the astronomers who lived in 
 India during the fifth and following centuries. These are: Aryabhata who himself 
 tells us that he was born in 476 A. D.'\ Varaha Mihira who died in 587 A. D.^', 
 Brahmagupta who lived about 600, and Bhattotpala who lived about 1000 also of our 
 era. All these writers composed their treatises in metre, and to suit the exigencies of 
 the strict limits thus imposed on them, the three last were obliged to express the terms 
 of their calculations by words, and these not the usual ones, but by symbolical words 
 denoting natural objects, and in a conventional way, (as here used) also numerals. 
 This peculiar system (which will be fully explained further on in this chapter) implies 
 value by position, and also has words which express indirectly the cipher*'.' This same 
 system is also used in the Suryasiddhanta which is of very uncertain date in its actual 
 form. It is thus perfectly clear that the Indians knew of numerals with a value accord- 
 ing to position in the sixth century A.D., but the system of Aryabhata which is totally 
 different to the one described, appears to render improbable the assumption that he 
 also about 500 A. D. found this system in common use, though he was acquainted 
 with it*'. He himself uses the successive vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet to express 
 place, and thus his system agrees in principle with the Tamil notation; a, a and i corres- 
 ponding in value with the Tamil signs for 'ten', 'hundred' and 'thousand.' Woepcke, 
 however, considers that Aryabhata invented this notation to suit his style of composition 
 in verse, and that the system of notation by words with value according to position 
 was 'probably anterior to Aryabhata'*'. If it had been then in common use, would not 
 Aryabhata have used it? Beyond the end of the fifth century there is, therefore, nothing 
 to indicate the use of the cipher; for the high orders of numerals (equivalent to billions, 
 trillions, etc.) first noticed by Profr. Weber^' do not necessarily imply anything of the 
 
 1) See p. 58, (iii. lo), of Profr. Kera's admirable edition. 
 
 ^) Bombay Journal, viii., p. 241. 
 
 3) It must be remarked that these words all mean 'blanF, 'vacancy'' or 's7cy\ and that there is nothing to show that there 
 was a distinct mark 01 figure for the cipher; thus this Indian notation by words exactly corresponds with the system of the 
 abacus. Woepcke wrongly translates two of these words {9uuya and kha) by He point' (p. 103), and there is therefore 
 nothing in these astronomical treatises to show that the figure cipher was used in India even in the sixth century A. D. 
 The Indian abacus was by using heaps of cowries for the numbers, the number of these shells being equal to that of the 
 number to be expressed, the cipher being a blank space. Thus .•.[ |.*. = 303; .-.I. -. = 33. Warren "Kala Sankalita", 
 p. 334) mentions a counter as used to express the cipher, but I have never found this to be done. 
 
 i) I owe this correction to M. Earth ("Revue Critique", 28 Aout, 1875, p. 132). May not Aryabhata be the discoverer 
 of the decimal notation in India ? 
 
 6) u. a. p. 117 ii. "II ne faudrait pas conclure de I'existence d'une notation alphab^tique invent^e par Aryabhata que 
 cette invention est nScessairement ant^rieure h celle des chiflfres. Aryabhata, qui dcrivait aussi en vers, avait besoin d'une 
 notation qui se laissait mettre en ylokas, et trouvait peut-6tre que la m^thode des mots symboliques, tr^s probablement 
 antSrieure a Aryabhata, manquait de brievetS et de precision." Aryabhata (so the MSS. have his name) wrote in Arya 
 metre, and words would suit him better than letters; the fact remains that he did not use value by position. 
 
 6j Z. d. D. M. G. XV., pp. 132 flFg. 
 
— 63 — 
 
 kind. An illustrious French mathematician and a more eminent French philosopher 
 have shown that this invention may have occurred (as was the case) in the middle ages 
 of Europe spontaneously''; it must also have occurred independently in India, but as 
 the facts stand at present, it is impossible to connect India and Europe in the transmission 
 of this particular invention fromthe first country to the other. As it is not proved to have 
 been known in India before about 500 A. D., it is impossible to see how it can have been 
 transmitted from thence to Europe before the rise of the Arabs, for direct communication 
 ceased about the fourth century A. D.^\ and in Europe, at all events, the little 
 intellectual activity that was displayed ran in entirely different courses during the sixth, 
 seventh, and eighth centuries. Nor is there the least trace of the use of such numerals 
 during this period. The Arabic numerals now in use certainly came from India, but 
 numerals with value according to position and the cipher were already in use in Europe 
 (by the Neo-Pythagoreans) before they were adopted'^ If the derivation of the 
 numeral figures from the initial letters of the Sanskrit words denoting the respective 
 numbers be given up, there is nothing left to show where the figures were first used, 
 by the Pythagoreans in Europe or the astronomers in India. The assumption that the last 
 was the case, but which (as I have already said) an examination of the earliest forms of 
 the numerals preserved in inscriptions will prove to be impossible, is the foundation of 
 the theory that Europe is indebted to India in this respect; in fact Woepcke chiefly 
 relies on if^ but this assumption was made by J. Prinsep about 1838, or long before 
 the Cave numerals were explained. The resemblance between the Neo -Pythagorean 
 
 1) Chasles who is supported by Comte. The last says ("Cours de Philosophie Positive", v. p. 326 note): "Persoune 
 n'ignore ni I'heureuse innovation rSaliste au moyen &ge, dans les notations numfiriques, ni la part incontestable de 
 I'influence catholique h cet important progres de I'arithm^tique. Un gSomfetre distingu6, qui s'occupe, avec autant de 
 succes que de raodestie de la veritable histoire mathSmatique (M. Chasles), a trfes-utilement confinn6, dans ces derniers 
 temps par une sage discussion sp^ciale, au sujet de ce memorable perfectionnement, I'aperju rationnel que devait naturellement 
 inspirer la saine thdorie, du d^veloppement humain, en prouvant qu'on y doit voir surtout, non une importation de I'Inde 
 par les Arabes, mais un simple risultat spontane du mouvement scientifique antdrieur, dont on pent suivTe ais6raent la 
 tendance graduelle vers une telle issue par des modifications successives, en partant des notations primitives d'Archimede 
 et des astronomes grecs". 
 
 The abacus of the ancients was so near the modern system of numeration, that they would have but little felt the want 
 of it. Martin ("Histoire de 1' Arithm^tique") had already in 1857 traced our decimal notation to a natural transformation 
 of the abacus about 1100-II30 A. D., and this has now been rendered beyond doubt by Narducci's most important discovery 
 that the Boethiau numerals with value by position were already in use at the end of the 1 2th century, an earlier date than 
 that at which the Arabic numerals were so employed in Europe. See his Essay: "Intorno ad un Manuscritto della Biblio- 
 theca Alexandrina continente gli Apici di Boezio senz' Abaco e con Valore di Posizione." Rome, 1877. 
 
 2) Reinaud "Relations politiques et commerciales de I'empire Romain", p. 265-9. Woepcke ("M^moire" p. 67) allows 
 that if the invention came from India, it must have been transported thence: "dans les premiers siecles de notre ere." 
 Thus his hypothesis is no longer tenable, for the Gobar figures do not resemble the early forms. 
 
 3) "M^moire", p. 194. This has, however, been doubted, but without sufficient reason, as now fully appears from 
 Narducci's discovery. 
 
 *) Do. p. S3. 
 
— 64 — 
 
 numerals in their cursive form on the one hand, and the India Cave numerals and 
 the forms derived from them on the other, is too striking not to be noticed; but this fact 
 does not warrant a presumption that one is borrowed from the other; more probably, 
 both are from a common source. The question of what might have been the common 
 original of the Neo-Pythagorean and Cave numerals is one for the decision of which 
 evidence must yet be discovered, but a provisional hypothesis may be allowed. 
 
 The ultimate Phoenician origin of the Indian alphabets being, as I have already 
 shown*\ admitted on grounds that, except new discoveries of an unexpected kind be 
 made, are tolerably conclusive; it is natural (though not absolutely necessary), to look to 
 a similar foreign source for the elements of the Indian systems of notation. The Phoenician 
 inscriptions supply ample evidence that such a system was in use long before the Indian 
 alphabets could have been borrowed, for that must have happened in comparatively 
 late times, and they also supply proof that the source of this system was that used in 
 Egypt ^'. The Egyptian hieroglyphic system, in fact, can hardly be said to differ 
 from the Phoenician. 
 
 ■ The following forms, though collected from inscriptions of different countries and 
 dates, will show the elements of the Phoenician system of numerals: II = 2''; 111 = 3"', 
 1111 = 4^^; — o or -—.= 10^'; // or _3 = 20^^ For 'hundreds' the sign -^^' or }iJ^ is used, and 
 to express the number of 'hundreds' dots or strokes are put at the right. Thus — o ////•^l = 
 1 50'°^; lll_3_3 c^ - • = 243^'*. In the Palmyrene system we find an adaptation of this. The 
 hieratic and demotic numerals (a development and simplification of the hieroglyphic or 
 primitive system) were also certainly used in Egypt before the possibility of any 
 civilization in India. Thus the Egypto-Phoenician system of numerals was in wide use 
 long before we find traces of any such system in India; and there can be no doubt that 
 the Phoenician was the system used by those natives of India who wrote their language 
 in the N. A^oka characters'^^ If, however, we compare the numerals in the S. A9oka 
 inscriptions, it is evident that, though the system there found more or less corresponds 
 with the Egypto-Phcenician, a marked development is, nevertheless, presented in some 
 respects. The circumstances already mentioned (on p. 60) show that this development 
 was going on in the third century B. C; it consisted not in a general modification 
 
 ') pp. 4, 7 etc. 
 
 2) Cfr. Z. d. D. M. G. xxi. p. 486. 
 
 3) Inscription of Carthage. *) Inscription of Umm al Awamid. 5) Inscription of Esclimunezer. 
 6) Inscriptions of Eschmunezer and Marseilles. '^ Inscriptions of Marseilles and Umm al Awamid. 
 
 8) Inscription of Marseilles. 9) Inscription of Umm al Awamid. "i) Inscription of Marseilles. 
 
 11) Inscription of Umm al AwSmid. 
 
 12) E. Thomas in "Numismata Orientalia" pt. i., p. 19. 
 
— 65 — 
 
 of the system, but in the invention of new and simpler symbols for the compounds 
 which were hitherto in use. In the last discovered (and perhaps latest) A9oka inscrip- 
 tions examples occur which show that about the third century B. C. distinct figures 
 were in use for the units, tens and also for hundreds; the last being qualified by marks 
 on the right to express the number of hundreds. The gieneral similarity of this system 
 to the Egyptian demotic is thus, I think, sufficient to warrant a provisional conclusion 
 that the S. Indian (A9oka) system is derived from it, but developed in India. Of the 
 Egyptian demotic figures for units, those for i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 have a striking 
 likeness to the corresponding Cave numerals''. 
 
 But it is necessary to notice here a recent theory which might seem, at first 
 sight, to be decisive against this hypothesis, especially as it appears to warrant the 
 conclusion that these numerals are of purely Indian origin. If, however, the real 
 bearing of this discovery be considered, it will, I think, prove rather a remarkable 
 indigenous development, not an independent invention, and is, thus, most in accordance 
 with what we know of the process of adaptation in India, e. g. of the Greek astronomy^^ 
 and the evident traces of adaptation and extension in the S. Acjoka alphabet. 
 
 It has been known for some time'' that the books of Nepal and those of the N. Jains 
 have their pages numbered by a singular series of letters which are 'e'(i); 'dvi'(2); 
 'tri'(3); kha'(4); 'tri'(5); 'phra'(6); 'gra'(7); 'hra'(8); 'o'(9); 'bri'(io); 'tha'(2o); 'la' 
 (30); 'su' or 'su'(ioo) etc. As primitive customs and usages often linger in out- 
 of-the-way corners like Nepal, it was a very shrewd idea of Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji"*' 
 to compare these syllable-figures with the Cave numerals, and the resemblance, at once 
 found in many cases, is very striking, but there are most serious difficulties in the way 
 of accepting these Buddhist numerals as a complete explanation of the Cave forms. 
 a) It must be observed that the Nepal Buddhists and also the Northern Jains have a 
 distinct series of syllables for all the units; but the Cave numerals show at once that 
 the figures for the units from one to five, at all events, cannot possibly have been derived 
 
 1) M. Barth has never had a doubt that the Cave numerals are of Egyptian origin. 
 
 2) Albiruui (Reinaud, "M^moire" p. 334) gives a remarkable instance of the Indian tendency in this way: "Les livres 
 des Indians sont ridig^s en vers; les indigenes croient, par li, les rendre plus ais6s i retenir dans la m^moire; ils ue 
 recourent aux livres qu'i la derniJre extr6mit6. On les voit mSme s'attacher S. apprendre des vers dont ils ignorent tout i 
 fait le sens. J'ai reconnu, i m6s dipens, I'inconvenient de cet usage. J'avais fait, pour les indigenes, des extraits du traitd 
 d'Euclide et de I'Almageste; j'avais compos6 un traits de 1' Astrolabe i leur intention, afin de les initier aux methodes des 
 Arabes; mais aussitSt ils mirent ces morceaux en slokas, de manifere qu'il Stait devenu peu facile de s'y reconnaltre." — 
 I have myself seen the Penal Code put into Tamil verse ! ! On the Indian treatment of foreign names, see my "Aindra 
 Grammarians", p. 109. 
 
 3) Cowell and Eggeling, "Catalogue of Buddhist Sanskrit MSS." p. 52. 
 *) Indian AnHquary, vi., p. 48 etc. 
 
— 66 — 
 
 from such syllables^'; the figures for one, two and three consist of a corresponding 
 number of strokes, those for four and five are derived from a cross and a cross with 
 the addition of a curved line. But the figures for the units are of the greatest impor- 
 tance as showing the origin of the system, for they were certainly always in common 
 use, and thus could not readily be changed. Again, I cannot see the least resemblance 
 between the oldest forms of the Cave figures for seven, eight, nine and ten, and the 
 syllables *gra', 'hra', 'o' and bri as used to mark those figures in the Nepal system. The 
 partial resemblance of the figure for six to phra seems accidental. Where the evidence 
 should be clearest, it thus fails entirely. With still higher numbers the explanation often 
 again fails, for strokes or figures of units are added to the right side of the figures used 
 to express 'hundred' and 'thousand', and here, again, there Is a striking resemblance to 
 the Phoenician system. How by an indigenous system of notation 100x4 could be 
 equal to 400 is very hard to understand. b) It also remains to be explained on what 
 principle these syllables were selected. The meaning of 'e', 'dvi' and 'tri' is plain, but 
 the rest baffle all attempts to trace their meaning, and, thus, there Is reason to believe 
 that the selection was not made on a consistent principle throughout, as one might expect. 
 c) It must, lastly, be noticed that the resemblance to the syllables in question can only 
 be said to begin with later forms of the numeral figures, such as the Gupta and Valabhi; 
 in these it is plain, but it Is not so in the earlier forms. 
 
 If it be kept In mind that the Egypto-Phoenician system of notation was certainly 
 known and used In N. India'^', and also that the syllabic origin of the Indian figures can 
 only be fully shown In certain cases'^ where {e.g. 80 and 90) that system had originally 
 no distinct marks but used compound figures; if, again, it be remarked that the re- 
 semblance of the numeral figures to the syllables In question — at least so far as the 
 units and the figures for 20, 100, 1000 go — Is hardly to be traced in the earlier, but 
 is plainer in the later form of the figures, I think that the natural Inference to be drawn 
 is that this proposed explanation of the Indian (Cave) numeral figures by assigning a 
 syllabic origin for them, can only be accepted in some cases {e. g. 80 and 90) and that 
 In others (or the majority of cases) it has arisen from a fancied resemblance found 
 between the Cave numerals and certain syllables, but which, so far as their origin goes, 
 have really nothing In common. 
 
 ^J Profr. Kern in Indian Antiquary, vi., p. I43. 
 
 2) Above p. 64. 
 
 3) It may be remarked that of the two types we find in the Cave numerals, it is only in one (the Western) that a full 
 resemblance to the syllables suggested can be found, as even Dr. Biihler (the chief advocate of this theory) admits in fact: 
 "Three New Edicts of Ayoka", pp. 23-5. 
 
— 67 — 
 
 The explanation is a remarkable one, but, thus, very limited in its results. Except, 
 however, new and ample materials (from the early centuries B. C. and A. D.) be yet found 
 for deciding the question, every explanation of the ultimate origin of the S. Indian system 
 of notation must be regarded as merely a provisional hypothesis '\ 
 
 §1. THE MODIFICATION OF THE 
 
 'GAVE' NUMERAL FIGURES FOUND IN THE VENGI 
 
 AND CERA INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 The Cave Numerals, given in Plate xxiii., are taken from those which occur in the 
 inscriptions of the Western Caves as far as the second line is concerned; the upper 
 are from the Mathura inscriptions"^ The two inscriptions of the Vengi dynasty (as 
 I have termed it already) which preceded the Calukyas, and therefore must be earlier 
 than the seventh century A. D., have the plates numbered. In one, numerals occur up 
 to- three, and in the other (which is given In Plate xxiv.) up to four; these are collected 
 in Plate xxiii. The Pallava inscriptions (which are a little later) supply the figures 
 for five and six. 
 
 The horizontal strokes of the Cave numerals are here semi-circular, and the figure for 
 four is also of a more cursive form; the figures for five and six are also modified. 
 
 Much the same numeral figures appear to have been in use in the Cera kingdom at 
 the end of the fifth century A. D. In the Mercara Plates (ii. line 9) 00 "sahasranadu" 
 occurs'^. This is left unexplained by those who have attempted this inscription, but 
 the figure is evidently a slight variation of the Cave numeral 10, and the words thus 
 should be read "da9asahasranadu"; the 'ten-thousand' being a division of the country, 
 and probably referring to the tribute paid by it. 
 
 I have not met with any other examples of this system of numerals in Southern 
 India. 
 
 ' ) In considering this question it will be well to recollect what Comte says : " The fortunate custom of hieroglyphic 
 
 writing led to the permanent adoption of hieroglyphics in the case of numbers." He also remarks that the 
 
 decimal notation (with value by position) could not have come from alphabetic writing. ("Pos. Polity" English tr. iii., 
 182.) Now in India there is no trace of indigenous hieroglyphs. 
 
 2) Bombay Journal, viii., pp. 225-232; and Journal of the B. A. S. New Series, V. pp. 182 fFg. 
 
 3) A good facsimile of these very important plates is given in the first volume of the Indian Antiquary. The expla- 
 nation, however, needs much amendment. 
 
 9* 
 
— 68 — 
 
 §2. THE TAMIL NUMERAL FIGURES. 
 
 The figures used in this system are given in Plate xxiii. from inscriptions of about 
 1520 and a ms. at Tanjore which belongs probably to the end of the sixteenth or 
 beginning of the seventeenth century; as Tamil mss. (except the very recent ones) 
 are all undated, and these figures rarely occur in inscriptions earlier than the sixteenth 
 century, it is difficult to procure a complete series of an ascertained date. This is, 
 however, of little importance ; for the earliest examples known (about 1 400 A. D.) are 
 precisely of the same form as those still in use. 
 
 These figures are remarkable as forming the stage of development between the 
 W. Cave numerals and the modern systems, and are, therefore, relics of a system that 
 became more or less obsolete in the sixth, century A. D.*'; we find here separate figures 
 for ten, hundred and thousand nfaxXy identical with the W. Cave forms; but the figures 
 for twenty etc. are rejected, and tens, hundreds or thousands are expressed by prefixing 
 the sign for the units to the left side of the figure representing the order. The use of 
 the cipher and value of position are Grantha (or Brahmanical), and till lately have been 
 but little used, though Sanskrit mss. are almost invariably numbered in this way. 
 
 The figures used to express fractions are peculiar to the Tamil people, and there are 
 many others in use besides those which I have given, and which I have chiefly taken 
 from the first edition of Beschi's Kodun-Tamil Grammar (p. 149). They are derived, 
 no doubt, from initials of corresponding words, which abbreviations are also combined 
 in some cases; the invention must be attributed to the Tamil traders of no very remote 
 period^'. 
 
 The Tamil numeral figures are obviously cursive forms of the Cave numerals modi- 
 fied by the prevailing practice of writing on palm-leaves with a style, a practice which 
 renders necessary curved rather than straight lines, as the last, when with the grain or 
 course of the fibres of the leaf, are nearly invisible. 
 
 I have not been able to find any traces of distinct Vatteluttu numerals. 
 
 The Malayalam numerals (which I have given in Plate xxiii.) are those in actual use. 
 Their history is quite uncertain, as there are very few, if any, examples of them older 
 than the middle of the last century, mss. being numbered most generally with letters. 
 They are evidently derived from the same source as the rest, and are nearest to the 
 
 1) The Kural (xi., i) mentions acquaintance with numbers (enna) and Utters as being like eyes to men. This is of about 
 850 A. D. 
 
 2) In the older inscriptions (at Tanjore e. g.) all numbers and fractions which occur, are written at full length. 
 
— 69 — 
 
 Tamil figures, but include the cipher. The Malayalam way of expressing fractions is 
 the same as we find in the Telugu and Canarese countries, and is, therefore, North- 
 Indian. 
 
 §3. THE TELUGU-CANARESE NUMERAL FIGURES. 
 
 These figures appear in common use about 1300 A. D." with value by position and 
 also the cipher, which is always represented in S. Indian documents by a small circle. 
 In Northern India a dot also appears with this signification, but the necessity of writing 
 on palm-leaves has, in S. India, led to the adoption of the circular form as alone per- 
 fectly distinct. The earliest specimens of these numerals that I have met with occur on 
 the outer rims of the plates of a ^asana of 1087 A. D., already mentioned (p. 21 n.) 
 as E. These do not go beyond nine, but the cipher is plain in an inscription of much 
 the same date. 
 
 The Telugu- Canarese numerals (as given in Plate xxiii. from a Hala-kannada ms. of 
 1428 A.D.) are almost identical in all the inscriptions across the peninsula, and remained 
 the same till quite recently. In the Telugu inscriptions I have, however, observed, in 
 some cases, a slight difference in the form of the figure 5, which sometimes wants the 
 middle connecting stroke. The figure 3 is generally perpendicular in the Telugu 
 inscriptions. 
 
 The Telugu- Canarese system of fractions is, like the Tamil, based on a division of 
 the unit into sixteen parts; they are marked by the N. Indian system, and this appears 
 to be of recent introduction. 
 
 A comparison of the numeral figxires in Plate xxiii. will conclusively show that they 
 are all more or less cursive modifications of the Western Cave numerals. As the Cave 
 numerals are from Western and Northern India, and present a number of distinct types, 
 there is no real difficulty about some which present variations of form, for the perfectly 
 evident origin of i, 2, 3, 4 and 7 quite justifies the conclusion that the smaller number, 
 of which the origin is less obvious, do in fact come from the same source^\ The 
 origin of the S. Indian numeral figures is, thus, the same as that of the S. Indian 
 alphabets. 
 
 1) If Sir W. Elliot's collection of transcripts of inscriptions in the neighbourhood of the Krishna and Godavari can 
 be trusted, the notation of dates by these numerals was not uncommon in the eleventh century ; but I am inclined to think 
 that this is not the case, and that the copyist has often put the figures for words written at full length in the original. 
 The oldest inscription with a date in figures in Java appears to be that given in pi. ii. of Dr. Cohen-Stuart's "Kawi 
 Oorkonden"; it is of the gth century, and is, therefore, strangely enough, older than any S. Indian document with a date 
 in figures. 
 
 2) The Gobar is from Woepcke's "MSmoire" p. 49; the NSgarJ is from Prinsep's "Essays" as collected by Mr. Thomas. 
 
— 70 — 
 
 §4. THE JAVANESE NUMERAL FIGURES. 
 
 One of the most interesting features of the Kawi and Sanskrit inscriptions of Java 
 is the complete information they give about the numerals. 
 
 From the 9th century A.D. onwards we find the decimal system of notation in 
 full use'\ 
 
 The earliest certain specimen^' is of 841 A.D., and it is easy to see that these 
 figures are a slight modification of those in the Vengi and Pallava inscriptions, such as 
 would occur in the course of some four hundred years which is the difference of date 
 between the two. After this period the progress of change is rapid, and by the 14th 
 century it had gone so far that the figures used are wholly unlike those which are their 
 original source. This fact is remarkable as, except in the case of a few letters, 
 the Kawi character underwent but little change in form for a long while. In later 
 times the modification has been very rapid. 
 
 It is necessary to remark that as the plates which compose 9asanas are very rarely 
 numbered, it is very difficult to get complete series of the numeral figures used in earlier 
 times. It cannot, however, be doubted that they were in much more common use, than 
 the rarity of their occurrence in old documents would lead an observer to infer. 
 
 NOTE: 
 
 The different Methods of niarMng dates 
 used in South-India. 
 
 The numeral figures are only used in comparatively modern inscriptions; in the older 
 ones and also in many modern ones the numbers are commonly expressed by words or 
 letters. The eras and cycles to which the dates are referred also present considerable 
 difficulty, owing to the variations found in different places. 
 
 1) Cfr. plates i., ii., v., vii., ix., xi., xiv., xv. and xxii. of CohenrStuart's "Kawi Oorkonden." Z. d. D. M. G. xviii., 
 pi. 495 etc. 
 
 2) There is another. of a few years earlier, but it is very illegible, and, therefore, uncertain. 
 
— 71 — 
 
 A. THE ERAS. 
 
 a. The Kaliyuga, 
 
 The usually received date of the Kaliyuga Is the March equinox of 3102 B. C. 
 
 It was known in the fifth century A.D.^', but has never become very general in 
 inscriptions, and is now, in S. India, chiefly used in Malabar for the fanciful way of 
 marking dates by a sentence. In most cases I have seen, the number of days and 
 not of years is mentioned^^ I believe that the use of this date is unusual, except in 
 comparatively modern times, and is a ground for doubting the authenticity of any but 
 modern inscriptions. It is the base of the 'ahargana' system of the Indian astrologers, 
 and the use of it to indicate dates is, almost certainly, due to these men who would 
 naturally be employed to calculate the dates of grants. 
 
 b. The ^aka Era. 
 
 This era is now usually supposed to date from the birth ^' of a mythical Hindu 
 sovereign called ^alivahana, who defeated the ^akas, and began Monday 14th March 
 78 A. D. (Julian style). The account of the origin of this era has apparently been 
 repeatedly modified to suit current ideas. In the earlier inscriptions it is usually called 
 'Qakavarsha', '^akasamvatsara' or '^akanripakala'; about the tenth century it is termed 
 the year of the '^akaraja,' '^akadhipa' or '^akadeva,' and still later it is termed '^ali- 
 vahana^aka' or '^alivahana^akabda'. 
 
 Albirun! (A. D. 103 1) speaks of this era as one in use by the astrologers*^; and as 
 they had a great deal to do with royal grants by determining the auspicious time for 
 making them, it is easy to see how this became the most usual way of marking the 
 dates of inscriptions. But it is certain that this era was quite unsettled and compa- 
 ratively little used before the tenth century. The earliest authentic inscriptions in 
 
 1) By Aryabhata (e. g. iii., lo). Albiruni mentions it. Reinaud, "Fragments", p. 136. 
 
 8) Warren's "Kala Sankalita" (p. 18) states that in S. India it is usual to date documents in both the Kali and ^aka 
 year. This is contrary to my experience, so far as documents before 1500 are concerned. 
 
 3) Some say: from the consecration. 
 
 4) "L'fere de Saca, nommie pas les Indiens Sacakdla, est postSrieure i celle de Vikramaditya de 135 ans. Saca est le 
 nom d'an prince qui a r6gn6 sur les contr&s situ^es entre I'Indus et la mar. Sa residence Stait plac6e au centre de I'empire, 
 dans la contree nommee Aryavartta. Les Indiens le font ualtre dans une classe autre qua celle des sakyas; quelques-uns 
 pr6tendent qu'il 4talt soudra et originaire de la ville de Mansoura. 11 y en a mSme qui disent qu'il n'^tait pas de la race 
 indienne, et qu'il tirait son origine de regions occidentales. Les peuples eurent beaucoup ii soufifrir de son despotisme, 
 jusqu'i ce qu'il leur vint du secours de I'Orient. Vikramaditya raarcha centre lui, mit son arm6e en deroute et le tua 
 sur le territoire de Korour, situe entre Moultan et le chateau de Louny. Cette 6poque devint c^Ubre h. cause de la joie que 
 les peuples ressentirent de la mort de Saca, et on la choisit pour fere, principalement chez les astronomes". Tr. by Abb6 
 Reinaud, "JIfimoire", pp. 79-80, and in "Fragments Arabes et Persans inSdits relatifs i I'lnde", pp. I40-141, 145. 
 
— 72 — 
 
 which It occurs belong to the end of the fifth century A. D., but it is first mentioned 
 by Varaha Mihira, an astronomer who lived in the sixth century A. D.; and he makes 
 the commencement of it coincide with Kali year 3179. The great popularity in all 
 parts of India of this author's works is probably the reason why this is now the re- 
 cognized computation, but it has been adopted since the tenth century. Up to that date 
 and even later, there are inscriptions with dates by the ^aka as well as other methods, 
 {e. g. the Brihaspati cycle) which show a variation of two or three years, more or less, 
 from the usual computation. Albirunl (A. D. 103 1) mentions that the ^aka year then 
 commenced 135 years after Vikraraaditya; this is the received opinion, and from that 
 century ^aka dates may be computed with certainty in the ordinary way. Before that 
 period they must be considered as more or less uncertain. 
 
 The ^aka year seems to have been originally introduced by the Digambara Jains, 
 but though the inscriptions prove that their computation of it was the same as the 
 brahmanical, the account they give of it differs from the ordinary one. The Trilokasara 
 says: Panachassayavassaw panamasajuda»? gamiya Viranibbuido | Sagarajo; to Kakki 
 cadunavatiyamahiyasagamasa»? |1 848 || C. ^rl-ViranathanivritteA saka9at pancottara- 
 shatchatavarshani paiicamasayutani gatva pa^cat Vikraraanka9akarajo 'jayata | tata 
 upari caturnavatyuttaratri9atavarshani saptamasadhikani gatva pa9cat Kalky ajayata || 
 Now the death of Viranatha (or Mahavira) the last of the Tirthankaras is put at 388 
 B. C.'^; then, according to the above, the ^aka era would begin in 239 A. D., but this 
 is impossible, so the era of Mahavira must be put at 527 B.C., and this again differs 
 from the era mentioned by Prinsep as current in the North of India — 512 before 
 Vikramaditya or 569 B. C.^' The Javanese ^aka era is 74 A. D,, that of Bali 80 A. D. 
 Friederich ("Over Inscription van Java en Sumatra" p. 78) says that only the ^aka era 
 has been found in use in the archipelago. From these details some notion may be 
 formed of the excessive uncertainty of Indian chronological data before the early 
 centuries A. D. The more exact they appear to be the more suspicious they are. It is 
 not too much to say that a tolerably exact chronology is only possible after the tenth 
 century, and then by the aid of inscriptions only'^ 
 
 It is necessary to remark that the ^aka year is reckoned by either including the 
 current year (the most usual practice in India), or by excluding the current year and 
 
 1) According to the yatrunjaya-Mahatmya. Biihler ("Three New Edicts of A9oka", p. 21) rejects this work as a forgery, 
 and accepts the date 526-7 B. C. 
 
 2) "Useful Tables" p. 166 in Prinsep's "Essays" by Thomas, Vol. II. 
 
 S) The rough equation for converting this era into the Christian date is: -f 78;^. The beginning of the year being at the 
 March equinox; if the ^aka 'atita' year be mentioned, the equation is: + 79^. For more exact reckoning, along calculation 
 is necessary. 
 
— 73 — 
 
 giving only the number of complete years that have elapsed, in which case the word 
 atita is used; this last is not usual in Indian (except the W. Calukya) inscriptions, 
 but is nearly universal in those of Java. 
 
 c. The Vikramdditya Bra. 
 
 The passion for systematizing and thus falsifying even history in accordance with 
 the popular astrological and religious notions of the day, has, it is evident from the 
 above, led to repeated alterations in the dates assigned to real or fictitious events in 
 Indian history. The era of Vikramaditya is apparently one result of this folly. It is 
 all but unknown in S. India (except in the Deccan), though under the name of 'sa/wvat' 
 is the one most commonly used in the North. It is said to begin 57 years B. C.^' It is 
 used by the ^vetambara Jains (of the N. of India). 
 
 d. The KoUatn, Kolambam (or QuilonJ Era. 
 
 This is usually called a cycle^\ but it is in reality an era; it began in September 
 824 A. D. It is supposed to commemorate the founding of KoUam (Quilon), and is only 
 used in the S. Tamil country and Travancore^-. 
 
 e. Cycle of Briha8pati*\ 
 
 Each year in this cycle has a name, and in the inscriptions this is coupled with the 
 ^aka year or year of the king's reign. The earliest examples to be met with in S. India in 
 which the cyclic years occur are of about the tenth century. The names are as follows: 
 I. Prabhava. Bhava. 
 
 Vibhava. Yuva. 
 
 ^ukla. 10. Dhatu, Dhatri (?) 
 
 Pramoda, Pramoduta {sic ? Pramodita). I^vara. 
 
 5. Prajapati, Prajotpatti (?) Bahudhanya. 
 
 Arigirasa. Pramadi, Pramathin. 
 
 ^rimukha. Vikrama. 
 
 1) The equation is: + 56J. It is mentioned by Albiruui (Reinaud, "Fragments", p. 139). 
 
 2) "Cycle of Parayurama"— Prinsep. 
 
 3) The equation is: + 824-I. 
 
 *) The first account, by an European, of this Cycle, and a very good one too, is in the "Open-Deure" {1651) of Rogerius 
 who lived from 1631 to 1641 at Pulicat as Dutch chaplain. (See pp. 58-9.) As. Res. iii. "On the Cycle of 60 years" by 
 Davis. Suryasiddhanta by Burgess, (New Haven, i860) p. 35,— a list of names (fr. Davis) is given on p. 36. This list is not 
 to be found in the Sanskrit treatises, but is supposed to be generally known; for this reason it is impossible to amend 
 some of the names which are clearly corrupt. 
 
 10 
 
— 74 — 
 
 15. Vishu, Vrishabha (?), Bhri9ya. 
 
 Citrabhanu. 
 
 Svabhanu, Subhanu. 
 
 Tarana. 
 
 Parthiva. 
 20. Vyaya. 
 
 Sarvajit. 
 
 Sarvadhari. 
 
 Virodhi. 
 
 Vikrita, Vikriti (?) 
 25. Khara. 
 
 Nandana. 
 
 Vijaya. 
 
 Jaya^\ 
 
 Manmatha. 
 30. Durmukhi. 
 
 Hevilamba, Hemalamba, -°bi. 
 
 Vilambi, °ba. 
 
 Vikari. 
 
 Q'arvari. 
 35. Plava. 
 
 ^ubhakrit. 
 
 ^obhana, ^obhakrit. 
 
 Krodhi. 
 
 Viqvavasu. 
 40. Parabhava. 
 
 Plavariga. 
 
 Kllaka. 
 
 Saumya. 
 
 Sadharana. 
 4 5 . Virodhikr it, VIrodhakrit, VIrodhy adikrit. 
 
 Paridhavi. 
 
 Pramadica, Pramadin. 
 
 Ananda. 
 
 Raxasa. 
 50. Anala (?), Nala. 
 
 Pingala. 
 
 Kalayukta. 
 
 SIddharthi. 
 
 Raudra, Raudri. 
 55. Durmati. 
 
 DundubhI. 
 
 Rudhirodgari. 
 
 Raktaxi, Raktaxa. 
 
 Krodhana. 
 60. Xaya^'. 
 
 This cycle is originally founded on a practice of reckoning time by the revolutions 
 of Jupiter (Brihaspati), but there is no record of its correct use; the present practice of 
 erroneously reckoning sixty solar years as equal to five revolutions of the planet has 
 always, it appears, prevailed as far back as reference to this method can be found. 
 Though this cycle is in common use everywhere in the South, the names are often much 
 varied, especially by the Jains''. It is not improbable that this system is an adaptation 
 
 1) According to Mr. C. P. Brown the order is sometimes : Jaya, Vijaya. 
 
 V This list is compiled from Col. Warren's "Kala Sankalita", Mr. C. P. Brown's "Cyclic Tables", inscriptions, and 
 the practice of the people of S. India. I am not aware that any old list exists. 
 
 3) The Tamil names are merely corrupt forms of the Sanskrit. For them, see Beschi's Koduu- Tamil Grammar. To find 
 the year A. D. corresponding to the first of the cycle it is not necessary, here, to do more than remark that the last must 
 always end with 7, and that the nth, 21st, 31st, 41st, 51st years of the cycle (as used in S. India) must also correspond 
 with A. D. years ending with 7. Thus the first years of cycles would correspond with A. D. 67, 127, 187,247, 307, 367, 
 427, 487, 547, 607, 667, 727, 787, 847, 907, 967 etc. The corresponding years ^aka and A. D. are given by 
 Mr. Brown down to 1857. 
 
— 75 — 
 
 with Sanskrit names of an old way of reckoning time originally current in S. India; it 
 is mentioned by Albirunl'' in the eleventh century, but his reference to it is commonly 
 understood to mean that it was of recent introduction in the North and West of India^'. 
 This cycle, as used in North and South India, differs not in the names or order of 
 the names but in the period at which the first year comes. In S. India the present year 
 (1874) is Bhava or the eighth of the cycle. This difference is owing to the practice 
 which obtains in S. India and Tibet of considering the years of the cycle as identical 
 in duration with the ordinary luni- solar year. 
 
 f. Other Bras hut little used. 
 
 Some of the Calukyas attempted to set up local eras, but these dates occur in com- 
 paratively few and unimportant inscriptions, and are too uncertain to be worth mentioning 
 here. 
 
 The South-Indian Cola and Pandya kings appear to mention the year of their reign 
 most generally, and the second also, but rarely, the Quilon era. The task of establishing 
 the succession of these dynasties and the dates is thus likely to prove very formidable; 
 there is, however, some foundation in Marco Polo's mention of Sundara Pandya as the 
 king of the South in his time (13th century), and also in the synchronism between the 
 Cola king Kulotturiga and the Calukya Ahavamalla as established by Sir W. Elliot'\ 
 
 The explanation of the date in the grant to the Cochin Israelites is not as yet 
 certain. The term is : " Yandu irandam andaikk 'eSir muppattaram andu" — i. e. (literally) 
 "the year opposite the second year, the thirty-sixth year." Ellis explained it^' by the 
 thirty-sixth year of the third (? second) cycle, but it is impossible to reconcile it with 
 the Quilon era, and it appears to me here to mean the thirty-sixth year (of the king's life) 
 opposite to (or corresponding with) the second year (of his reign or of the cycle). 
 Similar dates occur in the Tamil inscriptions, and the meaning of m5l viz., 'equivalent 
 to', is beyond doubt. Thus in an inscription of A. D. 1532 (Pillaiyar temple at Tanjore) 
 
 1) Reinaud, "Fragments" p. 140 n., states that Albinini devotes an entire chapter to this cycle. 
 
 2) Do: u. s. An inference as to the recent date of the origin of this cycle (viz., 959 A. D.) is drawn by the AbbS 
 Reinaud, but it is certainly wrong. The Brihaspati-cycle is referred to, e. g., by Aryabhata (iii., 10) who lived at the 
 end of the 5th century A. D. and the years of it occur commonly in inscriptions of that century. It does not appear in 
 use in the Kawi inscriptions. 
 
 •I) Madras Journal, xiii., pt. 2, p. 40. See above p. 19 n. and p. 40 n. 
 
 *) Do. pp. 3 and 10. Dr. Gundert (do. pt. i., p. 137) doubts the meaning of eBir, and the usual translation is rather 
 of 'mel' than of 'e6ir', for it is by no means certain that the two have the same meaning. Dr. Caldwell [Comp. Grammar, 
 p. 60 71.) takes it to mean the year of the cycle of sixty to which the year of the king's reign answers. 
 
 10* 
 
— 76 — 
 
 we find: "^akabdam 1454 iSin mel nandanasaOTvatsaram", and in fact, 9. 1454 corres- 
 ponds with the cycle year Nandana. 
 
 It was a practice in the Tamil inscriptions to note the day of the year by a number, 
 e.g. "the 26th year, 310th day" (Tanjore inscription, iv.), or even to count the days of 
 a king's reign^'. In this, as in so many other details, the Tamil inscriptions are unlike 
 those of the North, and form, unfortunately for the chance of obtaining exact dates, 
 a class by themselves. 
 
 The above information is sufficient to decide, approximately the dates of most S. 
 Indian inscriptions; to do more it is necessary to know the complicated details of the 
 luni-solar year as used in S. India, but this would need a large volume alone^'. Even- 
 tually, no doubt, it will be necessary to take these details into account, as well as the 
 references to eclipses which are so frequent in Indian grants, and by which it must 
 often'^ be possible to calculate the date with the utmost exactness; at present it is 
 rather to be desired that existing inscriptions should be preserved, than that much time 
 should be spent on any single one. 
 
 The expunged and intercalated months and days are a chief feature in the luni-solar 
 calendar, and now-a-days great attention is paid to them in consequence of disputes on 
 ceremonial matters; I have not seen these intercalated days or months marked in any 
 old inscription, probably because grants should not be made at such times*'; but in 
 modern documents this is always done, and the absence of nija or adhika in such a 
 case would discredit any modern deed. Now-a-days, deeds are executed on such dates 
 just as on others^\ 
 
 1) Cfr. Indian Antiquary, vi., p. 142. 
 
 2) Warren's 'Kala Saiikalita" (4°, Madras, 1825) is still the only work on this subject. The information in Prinsep's 
 "Useful Tables" is mostly from it. 
 
 It has often been asserted and denied that traces are to be found of a primitive (Dravidian) S. Indian calendar anterior 
 to the present one which is entirely of Sanskrit origin, but nothing has as yet been adduced to prove the position. I find, 
 however, that there is a Tulu calendar which has names for the months different from the Sanskrit, and which are most 
 derived from the Tulu names of crops reaped at those seasons. These months now agree practically with the luni-solar 
 months, and the names are: Paggu; Befa; Kartelu; Ati; Sona; Nirnala; Bontelu; Jarde; Perarde; Puntelu; Mayi; Suggi. 
 Of these the second, fourth, and perhaps the ninth are of Sanskrit origin; the rest are pure Tulu and have no connection 
 with the Sanskrit names for divisions of time. 
 
 3) Not always, for the cyclic periods of eclipses are too short to help in many cases where there is little beyond a mere 
 mention of an eclipse. 
 
 *) See Hemadri's 'Danakhanda' ch. iii. (pp. 78-80 of the B. I. edition). The whole of the chapter is of great interest 
 to students of Indian inscriptions. 
 
 6) The expunged and intercalated months and days were in common use in the nth century. Albjruni (9. 1030) 
 mentions the first by the usual name 'malam5sa' which the AbbS Reinaud ("MSmoire", p. 352) has strangely read 
 'miilamasa', though Albiruni correctly explains 'mala' which here means (as he says) the dirt that accumulates between the 
 nails and the skin, and hence by a truly Indian metaphor we get 'malamasa'. Such a metaphor, surely, could not by any 
 possibility occur in any other language. 
 
— 77 — 
 
 B. THE METHOD OF EXPRESSING NUMERALS. 
 
 a. By words. 
 
 The earliest inscriptions found in S. India in which the date is referred to an era 
 have it written at full length in words. After the seventh century the dates are mostly 
 expressed by significant words, and after the tenth century this is always done. These 
 significant words appear to be a device of the Indian astrologers, as the earliest 
 examples occur in their treatises. The first complete list is that given by Alblrunl 
 (A. D. 103 1); the following is from his list as translated by Woepcke" supplemented 
 from Brown's "Cyclic Tables" and inscriptions. As no limits can be placed to a fanciful 
 practice like this, I cannot give this list as complete; it is merely an attempt to make 
 a complete list^^. 
 Cipher ^unya; kha; gagana; viyat; aka9a; ambara; abhra; ananta*; vyoma*. 
 
 1 Adi; 9a9in; indu; xiti; urvara; dhara; pitamaha; candra; (^Itamc^u; 
 
 rupa; ra9mi; prithivi*; bhu*; tanu*; somaf; nayakaf; vasudhaf; 9a9ankaf; 
 xmaf; dharanif. 
 
 2 Yama; A9vin; ravicandrau; locana; axi; Dasra; yamala; paxa; netra; 
 
 bahu*; karna*; kutumba*; karaf; drishtif. 
 
 3 .... Trikala; trijagat; tri; triguna; loka; trigata; pavaka; vai9vanara; 
 dahana; tapana; huta9ana; jvalana; agui; vahni*; trilocana*; trinetra*; 
 Rama*; sahodara*; 9ikhin-j-; gunaf. 
 
 4 Veda; samudra; sagara; abdhi; dadhi(?); di9; jala9aya; krita; jala 
 
 nidhi*; yuga*; koshtha*; bandhu*; udadhif. 
 
 5 <^ara; artha; indriya; sayaka; vana; bhuta; ishu; Pandava; tata; 
 
 ratna*; prana*; suta*; putra*; vi9ikhaf ; kalambaf; marganaf. 
 
 6 Rasa; ariga; ritu; masarddha; raga*; ari*; dar9ana*; tarka*; mataf ; 
 
 9astra-j-. 
 
 7 Aga; naga; parvata; mahldhara; adri; muni; rishi*; Atri*; svara*; 
 
 chandas*; a9va*; dhatu*; kalatra*; 9aila-|-. 
 
 1) "MSmoire" pp. 103-9. 
 
 2) This system was first explained by v. Schlegel. Here (as is so perpetually the case in Indian literature) we find 
 that the present system has had predecessors. In the 'Jyotisha' (see Profr. Weber's ed. p. 6) aya=4; yuga=i2; 
 bhasamuha=27; rupa=i. In the 'Chandas' similar expressions occur. — In the above list I give firstly those words given 
 by Albiruni about which there can be no doubt; then others mentioned by Mr. C. P. Brown which I mark * . Lastly 
 I add terms not already mentioned, which I have found in inscriptions, and which I mark t - This system is also used in 
 the Javanese inscriptions. See v. Humboldt's "Kawi-Sprache" i., pp. 19-43. Crawford "On Hindu Religion in 9ali." As. 
 Ees. xiii., pp. 150-1. See also on the Javanese calendar, Gericke in "Verhandelingen" (xvi., pp. 65-80). "lets over de 
 Javaansche Tijdrekening"; and Cohen-Stuart's Essay in the "Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indie", 1850, i. pp, 215-324. 
 
— 78 
 
 8 
 9 
 
 10 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 16 
 17 
 18 
 19 
 20 
 21 
 22 
 24 
 25 
 
 27 
 32 
 33 
 49 
 
 Vasu; ahi; gaja; dantin; mangala; naga; bhuti*; ibhaf ; sarpaf (?). 
 
 Go; nanda; randhra; chidra; pavana; antara; graha*; anka*; nidhif; 
 
 dvaraf. 
 
 .Di9; a9a; kendu; ravana9ara; avatara*; karma*. 
 Rudra; I^vara; Mahadeva; axauhinl; labha*. 
 .Surya; arka; aditya; bhanu; masa; sahasra«9a; vyaya*. 
 .Vi9va; Manmatha*; Kamadeva*. 
 Manu; loka*; Indra*. 
 Tithi; paxa*; ahan*. 
 .Ashti; nripa; bhupa; kala*. 
 . Atyashti. 
 . Dhriti. 
 . Atidhriti. 
 
 o 
 
 . Nakha ; kriti. 
 Utkriti; svarga*. 
 Jati*. 
 . Jina*. 
 Tattva. 
 
 Albirunl (103 1 A. D.) says that numbers beyond twenty-five were not noted 
 in this way. The following, however, occur but in late documents only. 
 Naxatra*. 
 . Danta*, Rada. 
 . Deva*. 
 Tana*. 
 
 This list might be made much more extensive, as it is obvious that any synonyms 
 of any word that can be used to signify a number can be used; e.g. any word 
 signifying 'moon' besides those mentioned as equivalent to i, may be used for the 
 same purpose, and so with the others. The ordinary numeral words are commonly 
 mixed with the words given above. 
 
 In marking numbers by this system units are mentioned first and then the higher 
 orders; e. g. Rishinagakhendusa»2vatsara is year 1087; guna9astrakhenduganitasamva°= 
 1063; dahanadrikhenduganitasaOTva°=i073. It appears, however, that occasionally in 
 recent inscriptions the words are put in the same order as the figures are written. 
 
 From 600 A. D. up to 1 300 nine out of ten inscriptions that bear dates, have them 
 expressed in this style, which is, therefore, of the greatest importance. 
 
— 79 — 
 
 b. Expression of numbers by letters. 
 
 Three systems of this kind are known in India*': that of Aryabhata, which he used 
 in his treatises on astronomy, and which does not appear to have ever been used by any 
 one else or in inscriptions; that used in S. India (but almost exclusively in Malabar, 
 Travancore and the S. Tamil country), in which the date is given by a chronogram; and 
 a third system in which the letters of the alphabet are used to mark the leaves of mss. 
 
 It is unnecessary to describe the first, as it is never used in inscriptions, and the text 
 of Aryabhata's work (once almost inaccessible) has been admirably edited by Profr. 
 Kern (1874). 
 
 The second system gives values to the consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet as follows^': 
 
 
 k 
 
 kh 
 
 
 g 
 
 
 gh 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 ch 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 jh 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 th 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 dh 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 th 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 dh 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 P 
 
 ph 
 
 
 b 
 
 
 bh 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 y 
 
 r 
 
 1 
 
 v 
 
 9 
 
 sh 
 
 
 S 
 
 h 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 The order of the letters is from right to left, in double letters the last pronounced 
 consonant only counts, and vowels have no value. Thus Vishnu =54; badhnati anna»? 
 
 3 5 30605 
 
 sasarpi= 17,750,603. As might be supposed, the use of this method brought numerous 
 7 7 I _ 
 grammatical errors. 
 
 The peculiarity of this system is that it allows dates to be expressed by words with 
 
 a connected meaning. This system was commonly in use in the fifteenth century ^\ but, 
 
 apparently, not long before then. The oldest specimen of this notation (i 187 A. D.) is 
 
 in Shadguru9ishya's commentary on the Rigveda Anukramanika*'. It is now much used 
 
 for remembering rules to calculate horoscopes, and for astronomical tables. The resem- 
 
 ') The earlier system used by Panini is not otherwise known. See ray "Aindra Grammarians" p. 88 (based on 
 Goldstucker's "Panini's Place", p. 50). 
 
 2) It was first explained by the late C. M. Whish (in pt. i. pp. 54 fFg. of the Transactions of the Madras Society). 
 Mr. Whish was one of the first to pay attention to Sanskrit astronomy. He died at Cuddapah, April 13th, 1833. His 
 scientific reputation is not so great as it might have been; for if he did not originate, he, at all events, gave circulation to 
 some forgeries. His paper on this system of notation was translated by Jacquet ('/. Asiati^ue 1 835). On this method 
 of marking dates see also Z. d. D. M. G. xvii., pp. 773 ffg. (by Profr. Weber). 
 
 3J Indian Antiquary, ii., pp. 361-2, and other inscriptions. *) /. S. viii., p. 160 note. 
 
— 80 — 
 
 blance to the Semitic chronograms is complete. This method is also used in a kind 
 of anukramani which exists for the Rig-, Yajur- and Samavedas, but apparently in 
 S. India only. These lists of contents (for they are no more) must be modern^>. 
 
 The third system is only applied to numbering the pages of mss.; it was used a good 
 deal in Malabar, and also occasionally in the Telugu country, but not to any extent in 
 MSS. written in this century. It is also known in Ceylon and Burmah. By this system 
 the consonants (with short a, and in their usual order) stand for i, 2, etc. up to 34, and 
 then they are repeated with long a,, e.g. ka = 35, kha 36 and so on. By the addition of 
 the other vowels the series may be continued to a considerable length. Another system 
 (used by the Buddhists and Jains in N. India) uses syllables in an apparently arbitrary 
 manner; this is (so far as I am aware) unknown in S. India. I have already^' given the 
 chief of these. 
 
 In MSS. one often finds an abridged way of writing numbers, 1?.^. 20 [1 i || 2 etc. 
 for 20; 21; 22 etc. And this has been suspected with reason to exist in some inscrip- 
 tions. It was done (according to AlblrQni) in reckoning by the 'Lokakala'. 
 
 This formidable number of eras and complicated calendars might seem to encourage 
 hopes of an accurate chronology, but such hopes are entirely delusive. The exact length 
 of a king's reign is seldom given in years and days, but fractions of years are taken as 
 years. Again, Hindu kings in S. India often nominated and consecrated their successors, 
 and the length of the reign is sometimes reckoned from this event; an approximation, 
 not certainty, is then, all that is to be hoped for. The most important information likely 
 to be soon available respecting Indian eras is to be hoped for in the edition and transla- 
 tion of Albirunl's works already begun by Profr. Sachau. But it must not be for- 
 gotten that Alblrunl himself found the greatest confusion in respect not only of Indian 
 eras, but also of the beginning of the year, and that even he could not solve all the 
 difficulties he detected (Reinaud, "Fragments", pp. 139, 145). Hiouen Thsang" long 
 before this had occasion to notice the confusion that prevailed. From what is now 
 known respecting Indian chronology, there can be little doubt that originally a number 
 of local eras and calendars were used, and that these have been gradually superseded 
 ^for the most part by the more precise eras and calendars of the astronomers, and in 
 recent times by the 'Lokakala'. 
 
 J) "Catalogue" p. 49. "Index to Tanjore MSS." p. 4. 
 
 2) See p. 65. 
 
 3) "P6Ierins Bouddhistes" ii., p. 493. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ACCENTS AND SIGNS OF PUNCTUATION. 
 
 3)HERE is very little to be said about the method of accentuating Vedic mss. in 
 'S. India, as this is but seldom done at all, and the accented mss. hardly deserve 
 mention here as they are rarely above a century old. 
 
 § 1. RIG AND YAJUR VEDAS. 
 
 o 
 
 In the oldest mss. only the udatta is marked. In the Telugu mss. this is generally 
 done by a circle o; in the Grantha mss. the letter u or a circle is written above the 
 syllable, thus: a, o. In this respect mss. of the Sa^whita and Padapatha agree'*. In the 
 last the words are separated by a perpendicular stroke: | The avagraha is seldom 
 marked, but when it is done a zigzag line is used: j 
 
 § 2. THE SAMA-VEDA. 
 
 The accentuation of the Sama Veda, as used in South-India, is a subject beset with 
 difficulties, of which it is impossible here to give more than a very brief notice, for not 
 only do the mss. of different ^akhas present different systems, but the mss. of the text 
 followed by one and the same ^akha often present essential variations^*. MSS. of the 
 Arcika parts of this Veda are seldom accented, as being of little importance, for the 
 ganas really constitute the Veda. Occasionally one finds the udatta marked by a circle. 
 The musical notation of the ganas as practised in S. India is very complicated, and is 
 explained in a separate paribhasha^*. It appears to be on much the same principle as 
 the musical notation of the ancient Greeks, and consists in using combinations of a 
 consonant with a vowel to express a group of notes. This old system (as it is termed) 
 which was used by Sayana, has been nearly superseded by the N. Indian notation by 
 numbers, which was introduced from Gujarat into Tanjore during the last century at the 
 
 1) As I have repeatedly stated elsewhere, the AtharvaVeda is unknown to the S. Indian Brahmans. In Weber's 
 »Indische Studien" (xiii., Ii8) there is an account of the accentuation of a Nandinagari MS. of the Rig Veda. 
 
 2; See my "Catalogue of a Collection of Sanskrit MSS.," pt. i., pp. 48, 49; " Arsheyabrahmana", pp. xli-xlvii.; "Classified 
 Index to the Tanjore MSS.," p. 10. 
 
 3) I have already given specimens, with an account of the Paribhasha in my "Catalogue" pp. 44-5. The 
 Jaiminlya 9akha has a different notation and paribhasha. 
 
 11 
 
— 82 — 
 
 earliest. Even now, it is excessively hard to find a Sama-Vedl who can give any ex- 
 planation at all of these notes, and in a few years the only guides will be the treatises 
 on the formation of the g an as which indeed are, probably, the only safe ones at present. 
 
 Palseographically, the notation of the Vedic accents is a subject almost devoid of 
 interest. The different methods used for the different Vedas are all of very recent 
 origin, comparatively; and have arisen in different parts of India much about the same 
 time, and in consequence of the decay of the old way of learning the Vedas by heart. 
 In S. India there is no pretence of a complete or even uniform system, and mss. with 
 accents do not appear to occur before the middle of the sixteenth century. The 
 multitude of treatises on Vedic phonetics still existing in S. India must always have 
 made the want of accented mss. but little felt, and all the old Vedic Brahmans that I have 
 met with, never attached the least value to them. 
 
 As the S. Indian alphabets have no system of accents at all agreeing with those in 
 use in the North of India, it follows that in the early centuries A. D. the accents were 
 not marked at all. 
 
 It is thus quite certain that the endless varieties of accent-marks are merely individual 
 and more or less perfect attempts to accentuate the Vedic texts according to the teaching 
 of the Prati9akhyas. 
 
 § 3. PUNCTUATION. 
 
 The edicts of A9oka cannot be said to have any marks to indicate the close of a 
 sentence, and the perpendicular stroke | is not much used in the inscriptions of the early 
 centuries after the Christian era. In later ones single | and double || stroke both occur 
 with precisely the same significations (either to mark the division in a verse, or to indicate 
 the end of a sentence or paragraph) as in the northern documents. 
 
 §4. ORNAMENTS TO MSS. 
 
 The oldest mss. on palm-leaves contain merely the text, and that continuous from 
 the beginning to the end; even the end of a section being marked by a | only. After 
 the 15th century this awkward custom was generally given up, and the divisions of a 
 text plainly marked by ornamental flourishes which are various forms of the word '^ri'. 
 About the same period were written the earliest examples of mss. with diagrams or 
 illustrative pictures*^ The later inscriptions have commonly at the commencement very 
 
 See an example in Hunter's "Orissa" i., p. 168. The Karkal MS. of the 'Trilokasara' is the best I have seen. 
 
— 83 — 
 
 rude representations of sacred emblems, e. g. the trident and drum of ^iva*^; the conch 
 of Vishnu; the sun and moon; the linga with a worshipper etc.^^; the Jains put an 
 elephant. 
 
 § 5. CORRECTIONS, ETC 
 
 Erasures are generally made by a line above or below the erroneous letter or word, 
 and occasionally (in (^asanas on metal plates) the erroneous letter or word is beaten out. 
 
 Omissions are marked by a small cross (kakapada or ha»isapada) over the place, 
 and the letter or words that are wanting are then written underneath the line'\ or in the 
 margin. If there are several such corrections on the same leaf, it is often difficult to 
 make out the place to which each belongs, and this is a frequent cause of error in the 
 transcripts of mss. Copyists in India will always insert any marginal note they may 
 see, in the text*\ but are quite indifferent where they insert it. 
 
 Where a word or letter is to be transferred this is done by writing numbers above 
 corresponding to the required order. 
 
 In S. Indian mss. of commentaries on texts, the words of the original are very seldom 
 given in full, but the first two or three syllables are quoted, a cross is then put, and then 
 the last word or syllable of the sentence which is to be explained is then given. Thus: 
 "athato dar9a+vyakhyasyama^". 
 
 The use of the bindu (o) in S. Indian Prakrit mss. is very peculiar; it is put before 
 a consonant to show that it is doubled {e. g. sa°go=saggo), and this is done even if the 
 consonant it precedes is aspirated {e. g. cho°thi=choththi for chotthi)^\ This practice 
 may be a survival of a similar system used in the Cave inscriptions in Prakrit, as Profr. 
 Kern has shown. The sign ° is also used to express jj or yy; e. g. a°o=ajjo or ayyo*\ 
 
 In a Tamil grant (Pallava) of the eleventh century some words which are several 
 times repeated are given in an abbreviated form, e.g. 'go:, for 'gotra'. It is, perhaps, 
 remarkable that abbrevations should occur so seldom, for the 'bijaxara' system has long 
 been held in esteem in India. 
 
 1) Cfr. Ellis «On Mirasi Right", p. 67. 
 
 2) See IndHa/a Antiquary, vol. v. plate opp. p. 362. 
 
 3) There is an example in the Mercara plates of this. 
 *) See Buhler's "Apastamba-Dharmasiitra", i., p. 7. 
 
 5) See Pischel, 'Urvayi' in "Monatsber. d. Berliner Acad." 1875, p. 616. 
 
 6J Do: pp. 614-5. ^^^° ^' Miiller, "BeitrSge zur Grammatik des Jainaprakrit", p. 12. 
 
 U* 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE WRITING MATERIALS USED IN INDIA, 
 AND ESPECIALLY IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 have already incidentally mentioned various substances used for writing on in S. 
 J^India; for convenience' sake, it may be well to collect and complete that information 
 here. 
 
 A. Books. 
 
 1. Bhurja-hark appears to have been first used in India for this purpose, but only 
 in the North^\ It is mentioned in the Amarakosha, and incidentally, in the Raghuva»«9a 
 and similar poems^^ 
 
 The earliest real description of its use that I have met with is by Albiruni (about 
 1030 A. D.) who writes: "Dans les provinces du centre et du nord de I'lnde, on emploie 
 I'dcorce int^rieure d'un arbe appey touz. Cest avec I'dcorce d'un arbre du mSme genre 
 qu'on recouvre les arcs; celle-ci se nomme hhoudj. Cette ^corce a une coud^e de long, 
 et elle a en largeur la longueur du doigt, ou un peu moins. Pour la rendre plus propre a 
 faire du papier, on I'oint d'huile et on la polit; par la, on lui donne de la force et on la 
 rend lisse. Ensuite, quand on veut fixer I'ordre des feuillets, on les pagine; puis on 
 enveloppe le tout dans une 6tofife, et on le place entre deux planches de la grandeur 
 des feuillets. Des livres portent dans I'lnde le nom de pouthi. Cest sur la meme dcorce 
 que les Indiens dcrivent leurs lettres et qu'ils marquent tout ce qu'ils ont besoin de 
 communiquer au loin"'^ This bark is written on with the aid of a reed pen and ink 
 of a kind which will be mentioned afterwards*'. MSS. on this substance are unknown 
 in S. India. 
 
 2. Palm-leaves of the Borassus flabelUformis, Corypha umbracuUfera and C. taliera. 
 These have always been, and still are, the chief material for books not only in 
 
 1) See above p. 10. 
 
 2) Q. Curtius (viii., 9) mentions that at the time of Alexander's invasion the Indians wrote on bark, but others mention 
 only cotton cloth or paper. 
 
 3) Reinaud, 'MSmoire', pp. 305-6. 
 
 *) The latest and most complete description of this material and the way it is used is to be found in the Bombay Journal, 
 vol. xii. pp. 29 fFg. 
 
— 85 — 
 
 S. India, Ceylon, Indo-China, the Malay'' Archipelago and Burmah^\ but even in 
 Bengal and other parts of N. India. 
 These leaves are used in two ways: 
 
 a) The letters are scratched on them with a style, and the lines thus formed are 
 afterwards made clear by being filled with some black matter — powdered charcoal or 
 lamp-black — rubbed in with some juicy vegetable stalk such as that of the yam. This is 
 the most general way of writing on these leaves. 
 
 b) The leaves are written on with a pen, and both black and red ink. This way of 
 writing seems pecuHar to the N. of India and particularly to Cambay and Gujarat. 
 I have met with some Jain mss. written in this way in S. W. India, but they had been 
 brought from the North. 
 
 The use of palm-leaves, as material to write on, is certainly of considerable age in 
 India, and from thence it spread to Ceylon and Indo-China^'. This use was probably 
 common from the period of the introduction of writing into Eastern and Southern India, 
 but it is not possible to fix the exact date. 
 
 In the seventh century A. D. this material is repeatedly mentioned in the Life and 
 Travels of Hiouen Thsang*-'. According to these authorities^' the collection of the 
 three pitaka made and circulated by Mahaka9yapa was written on tala leaves, and at 
 the time Hiouen Thsang visited India these leaves were in general use. 
 
 About 1030 A. D. Alblruni writes*': "Dans le midi de I'lnde, il y a un arbre qui 
 ressemble au palmier et au cocotier; il produit un fruit bon a manger^', et des feuilles 
 d'une coud^e de long et de trois travers de doigt de large: on appelle ces feuilles 
 Mry ^'. C'est sur ces feuilles qu'on ^crit; on pratique ensuite un trou au milieu, et Ton y 
 fait passer une ficelle, qui retient les feuilles les unes contre les autres." 
 
 The early European travellers in the East all mention palm-leaf books as being in 
 general use in India^'. 
 
 IJ A Chinese writer (iSth century A. D.) notices this fact. See "Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca" compiled 
 from Chinese sources by W. P. Groeneveldt, p. 40. (Batavia, 1876.) 
 
 2) In Burmah the Corypha leaves are used for books only; the Palmyra for letters etc. Mason's "Burmah", p. 522. 
 
 3) The Palmyra (Borassus) seems to be indigenous in S. India or Ceylon. The Talipat seems to be indigenous in Ceylon 
 only. The botanists appear not have considered the original home and diffusion of these useful palms. 
 
 *) "Pelerins Bouddhistes", i. pp. 158 and 202; iii. p. I48. 
 
 5) Fryer ("New Account", p. 33) and some others err in supposing that the leaves used for writing on are those of the 
 cocoa-palm. In the Mahavamso (ed. Tumour, p. 204) a fugitive king is said to have written a grant on a Pandanus leaf, 
 as he could get nothing else. 
 
 6) Tr. by Reinaud, "Mimoire", p. 305. 
 
 ') The palm referred to is for this reason the Borassus flabelliformis. Alblruni seems not to have known the Corypha 
 or Talipat, 
 SJ i, e. tala. 
 9) See, e.g., Barros, Decada, i., ix., 3 (f. 180 of vol. i. of the 2d. ed.). 
 
— 86 — 
 
 The oldest Indian mss. known at present are on palm-(talipat-)leaves, but with the 
 writing in ink. One of these discovered by Profr. Biihler is d. sa.mv. 1189 or A. D. 
 1 132, and is the oldest Indian ms. known. It is a ms. of the Jain Ava9yakasutra'^. 
 About this there need be no doubt. The next which is dated 1 151 or 1229 A. D. is so 
 well preserved that it seems difficult to believe that it is not a copy of an older ms. 
 with the date of the original left unchanged, as is often the case^\ The oldest palm- 
 leaf MS. that I know of the first class is of A. D. 1428 from which I have taken the 
 alphabet in PI. x. It is a Canarese ms. 
 
 The meanness which is so characteristic of S. India, displays itself conspicuously in 
 the MSS. written there. It is very seldom that the least attempt is made (except in 
 Malabar) to trim the leaves, and to provide proper covers for them. In Ceylon, Burmah 
 and Indo-China, on the other hand, the palm-leaf mss. are always beautifully written, 
 and are often real works of art. In S. India, mss. are hung up in the kitchen chimney; 
 in the Ceylon monasteries I observed that each one of importance is preserved 
 carefully in a box made for the purpose and to fit the ms. 
 
 3. JPlates of Metal. Books of this kind exist, though examples are very rare. 
 
 The earliest mention of such occurs in the Life and Voyages of Hiouen Thsang. 
 These state that Kanishka: "fit graver, sur des feuilles de cuivre rouge, les textes de 
 ces Trait^s (Commentaries on the Tripitaka), les renferma dans une caisse en pierre 
 soigneusement scell^e et batit un StoUpa pour I'y d^poser"^^. Such legends are not un- 
 common in all parts of India*', but instances of books written on plates of metal must 
 always have been very uncommon, and it is only possible to refer to two or three ex- 
 amples at the present time. 
 
 Some Telugu works written on copper plates existed some sixty years ago at Tripatty, 
 and, perhaps, are still to be found. Campbell (in 1820) writes: "Having heard that a 
 number of poems, engraved on some thousand sheets of copper, had been preserved by 
 the pious care of a family of Brahmins in the temple on the sacred hill at Tripatty, I 
 deputed a native for the purpose of examining them; but, with the exception of a 
 
 1) "Report", 1872-3. 
 
 2) It belongs to the R. As. Society (No. 112 Sanskrit) and there is a splendid facsimile of a leaf in pi. i. of part 
 i. of the Palseographic Society's "Facsimiles of Ancient MSS. Oriental Series." (1875.) 
 
 3) "P^lerins Bonddhistes" i., 96; ii., 178. A plate of silver with two words on it was found in the Manikyala tope. 
 Prinsep's "Essays" by Thomas, i., p. 100 note, and pi. vi. 
 
 *) A similar story is told about Sayana's works ("Rigveda", ed. Max Miiller, vol. i., p. xvii.), but it rests on a ridiculous 
 book ("Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets", Calcutta, 1829— p. 45) which asserts: "Some of the author's works were 
 dug out of a pit, by the emissaries employed by the late Col. Mackenzie, to collect literary materials in the ceded districts 
 in the year 1811. The characters in which these works were written, are mixed (! !) and obsolete." This is pure invention! 
 
— 87 — 
 
 treatise on grammar, of which a copy was taken, the whole collection was found to 
 contain nothing but voluminous hymns in praise of the deity"^'. 
 
 A small Pali mss. of recent date written on silver plates is in the British Museum; 
 it is from Ceylon. 
 
 These are the only examples that I can refer to of books written on plates of metal. 
 
 4. Boards of wood etc. In Burmah, Buddhist rituals are often written on slips of 
 wood covered with gold or silver lacquer, the letters being black. Numerous examples 
 of these splendid mss. are to be seen in the British Museum and similar libraries in 
 Europe. I have not met with the least trace of such in S. India, nor have I ever heard 
 of any such practice in India. 
 
 Some of the Indian law-books^^ mention a board as used by judges to reduce notes 
 of pleadings into form; this must have been a kind of black board, but I have not seen 
 anything of the kind in use. The Lalitavistara^' mentions sandalwood boards used in 
 school like slates. 
 
 5. Prepared cloth. This is the earliest writing material in India so far as trust- 
 worthy historical information goes, for it is described by Nearchus*', who says that the 
 Brahmans wrote: Iv otvSoai Xtav nsxpor/jjji^vaii;. This is obviously the 'pata' or 'karpasika 
 pata' of the Smritis and compilers of the Digests^', and must, therefore, have been in 
 use down to comparatively recent times, but I have not met with a specimen of it, nor 
 have I anywhere met with a description of this substance. 
 
 The form in which cloth is now used for writing on is of a different kind, it is that of 
 'kadatam' as it is termed in Canarese, and this is (so far as I am aware) used only by 
 the Canarese of all the peoples of India, though the Siamese have precisely the same, 
 and the Bataks of Sumatra use a kind of cloth which is folded in the same way though 
 it differs from the Canarese and Siamese material in being light-coloured. 
 
 The Canarese cover the cotton cloth with a paste made of mucilage (from tamarind 
 or similar seeds) mixed with powdered charcoal, and when dry it is folded transversely, 
 and written on with a steatite pencil or chalk, so that the letters are white on a black 
 
 1) A. D. Campbell, "Telugu Grammar" (2nd. ed. of 1820), p. xiii. 
 
 2) Katyayanasmriti (quoted by Madhava): 
 
 Purvapaxam svabhavoktam pradvivako 'bhilekhayiet | 
 Pandulekhena phalake, tataA pattram viyodhayet || 
 This passage must be relatively modern. Writing is frequently mentioned in connection with judicial proceedings, but 
 such a record as is here intended, can only have been used in modem times. 
 
 3) See p. 121 of Profr. Foucaux's edition (Tibetan), Vol. ii. 
 *).''Reliqua Arriani at Scriptorum de rebus Alexandri", ed. Miiller, p. 61. 
 6) See below ch. vi. 
 
— 88 — 
 
 ground^'. Books of this kind are now seldom used except for merchants' accounts, and 
 I have not met with any old specimens. The earliest reference^' to this kind of books, 
 is of about 1250 A. D. 
 
 6, Paper. The use of paper in India seems to be subsequent to the i ith century 
 A. D., but, up to quite recent times it was unknown in S. India, and is, even now, re- 
 garded by rigid Hindus as unclean. In all the dialects of India it is called by more or 
 less corrupt forms of the name 'kagad' by which it was known to the Arabs^^ and its 
 foreign origin is, thus, apparent. 
 
 According to Alblruni*^ (and there is no reason to doubt his accuracy) paper was 
 discovered by the Chinese at Samarcand, when Transoxiana was under their power, or 
 in the earlier centuries A. D., and from Samarcand the manufacture gradually extended 
 to other countries. 
 
 The earliest Indian ms. on paper that has, as yet, been discovered is of 1 3 1 o 
 A. D.^', but there are many others in existence of anything like this age, and most of the 
 MSB. in existence are subsequent to 1500 A. D. The miserably destructive climate 
 of India is quite sufficient to account for this seemingly strange circumstance. 
 
 The paper used in the South of India during the 1 6th, 1 7th and 1 8th centuries 
 came chiefly from Portugal, though, latterly, some was imported from China. English 
 paper was but little used. The water-mark affords an easy means of detecting forgeries. 
 
 Perhaps the first exaci historical mention of books in India is that by the Chinese 
 which records the importation of Buddhist books from India into China in 73 
 A. D. At the beginning of the 5th century A. D. we have Fa-hian's testimony that 
 books were then rare, and he also tells us that he had to copy for himself what 
 he wanted^^ But two hundred and fifty years after this there was not so much 
 difficulty; copyists were then to be found''^ and Hiouen Thsang appears to have had little 
 difficulty in collecting a considerable library. With the Buddhists and Jains it has 
 always been esteemed a virtuous act to have sacred books copied in as elegant a way 
 as possible, and to present them to monasteries'^ or learned men, but though this practice 
 is also mentioned by Hindus {e. g. Hemadri), the Brahmans do not seem to have taken to 
 
 1) See also my "Vamyabrahmana", p. xxxvii. 
 
 2) Mr. Kittel has kindly given rae this information. 
 
 3J On p. 10 I termed kagad an Arabic word, but it is not one orxgvnally. What its real origin is, I cannot find. 
 
 ^) Reinaud, 'MSmoire', p. 305. See also von Kreraer's " Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen," ii. pp. 306 ffg. 
 
 5) "Notices", A. p. iii. (Report). 
 
 6) Beal, "Buddhist Pilgrims," pp. 142 etc. 
 7J "Pelerins Bouddhistes", i., p. 264. 
 
 8)Profr. Biihler ("Report on Sanskrit MSS. 1872-3", pp. 1-2) mentions that : "A library at Ahmadabad contains .... 
 four hundred copies of the Avayyakasutra." 
 
— 89 — 
 
 the notion, and their mss. can at once be recognized by their miserable appearance. 
 This is, no doubt, to be attributed to the peculiar reliance of the Brahmans on oral 
 instruction only, in consequence of which books were rather endured as a necessity 
 than held in esteem. This point of view is singularly displayed in Sanskrit literature; 
 allusions to books are so rare that it would at first sight seem as if they were hardly in use 
 even down to recent times, and it is remarkable that the works in which such allusions 
 occur were all composed in N. India or Cashmere'\ The descriptions that one finds of 
 the style and way of writing books which occur in some of the later Tantras and 
 similar works all refer to N. India and Bengal, and not to S. India^*. 
 
 Notwithstanding their wretched appearance, books are looked on with great 
 veneration in S. India as representatives of SarasvatI, and are worshipped occasionally. 
 
 B. Letters. 
 
 For this purpose, bhurja bark, palm-leaves, plates of metal, and (in later times) paper 
 were mostly used. Of Hindu letters we now have apparently no specimens of more 
 than one hundred years old, except perhaps among the Mahrathas. Allusions to 
 letters are frequent in the dramas and the earlier of the modern artificial poems, 
 and some of such allusions go back at least 1200 years^^. 
 
 There is also a "letter-writer" attributed to a Vararuci, one of a Vikramaditya's 
 "nine jewels" of course*'; it is a small treatise, but shows that some attention was paid 
 to the subject, and that, therefore, letters were in common use: it, however, refers to 
 letters on paper or the like, whereas in S. India and Ceylon (except among foreigners) 
 palm-leaves have always been used for this purpose up to recent times. For this purpose 
 a strip of palm-leaf is cut in the usual form, and smeared with turmeric or some similar 
 colour for ornament. The ends are split a little way to secure the whole which is fold- 
 ed in a ring, and then fastened by a thread. The earliest complete description of such 
 a letter that I know of is of the middle of the i6th century in De Barros' "Asia"; he 
 says: "As outras cousas, que serve ao modo de nossas cartas mesiuas e escriptura 
 comum, basta ser a folha escripta e enrolada em si e por chancella atase com 
 
 1) e. g. Brihatkatha and Kathasaritsagara. On the silence of the earlier books see Max Miiller's "Ancient Sanskrit 
 Literature" (2 ed.) pp. 497 ffg. 
 
 2) See e. g. the extract from the Nandipurana in the vidyadana section of Hemadri's "Danakhanda." 
 
 3) e. g. Vasavadatta (ed. by Dr. F. E. Hall) p. 163 — Sa ca kritapranama Makarandaya patrikam upanayat. 
 
 i) "Notices", i., pp. 196-7. There is much in this tract that appears to be derived from Muhammadan custom, and not 
 to be of Hindu origin. 
 
 12 
 
— 90 — 
 
 qualquer linha, ou neruo da mesma palma'"'. The writing of letters is also often 
 mentioned in the curious Tulu Sagas which refer to the Bhuta worship of Canara and 
 the Konkan. Thus in the Saga of Koti and Cannayya, after a clerk has been sent 
 for on a certain occasion he is ordered to write a letter. "Another man was sent . . . 
 to bring leaves of a young palm-tree. He had the leaves exposed to the morning sun, 
 and taken up in the evening. By this time the clerk had come . . . . He asked the 
 Ballal (chief) why he had been sent for. The Ballal said: I want you now to write a 
 letter. The clerk sat down on a three-legged stool. The Ballal had the bundle of 
 palm-leaves placed before him; he (the clerk) took out a leaf from the bundle, cut off 
 both ends and laid aside the middle. He had oil and turmeric rubbed on it, and asked 
 the chief what he should write"^^. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, letters were also written on substances which would seem 
 totally unfit for this purpose. One of the A9oka inscriptions on a block of stone 
 seems to be a letter from the king to the convocation of Buddhist priests''. 
 
 Thin plates of metal were also used in the South, and several letters of this kind 
 are mentioned by the early Portuguese writers. A letter on a plate of gold was sent 
 by the king of Vijayanagara in 15 14 to the Portuguese chief*'. Other instances are 
 mentioned, and the practice was evidently a common one, but specimens (for obvious 
 reasons) do not seem to be in existence. 
 
 Hiouen Thsang^' mentions a letter which Tishyaraxita (A9oka's second wife) forged. 
 It appears to have been sealed with red wax ( ! ), and A9oka (it is said) used for a seal 
 the impression of his own teeth. The substance, however, on which it was written is 
 not mentioned, probably bhurja bark was intended. 
 
 C. Grants and Public Documents. 
 
 1, Stone. This substance (though not referred to by the law-books) is the one on 
 which not only the earliest proclamations existing in India were written, but which has 
 been generally used down to the present time. 
 
 >) "Asia", Dacada i.; Livro ix.; Cap. iii. (vol. i.; folio l8o h. of the second ed. 1628). The letter from the Zamorin to the 
 king of Portugal which Vasco de Gama carried in 1498 was on an olai (Castanheda "Historia da India", i. p. 81, ed. of 1833). 
 
 2) From a MS. collection of the Sagas (in Tulu) relating to the Bhiita worship ■ which I had made for me during a re- 
 sidence of two years and a half in S. Canara. 
 
 3J Burnouf, "Le Lotus de la bonne Loi", pp. 727-8. "Elle (rinscription) est ^crite, et trfes-soigneusement, sur un bloc 
 d4tach6 de granit qui n'est ni d'un volume ni d'un poids considerable, n'ayant que deux pieds Anglais sur deux de ses 
 dimensions, et un pied et demi sur la troisifeme. Ce bloc. . . .peut fetre aisSment transports. . . .C'est une lettre." 
 
 *) Correa, "Lendas da India", ii., part I, p. 377. 
 
 S) "P^lerins Bouddhistes", ii., p. 156. 
 
— 91 — 
 
 For this purpose the naturally smooth surface of a rock or a boulder'', such as are 
 found all over India, was used^\ or a slab (much like an old-fashioned English tomb- 
 stone) was prepared for the purpose. In earlier times, stone pillars were also used for 
 engraving proclamations'^ In S. India, the walls of temples, the pavement, and the 
 pillars of the colonnades were chiefly used for recording grants. In Java slabs were 
 in use much the same as in India*\ 
 
 In all instances known, the letters are incised, and, in some cases, appear to have 
 been drilled. The stone used in S. India and Java is easily fractured and, being of 
 coarse and unequal grain, soon perishes if exposed to the weather; thus the older 
 inscriptions in both countries have suffered much, and are often legible with difficulty. 
 
 2. Metal Plates. 
 
 a. Plates of copper were early in use for recording grants etc. The law-books 
 mention this material ('tamrapata') and the vast majority of S. Indian inscriptions are 
 written on such plates. Fa-hian (about 400 A. D.) says : "From the time of Buddha's 
 Nirvana, the kings and nobles of all those countries began to erect viharas for the 
 priesthood and to endow them with lands, gardens, houses, and also men and oxen 
 to cultivate them. The records of these endowments, being engraved on sheets of 
 copper, have been handed down from one king to another, so that no one has dared to 
 deprive them of possession, and they continue to this day to enjoy their proper 
 revenues''." The early European travellers also noticed this usage^'. 
 
 There is a remarkable difference in the form of the plates used in N. and in S. India. 
 In the North they are generally very nearly square and are much like the shape of a page 
 of a modern book. The earlier S. Indian inscriptions are written on long strips, and 
 the lines of writing are lengthwise. It is obvious that this difference in shape is to be 
 attributed to the fact that the plates were fashioned like the leaves of books used in 
 those respective countries. In the North the bhurja was cut nearly square; in the S. 
 the palm-leaves afforded strips only. But in the course of time the form of the plates 
 
 1 ) These boulders are produced, geologists say, by exfoliation, and are not true err.atic boulders. 
 
 2) It is hardly necessary to mention the chief Ayoka edicts which are of this kind. See also "Pelerins Bouddhistes", 
 iii., 38 etc. 
 
 3) Seal's "Buddhist Pilgrims", pp. 95, 108 and 109 (about 400 A. D.). Remarkable instances are stiU existing, (e. g. at 
 Allahabad) on which are edicts of A9oka. For an engraving of the one at Allahabad see Prinsep's "Essays" (by Thomas) 
 i., p. 232 and also Fergusson's "History of Indian and Eastern Architecture", pp. 52 ffg. 
 
 ^) See e.g. the plate in vol. x. (129) of the Batavia " Verhandelingen" and the plates in Friederich's "Over Inscriptien 
 van Java en Sumatra". (Batavia, 1857.) 
 
 5) Beal's "Buddhist Pilgrims", p. 55. 
 
 6) Barros (in 1552) says: "As escripturas que elles querem que dure peramuitos seculos .... como letreiros de templos, 
 doa96es de juro, que dao os Rfeys, estas sao abertos em pedra ou cobre." (Decada, i., liv, ix.; l. 3. fol. 180 h, of 2nd ed.) 
 
 12* 
 
— 92 — 
 
 used in S. India was modified considerably. From the 6th to the 14th century the 
 most usual shape is a rectangle, about twice as long as it is broad, and the plates, if more 
 than one, are secured by a ring passed through a circular hole at the right side''. 
 
 The Vijayanagara dynasty introduced the N. Indian fashion, and this continued the 
 custom with their successors. The plates are here written across the narrower part of 
 the plate, and the tops are rounded and often ornamented^'. 
 
 Documents of this kind are usually on three or more plates, the outer sides of the 
 first and last being left blank; the object of this practice is evidently to preserve the 
 writing from injury. The later grants are generally on a larger number of plates than 
 the earlier, and of much heavier substance, owing (it seems) to the practice of cutting 
 the letters much deeper than was done in earlier times. The earliest documents, being 
 simple in style, could be written on three or four small plates with ease; by the nth 
 century, the forms had become so proHx that eight or nine large plates were necessary. 
 By the end of the 1 7th century the forms used are much shorter, but the plates used are 
 generally heavy and thick, and in shape like those used by the Vijayanagara dynasty. 
 Some grants of the 17th century are on heavy plates of copper about a quarter of 
 an inch thick, and evidently intended to represent stelae^'. Private documents of the 
 1 6th and 17th centuries are on plates much less carefully fashioned, and generally 
 consist of a single square leaf, with a sort of handle on the left side. 
 
 To assist in preserving the parts covered with writing, a practice of raising margins 
 round the plates by beating up and then flattening the edges, was soon introduced. The 
 earliest instances belong to the 9th or 10th century; in the nth century this was 
 always done, and the practice continued to the 1 7th century when the preparation of 
 documents was generally rude and careless. 
 
 The writing on metal plates is always incised in later times; most usually it is done 
 with a kind of chisel, for the 'graver' seems unknown in India. On very thin plates it 
 is scratched with a style. The earliest documents of this kind that have been dis- 
 covered, viz., those found in the Buddhist topes, have the writing scratched on the plates 
 or formed by a series of punctures*^ 
 
 There is a remarkable iron pillar at Delhi with an inscription on if'*'. 
 
 1) See plates xxiv. etc. 
 
 2) See plate xxx. 
 
 3) Three such are in the Dharmapura Matha. 
 
 i) Prinsep's "Essays" by Thomas, i. p. 163 note. pi. vi. 
 
 6) See the picture on p. 507 of Fergusson's "History of Indian and Eastern Architecture" (1876). 
 
— 93 — 
 
 b. Plates of goW'^ and silver are mentioned as being used for writing grants etc. and 
 specimens of the last, at all events, are in existence stilP'. 
 
 c. Cotton cloth. This is mentioned in the law-books^^ but I do not know of any 
 specimen. 
 
 d. Palm-leaves, or olais were also used for this purpose. Some of the Tamil 
 grants of the nth century state that they are according to olai grants by the king. 
 I have not met with any examples of public documents of this kind. Private sale- 
 deeds written on olais are common enough, but, naturally, they are always of recent 
 date. 
 
 Ink, Pens etc. 
 
 Ink (mashi or masi) has been introduced into S. India in quite recent times and 
 apparently by the Mahrathas. It is (I am informed) made of lac, and is almost 
 indelible; water and damp have no effect on it. In the N. of India and Cashmere a 
 similar indelible ink is used for writing on the bhurjapatra. Dr. Biihler has found 
 out that this is composed of charcoal made from almonds boiled in cow's urine. 
 
 Ink is occasionally mentioned in Sanskrit books, but only in the more modern, e. g^ 
 the Kathasaritsagara (i. 8, 3): "Tarn (katham) atma9onitai^ | atavyaw mashyabhavac ca 
 lilekha sa mahakavi^*'." This idea of writing with blood occurs elsewhere (with similar 
 absurdities) in Indian books. Here (like the original compositions of the tales in the 
 Pai9aca language) it is a transparent fiction of the author to account for the apparent 
 incompleteness of his work. The Mahavawso mentions hingula or vermilion as used 
 for ink. 
 
 The pen used in S. India for writing Nagari on paper is made of the common reed^'. 
 
 ' ) A treaty between the king of Ava and the Portuguese was written on a leaf or plate of gold enclosed in an ivory box. 
 
 2) o. A recent grant on a plate of silver which was executed at Cochin. I saw it some years ago in the office of the Collector 
 of Malabar. 6. A grant on a single plate of silver and written in Telugu, by which the last Nayak of Tanjore (Vijaya- 
 raghava) conveyed Negapatara to the Dutch, u. A similar grant (in Tamil) by which the Mahratha prince Ekoji confirmed 
 the last in 1676. Both these are in the Museum at Batavia. 
 
 3) See below, ch. vi. 
 
 *) This is improved on the Brihatkatha which has: "frutva gunadhyakathitam kSnabhiitir uvaca tam | yonitena likha 
 xipram saptanam cakravartinam || katham vidySdharendranam kathayami sthiro bhava! || 
 
 6) Dr. Hincks pointed out that one Sanskrit word for ink 'mela' is the Greek ^^Xa^ 'kalama'=pen is calamus. "The 
 words for ink and pen have all a modem appearance." Max Miiller, "Anc. Sans. Literature", (2nd. ed.) p. 514. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FORMULAE OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF 
 SOUTH-INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 DHE South-Indian inscriptions present but very little variety, and are easily reduced 
 )to the following classes: 
 
 I. DOCUMENTS CONVEYING A RIGHT TO PROPERTY. 
 
 It is necessary to carefully distinguish (as is done in the Dharma9astra), between 
 documents of this description by reigning sovereigns and those by private persons. 
 The first are of immense importance for history, the last are seldom (as I shall show) of 
 any value in this respect. 
 
 A. Royal Grants. 
 
 Treatises on gifts form an important branch of the later Sanskrit law and some of 
 them are very extensive digests, e. g. Hemadri's Danakhanda of the 1 2th century A. D. 
 But nearly the whole of such treatises consists of matter which is of no direct interest 
 to the palseographist and archaeologist, viz., fanciful enumerations of all possible objects 
 that can be given, with elaborate detail of the merit supposed to accrue from each kind 
 of gift, and the different ways in which it may be made''. But it is certain that these 
 details were followed with scrupulous accuracy, and in the S. Indian inscription-literature 
 gifts take the place of the sacrifices which, according to the epic poems, Indian kings 
 used to have performed in order to attain their objects. The inscriptions of Java are 
 full of astrological details, but those of S. India rarely go beyond the day of the month. 
 These details are of importance, as they will explain, if compared with the nature of 
 the objects given, the aspirations of the donor, and thus throw light on much that 
 must otherwise remain obscure or unknown; possibly, these details will often serve to 
 control the boundless assertions of victory and supremacy which are so common in 
 
 1) Such verses as the following are common in the Smritis: 
 "Danena prapyate svargo, danena sukham aynute 1 
 Iha 'mutra ca danena piijyo bhavati manavaft" || (Brihatpara9arasamhita, viii, 2.) 
 
— 95 — 
 
 S. Indian inscriptions, by showing that kings often had in view objects that, according 
 to the inscriptions, they assert themselves to possess already. 
 
 The pedantry of the brahmanical lawyers is not content with directing kings to be 
 liberal to the priests, but also prescribes the exact forms in which this virtue is to be 
 practised. According to the Nitimayukha (i6th century) these are as follows: The king 
 on rising is to perform his usual ablutions and, if the day for it, have his head shaved. 
 He is then to hear the almanac read, and thus know what luck is promised, and what 
 should be done or not. Then he must give a cow with its calf to a Brahman, and 
 having beheld the reflection of his face in ghee placed in a flat dish, he should give 
 that ghee also with some gold to a Brahman. After this, on occasion of the moon's 
 quarters and eclipses, he should make a gift of land or a grant payable in kind, to 
 Brahmans'^ of course. The secondary Dharma9astras first mention grants of this des- 
 cription, and (e.g. Yajriavalkya Dh. 9.) give the form of the wording, the same as 
 appears in the oldest grants now existing ^^. They were, therefore, drawn up according 
 to rule, and the gradual extension of the original formula appears to correspond exactly 
 with the rise of new dynasties. 
 
 The passage in Yajriavalkya is as follows (i., 317-9)^': 
 
 DattvS bhumim nibaudham va kritva lekhyam tu kSrayet | 
 Agamibliadraiiripatiparijnanaya parthivaft |{ 
 Pate va tamrapate va svamudroparicihnitam | 
 Abhilekhya 'tmano vamyyan atmanam ca mahipatift |1 
 Pratigrahaparimanani danacchedopavarnanam | 
 Svahastakalasampannam yasanam karayet sthiram || 
 
 As they stand, these lines may be ascribed to the earlier centuries of the Christian 
 era. The Mitaxara on this runs: "Yathoktavidhina 'bhumiw dattva' svatvanivrittiw? kritva 
 'nibandha»« va' ekasya bhandabharakasye 'yanto rupaka ekasya parnabharakasye 'yanti 
 parnani 'ti va nibandhaw kritva 'lekhyam karayet'. Kimartham? 'agamina^' eshyanto ye 
 'bhadraA' sadhavo bhupatayas tesham anena dattam anena parigrihitam iti 'parijnanaya 
 parthivo' bhupatir | anena bhupater eva bhumidane nibandhadane va 'dhikaro na bhoga- 
 pater iti dar9itam | 'lekhyam karayed' ity ukta^ kathaw karayed ity aha 'pate' iti dva- 
 bhyam karpasike pate 'tamrapate' tamraphalake 'va 'tmano va»«9yan' prapitamahapita- 
 mahapitrm bahuvacanasya 'rthavatvat svavaw«9avirya9rutadigunopavarnanapurvakam' 
 abhilekhya 'tmanaw ca 9abdat pratigrahltaram pratigrahaparimanaw^ danacchedopavar- 
 
 'J As to what kind of Brahmans, see the lengthy details in Hemadri's Danakhanda, ch. ii. 
 
 2) In the other Smritis now printed the following are the chief passages: Vishnu, vii.; Vayishtha, xvi.; Narada (tr. by 
 Dr. Jolly) iv., 59-71. These, however, merely show that such documents were early in use in India, for the date of the texts 
 is unknown. For palaeography, the only useful material is to be found in the later digests. 
 
 3) Ed. Stenzler, p. 38. 
 
— 96 — 
 
 nanaw ca 'bhilekhya pratigrihyata Iti pratigraho nibandhas tasya rupakadIparimana/» 
 diyata iti 'danaw' xetradi tasya 'cchedaA' chidyate vicchidyate 'nene 'ti cchedo nadyadau 
 parimanaOT tasyo 'pavarnanam amukanadya daxinato 'ya«» grama^ x.etra.m va purvato 
 'mukagramasyai 'tavannivartanaparimanaw ca lekhyam eva 'ghatasya nadinagaravartma- 
 de^ saiicaritvena bhumer nyunadhikabhavasaOTbhavan nivrittyartha*^ 'svahastena' svaha- 
 stalikhltena mataw ma amukanamno 'mukaputrasya yad atro 'pari likhitam ity anena sam- 
 pannaiw s^myuktam kalena ca dvividhena 9akanripatitasaOTvatsararupena ca danakale 
 candrasuryoparagadina sampannaw svamudraya garudavarahadirupayo 'pari bahi9 
 cihnitam ankitaw sthira»« dridhaw qasanam 9ishyante bhavishyanto nripatayo 'nena danac 
 chreyo 'nupalanaw iti ^asanaw 'karayen' mahipatir na bhogapati^ sandhivigrahadikarina 
 na, yena kenacit [ "sandhivigrahakarl tu bhaved yas tasya lekhaka^ rajria 'dishta^ sa likhed 
 raja9asanam" iti smaranat danamatrenai 'va danaphale siddhe 9asanakarana»« tatrai 'va 
 bhogadivriddhya phalati9ayarthain |1 " 
 
 The Mitaxara was (as has been shown by Dr. Buhler) written in the reign of the 
 Calukya Vikramaditya V., or at the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth 
 century A. D/^ 
 
 About a century or so later than the Mitaxara the Smriticandrika was compiled by 
 Devanna; this also belongs to Southern India, and the section on documents is, therefore, 
 of interest, especially as it includes all that is of interest in the older texts. It runs: 
 
 Atha lekhyanirupanam | tatra, Vasishtha^ | 
 
 "Laukikam rajakiyam ca lekhyam vidyad dvilaxanam" | 
 
 C. 'Laukikam' janapadam || tatha caSahgrahakara^ | 
 
 "Rajakiyam jSnapadam likhitam dvividham smritam" iti i 
 
 Tatra 'rajakiyaw' 9asanadibhedena caturvidham ity aha Vasishtha>^ | 
 
 "^asanam prathamam jdeyam jayapatram tatha param | 
 Ajnaprajnapanapatre rajakiyam caturvidham" || 
 
 Tatra 9asana»2 nirupayitum aha YajiiavalkyaA | (See v. 317 above). 
 
 C. 'Nibandha^' banijyadikaribhiA prativarshaw pratimasaw va ki»^cid dhanam asmai 
 brahmanaya 'syai devatayai va deyam ityadiprabhusamayalabhyo 'rtha^ | atra yady api 
 .dhanadatritvaw banijyadikartus tatha 'pi nibandhakartur eva punyaw tadudde9enai 've 
 'tarasya pravritte^ | 'bhumim' iti gramaramadinam upalaxanartham | ata eva Brihaspati/^] 
 
 "Dattva bhiimyadikam raja tamrapatte tatha pate | 2) 
 Casanam karayed dharmyam sthanavamyadisamyutam" || 
 
 1) Bombay Journal, ix., pp. 134-8. 
 
 2) V. I. °patte 'thava pate. 
 
— 97 — 
 
 C. 'Karayet' sandhivigrahadyadhikarinam iti qeshnk \ tasyai Va 'tra lekhane kartri- 
 tvaniyamat | tatha ca VyasaA | 
 
 "Raja tu svayara, adishtaA sandhivigrahalekhakaA | 
 TSmrapatte pate vS 'pi vilikhedU rSja9asanam | 
 Kriyakarakasambandham sam5sarthakriyanvitam" || iti || 
 
 C. KriyakarakayoA sambandho yasmin 9asane tat tatho 'ktam | samasarthakriyan- 
 vitaw sa»ixiptarthopanyasakriyaya samanvitam ity artha^ | tamrapattadau lekhanlyam 
 artham aha Yajriavalkya^ | 
 
 AbHilekhya 'tmano vamfyan atmanam ca mahipatiA | 
 Pratigrahaparimanam danaccliedopavarnanani {{ iti || 
 
 C. Uddhritamahlmandalasya ^ripate^ varahavapusho varadanapratipadakam a^irva- 
 dam^' adav acarapraptam 'abhilekhya' 'nantaram 'atmano va.mqya.n' prapitamahapitamaha- 
 pitrakhya^s trin uktakramena ^auryadigunavarnanadvara 'atmanam' caturtham 'abhile- 
 khya' 'pratigrahaparimanadikam' lekhayed^^ ity artha/^ | pratigrihyata iti pratigraha/^ | 
 bhumyadir nibandha9 ca ] tasya parimanam iyatta | 'danacchedo' diyamanabhumyader 
 maryada [ 
 
 Vyaso 'pi I 
 
 Samamasatadardhahamripanamopalaxitam | 
 Pratigrahitrijatyadisagotrabrahmacarikam || iti || 
 
 C. Sampradanasya 'sadharanatvavabodhakaiw jatikula9akhadikam api lekhanlyam 
 ity uttarardhasya 'rtha^ | tatha 'nyad api*' lekhanlyam sa eva 'ha | 
 
 Sthanam vamfanupurvyam ca deyam gramam upagatam | 
 Brahmanams tu tatha ca 'nyan manyan adhikritan likhet || 
 Kutumbino 'tha kayasthadutavaidyamahattaran | 
 Mlecchacandalaparyantan sarvan sambodhayan {{ 
 Matapitror atmanaf ca punyaya 'mukasiinave | 
 Dattam maya 'mukaya 'tba danam sabrahmacarine || iti || 
 
 Brihaspatir api | 
 
 Anacchedyam auaharyam sarvabhavyavivarjitam | 
 Candrarkasamakalinam putrapautrauvayanugam 1 1 
 Datuft palayitu^ svargam hartur narakam eva ca | 
 Shashtivarshasahasrani dan3cchedaphalam likhet || iti Ij 
 
 C. Agarainripadibodhanartham iti 9esha/5! | ata eva VyasaA | 
 
 Shashtivarshasahasrani danacchedapbalam tatha 1 
 Agaminripasamantabodhanartham nripo likhet || 
 
 ')». I. prali" 
 
 2) V. I. ayirvacanam. This refers, apparently, to the Calukya invocation. 
 
 3) V. I. lekhyam. i 
 ^) V. I. tad anyad api. 
 
 13 
 
— 98 — 
 Tatha 'pi 9lokantaram api lekhanlya/w'' tenai 'va pathitam | 
 
 SSmanyo 'yam dharmasetur Iirip3na7» 
 
 Kale k51e palauiyo bhavadbhiA^) | 
 Sarvan etanS) bhavinaA parthivendran 
 
 Bhiiyo bhiiyo yacate ramabhadraA || iti {{ 
 
 Tato raja svayam svahasta^? likhet | tatha ca sa eva | 
 
 Sannive^am pramanam ca svahastatn ca lik^et svayam | iti |{ 
 
 C. Matam me 'mukaputrasya 'mukasya mahipater yad atro 'pari likhitam iti svayaw 
 likhed ity arthah \ lekhaka9 ca svanama likhet | tatha ca sa eva | 
 
 « Sandhivigrahakari ca bhaved yaf ca 'pi lekhakaA | 
 
 Svayam rajna samadishta^ sa likhed raja^asanam || 
 Svanama tu likhet paycan mudritam rajamudraya | 
 GrSmaxetragrihadinam idrik syad rgjapasanam |{ iti || 
 
 C. Etac ca pratigrahltur arpaniya»i tasyo 'payogitvat | ata eva Vishnu A | 
 
 Pate v5 tSmrapatte va likhitara svamudrankam ca 'gaminripatiparijuan5rtham dadyat I iti 1 1 
 
 Sangrahakaro 'pi | 
 
 Rajasvahastacihnena rajodde^ena samyutam | 
 Yuktam rajSbhidhanena mudritam rajamudraya {| 
 SvalipyanavayabdoktisampurnSvayavaxaram | 
 ^asanam rajadattam syat sandhivigrahalekhakai/^ |{ iti || 
 
 C. Sandhivigrahalekhakair likhitam uktavidham anyasmai rajadatta»« ^asanakhyaza 
 lekhya;^ syad ity artha^ | etac ca qsLsanam*^ na danasiddhyartha»« tasya pratigra- 
 henai Va siddhe^ | kim tu dattasya sthairyakaranartha»« sthiratve 'xayaphala^ruteA | 
 tatha hi | 
 
 Runaddhi rodasi ca 'sya yavat kirtis tarasvini | 
 Tavat kila 'yam adhyaste sukriti vaibudham padam |) 
 
 Anenai 'va 'bhiprayena Yajnavalkyeno 'ktam^^ | 
 
 Svahastakalasampannam 9asanam karayet sthiram I iti || 
 
 C. 'Kalasampannaw' sa»«vatsaradivi9eshitadanadino 'petam | tatha ca VyasaA | 
 
 Jiiatam maye 'ti likhitam datra 'dhyaxaxarair yutam | 
 Abdamasatadardhahorajamudrankitam tatha | 
 Anena vidhina lekhyam raja^asanakam likhet || iti |{ 
 
 Tatha sa eva jayapatra»? nirupayitum aha | 
 
 1) v.l. flokantaralekhanam api. 
 
 2) V. I. mahadbhi/i. 
 
 S) B. I. yamf ca 'py anyan. 
 *) V. I. yasanadanam. 
 5) V. I, °na 'py uktam. 
 
— 99 — 
 
 Vyavaharan svayam drishtva yrutva va pradvivakataS | 
 Jayapatram tato dadyat parijnanaya parthivaA {| 
 
 Kasmai dadyad ity apexite sa eva 'ha | 
 
 Jangamam sthavaraire yena pramanenS 'tmas5tkritam | 
 Bhagabhifapasandigdho yah. samyag vijayi bhavet | 
 Tasya rajna pradatavyam jayapatram suniycitam || 
 
 Brihaspatir api | 
 
 Purvottarakriyayuktam nirnayautam yada nripaA | 
 Fradadyaj jayine lekhyam jayapatram tad ucyate 1 1 
 
 C. Purvottarakriyayuktam iti vrittantopalaxanartham | yata aha sa eva | 
 
 Yad vrittam vyaTahare tu purvapaxottaradikam | 
 KriySvadharanopetam jayapatre 'khilam likhet || 
 
 Vyaso 'pi | 
 
 Purvottarakriyapadam pramanam tatparixanam | 
 Nigadam smritivakyam ca yathasabhyam vinifcitam 1 
 Etat sarvam samasena jayapatre 'bhilekhayet |1 iti | 
 
 C. 'Kriyapadam' kriyabhimar9anapadam pratyakalitapadam iti yavat | 'nigada^' 
 saxivacanam | 'yathasabhyam' sabhanatikramena | 'samasena' sawxepena | Katyayano 
 'pi I 
 
 ArthipratyartHvakyani pratijna saxivak tatha | 
 Nirnaya9 ca yatha tasya yatha ca 'vadhritam svayam | 
 Etad yathaxaram lekhye yathapurvam nive9ayet |1 iti | 
 
 C. 'Yathapurvam' ity etat tena prapancitam | 
 
 Abhiyoktrabhiyuktanam vacanam pran vivejayet | 
 Sabhyanam pradvivakasya kulanam va tata^ param | 
 Niycayam smritifastrasya matam tatrai 'va lekhayet | ] iti | 
 
 C. 'Matam' nripadinam iti ^eshaA | tal lekhanazw tu svahastena parahastato mata- 
 lekhanasya yatha ca 'vadhritaw? 'svayam' ity anena purvam eva vihitatvat j ata evo 
 'ktaw tenai 'va |1 
 
 Siddhena 'rthena samyojyo vadi satkarapiirvakam | 
 Lekhyam svahastasamy uktam tasmai dadyat tu parthiva^ { | 
 Sabhasada9 ca ye tatra smritiyastravidaA stMta^ | 
 Yathalekhyam vidhau tadvat svahastam tatra dapayet {| iti || 
 
 C. Raja tan sabhyan janapadalekhyavaj jayapatre svahasta^^ dapayed ity arthaA | 
 Vriddhavasishtho 'pi | 
 
 Fradvivakadihastankam mudritam rajamudraya | 
 Siddhe 'rthe vadine dadyaj jayine jayapatrakam {| 
 
 C. Evam uktaw jayapatram pa^catkaram'' ity aha KatyayanaA ] 
 
 1) «. I. evam jayapatram paycatkarakhyam. 
 
 13* 
 
— 100 — 
 
 Anena vidhina lekhyam paycatkaram vidur budhaA [ iti | 
 
 C. Ayaw ca pa9catkaro nirnayavi9esha eva na sarvatre 'ty aha sa eva | 
 
 Nirasta tu kriya yatra pramanenai 'va vadina | 
 Paycatkaro bhavet tatra na sarvasu vidhiyate || 
 
 C. Kriyasadhyam pramanenai 've 'ti va.da.mq catushpadvyavahara eva pa9catkaro na 
 dvipadvyavahara iti kathayati | 
 
 Spashtlkritaw cai 'tad Brihaspatina] 
 
 I Sadhayet ' ) sadhyam artham tu catushpadanvitam jaye | 
 
 Rajamudranvitam cai 'va jayapatrikam ishyate || iti || 
 
 C. Dvipadvyavahare tu bhashottaranvitaw? jayapatram asyai 'va pa9catkarasyai 'va 
 tatra pratishedat^^ | anyad api jayapatraw tenai 'vo 'ktam | 
 
 Anyapadadihinebhya itaresham pradiyate | 
 Vritanuvadasamsiddham tac ca syaj jayapatrakam || 
 
 C. 'Itaresham' hinavadinam ity artha^ | ajnaprajnapanapatre dve Vasishthena 
 dar9ite | 
 
 SSmanteshv atha bhrityeshu rashtrapaladikeshu va | 
 Karyam adiyyate yena tad ajiiapatram ucyate {| 
 Ritvikpurohitacaryamanyeshv abhyarhiteshu pa | 
 Karyam nivedyate yena patram prajuapanaya tat || iti || 
 
 Brihaspatir anyad api rajakiyam prasadalekhyakhyam'* aha | 
 
 Dejadikam yatra raja likhitena prayacchati | 
 Sevafauryadina tushtaA prasadalikhitam hi tat || iti | 
 
 C. Ato rajakiyam paricavidhaw caturvidham iti anasthayo 'ktam*' iti mantavyam | 
 Janapadam punar Vyasena nirupitam | 
 
 ' Likhej janapadam lekhyam prasiddhasthanalekhakaA | 
 
 Rajavamf akramayutam varshamasardkavasarai/i 1 1 
 
 C. 'Yutara' ity anushajyate | 'vasaram^'' dinam | anyad api lekhayitavyam ity aha 
 sa eva ) 
 
 PitripQrvanamajatidhanikarnikayor likhet | 
 
 Dravyabhedam pramanam ca vriddhim co 'bhayasammatam || 
 
 C. Ubhayasa»«matir dravyader api vi9eshanam ( ata eva Yajiiavalkya>^ | 
 
 Yah kaycid artho nishnataA svarucya tu parasparam | 
 Lekhyam tu saximat karyam tasmin dhanikapurvakam {| 
 
 1) u. Z. sadhayan. 
 
 2) v. I. 'va 'sadanuvadakatvena tatra prati° 
 
 3) V. I. "akhyam patram. 
 ■1) u. I. anSdaroktam. 
 
 5) V. I. vasaraA. 
 
— 101 — 
 
 C. 'Dhanikapurvakaw' dhanikanamaleklianapurvam | 'saximat' nishnatarthajnatribhu- 
 tamadhyasthajananamanvitam | tatha kaladhanikarnikasaxyadilekhanlyasya yavata vi- 
 ^eshanena nishthatvasiddhis tavadvi9eshananvita«« lekhya/w karyam ity aha sa eva ( 
 
 SamamasatadardhaliamamajatisvagotrakaiA | 
 SabrahmacarikatmiyapitrinanQadicihiiitam 1 1 
 
 C. 'Sabrahmacarikam' bahvrica^ katha ityadi 9akhaprayuktaOT gunanama | 'atmiya- 
 pitrinama' dhanikasaxinam api pitrinama | 'adi'-9abdena de9acaravaptavaradi grihyate | 
 ata eva VyasaA | 
 
 Defasthitya kriyadhanapratigrahavidhnitam || iti | 
 
 C. 'De9asthitya' kriyade9acaranusarena karanam | 'adhanam' adhiA | Narad o 'pi | 
 
 Lekhyam ca saximat kSryam aviluptakramaxaraiQi) | 
 Dejacarasthitiyutam^J samagram sarvavastushu || 
 
 Vasishtho 'pi | 
 
 Kalam .nive9ya rajanam sthanam nivasitamS) tatha | 
 Dayakam grahakam cai 'va pitrinamna ca samyutam || 
 Jatim svagotram jakham ca dravyam adhiOT sasankhyakam | 
 Vriddhim grahakahastam ca viditarthau ca saxinau {| iti i| 
 
 Grahakahastanive9anaprakaram*^ aha Yajnavalkya^ | 
 
 Samapte 'rtha ri^i nama svah4stena niveyayet | 
 Matam me 'mukaputrasya yad atro 'pari lekhitam {| 
 
 C. 'Upari' iti vadan pQrvalikhitaxarasa»2Sthanad adhastat svahastaxarasawsthanam 
 iti dar9ayati | 'rini' iti saxinam api pradar9anartham | tatha ca sa eva | 
 
 Saxinaj ca svahastena pitrinamakapurvakam | 
 Atra 'ham amuka^ saxi likheyur iti te sama^ 1| 
 
 C. Ye 'tra^^ lekhye likhitaA saxinas te 'py amukaputro 'muko 'tra 'rthe saxI 'ti pra- 
 tyeka«» likheyuA | te ca*' dvitvadisamasankhyaya vi9ishta bhaveyu^ [ na tritvadivisha- 
 masankhyaye 'ty arthaA | 'saxina^' iti bahuvacana/« gurutarakaryalekhyavishayam | 
 
 Uttamarnadhamarnau ca saxinau lekhakas tatha | 
 Samavayena cai 'tesham lekhyam kurvita na 'nyatha || iti | 
 
 C. Harltena lekhyamatre 'saxinau' ity uktatvad na tritvadivishamasankhyaye 'ty 
 artha^ | kenacid akarapra9leshakalpanaya saxisankhyaniyamo vaiparityena varnitaA | sa 
 yasmin de9e yathai 'va 'caras tatrai 'va grahyaA na 'nyatra 'svarasarthatvat ] evaw ca 
 
 1) ». Z. aviluptakriyanvitam. 
 
 2) V. I. kramaxaram deyacara. 
 
 3) V. I. nivasanam. 
 *) V. 1. °nlvecapra° 
 5) V. I. tatra. 
 
 •5) V. I. te 'pi. 
 
— 102 — 
 
 'nyakritalekhyasyo 'ttamarnadhamarnasaxidvayalekhakarupa * ^pancapurusharudhatvat 
 pancarudhaw patram iti loke vyavaharaA | saxisankhyadhikatve ca 'yawz^^ vyavaharo 
 gauna iti mantavyam 1 lekhyamatraw prakritya Vyasena 'py uktam | 
 
 K,inihastam namayutam saxibhyam pitripurvakam | iti | 
 
 C. Ato dviprabhritibhi^ samair bhavitavyam iti niyamo de9acaravirodhanusandheyaA'^ | 
 yada tu lipyanabhijiiaA saxl rini va*' tada Narada aha | 
 
 Alipijria rini ya^ syal lekhayet svamatamS) tu sa.h | 
 Saxi va saxina 'nyena sarvasaxisamipata^ || 
 Vijatiyalipijno 'pi svayam eva likhel lipim^) | 
 Sarvajanapadan varnan lekhye tu viniveyayet || 
 
 Iti Katyayanasmaranac ca | saxisvahastalekhananantaraOT YajnavalkyaA 
 Vyaso 'pi | 
 
 Ubhayabhyarthitenai 'vam maya hy amukasiinuna | 
 Likhitam hy amukene 'ti lekhako 'nte tato likhet {| 
 
 Mayo 'bhayabhyarthitena 'mukena'') 'mukasununS | 
 Svahastayuktam svam nama lekhakas tv antato likliet | 
 EvamS) janapade lekhye vyasena 'bhihito vidhiA || iti | 
 
 C. Antato lekhyasye 'ti 9eshaA | evam uktalekhyam ashtavidham ity aha sa eva | 
 
 Cirakam ca svahastam ca tatho 'pagatasarijnitam | 
 Adhipatram caturtham ca pancamam krayapatrakam |{ 
 Shashtham tu sthitipatrakhyam saptamam sandhipatrakam | 
 Vi9uddhipatrakam cai 'vam ashtadha laukikam smritam || iti |{ 
 
 C. Na 'tra sankhya vivaxita vibhagapatrader api laukikatvat | tatra 'cirakasya' laxa- 
 nam aha SaiigrahakaraA | 
 
 Cirakam nama likhitam puranai/% pauralekhakaift I 
 Arthipratyarthinirdishtair yathasambhavasamskritaiA^) || 
 SvakiyaiA pitrinamadyair arthipratyarthisaxinam | 
 Pratinamabhir akrantam arthisaxisvahastavat | 
 Spashtavagatasamyuktam yathasmrityuktalaxanam || iti \\ 
 
 C. 'Sawstutai^' pra^astair ity arthaA | Katyayanas tu svahastam aha | 
 
 Grahakena svahastena likhitam saxivarjitam | 
 Svahastalekhyam vijrieyam pramanam tat smritam budhaiA |{ 
 
 1) «. I. "m riipa. 
 
 2) V. I. "sankhyadhikye tv ayam. 
 ^J V. I. "virodhena 'nusandheyaA. 
 
 4) V. I. lipyanabhijria/j saxina rini ca. 
 6) V. I. sammatam. 
 6) V. I. lipljriatvat. 
 ') V. I. yuktena. 
 
 8) V. I. esha. 
 
 9) V. I. samstutai7j. 
 
— 103 — 
 
 C. Evam eva dayakena likhitaz« grahakena 'bhyupagatazw lekhyam upagatakhyaiw 
 vijneyam || adhipatram aha Narada/i | 
 
 ' Adhim kritva tu yo dravyam prayunkte svadhanam dhani | 
 
 Yat tatra kriyate lekhyam adhipatram tad ucyate || 
 
 Anvadhilekhye vl^esham aha PrajapatiA | 
 
 Dhani dhanena tenai 'va param adhim nayed yadi | 
 Smritva tad adhilikhitam purvam ca 'sya samarpayet || 
 
 Krayaptram Pitanjaheno 'ktam | , 
 
 Krite krayaprakayartham dravye yat kriyate kvacit | 
 Vikretrauumatam kretra jrieyam tat krayapatrakam || 
 
 Sthitipatradini punaA Katyayaneno 'ktani | 
 
 Caturvidyapura^reniganapauradikasthitiA I 
 
 Tatsiddhyartham tu yal lekhyam tad bhavet sthitipatrakam 1| 1) 
 
 Uttameshu samasteshv abhijape samagate 1 
 
 Vrittanuvade lekhyam yat taj jneyam sandhipatrakam |{ 
 
 Abhiyape samuttirne prayafcitte krite janaiA | 
 
 Viyuddhipatrakam jneyam tebhyaft saxisamanvitam || iti |{ 
 
 Brihaspatir api lekhyavibhagara aha | 
 
 Bhagadanakriyadhanam samvidanam sthiradibhi^ | 
 Saptadha laukikam lekhyam trividham rajayasauam |{ 
 
 C. Atra 'pi na sankhya vivaxita | adhikanam api lekhyanam etebhyo dar9ltatvat | 
 ata eva 'tra 'digrahanaw kritam | anyatha ganitair eva saptavidhatvaslddher adigrahanam 
 aparthaw^^ syat | tenai 'va taj jnayate lekhyasankhya na 'vadharanarthe 'ti | ato vlvidha- 
 sahkhyavadvacananam avirodha^'' | bhagalekhyadika»^ svayam eva vyacashte | 
 
 Bhratara^ samvibhakta ye svarucya tu parasparain | 
 Vibhagapatram kurvanti bhagalekhyam tad ucyate || 
 Bhumim dattva tu yat patram kuryac candrarkakalikam | 
 Anacchedyam anaharyam danalekhyam tu tad viduA || 
 Grihaxetradikam kritva tulyamiilyaxaranvitam 1 
 Patram karayate yat tu karyalekhyam tad ucyate {| 
 Jangamam sthavaram bandham dattva lekhyam karoti yat*) | 
 Gopyabhogyakriy ay uktam adhilekhyam tad ucyate 1 1 
 Gramo deyay ca yat kuryan matam lekhyam^) parasparam | 
 Rajavirodhi dharmSrtham samvitpatram vadanti tat { | 
 VastrannahinaA kantare likhitam kurute tu yat 6) | 
 
 ') ». I. sthitipatram tad ucyate. 
 ^) V. I. anartham. 
 
 ^) V. I. ato na vividha" virodha^. 
 
 *) V. I. yaft. 
 
 5) V. I. matalekhyam. 
 
 6) ». I. yah. 
 
— 104 — 
 
 Karmani te karishyami dasapatram tad ucyate || 
 Dhanam -vriddhya gtihitvS svayam kurySc ca karayet | 
 Uddharapatram tat proktam rinalekhyam manishibhiA || 
 
 Any ad api laukikaw lekhyam aha Katyayana^ | 
 
 Simavivade nirnite simapatram vidhiyate [| iti {| 
 
 Yajnavalkyo 'pi | 
 
 Dattva 'rnam patayel lekhyam 9uddhyai 'va 'nyat tu karayet || iti 1| 
 
 Lekhyaprayojanam aha Marici^ | 
 
 Sthavare vikrayadhaue vibhage dana eva ca | 
 Likhitena 'pnuyat siddhim avisaTOvadam eva ca'J || 
 
 C. 'Adhanam' adhi^ | adya9 ca9abda rinadinishnatarthasahgrahartha/i | avisaiwvadaA 
 kalantare 'pi nishnatarthasya 'nanyathabhava^ | evaw ca sthavaradav avisawzvadena 
 siddhim alocya rajavaOT9avarshadilekhaniyanam^' avapodvapau karyau tesham drishta- 
 rthatvat | ato na danadilekhye dhanikarnikadi lekhanlyara | na 'pi rinadanadilekhye prati- 
 grahadikam | evam anyatra 'pi lekhye lekhamyasamuhaniyaw drishtaprayojanatval lekhy- 
 asya | ata eva 'kritaprayojanasya lekhyasya karyaxamatvena lekhyantaram utpadyam | 
 ata eva 'ha YajiiavalkyaA | 
 
 Defantarasthe durlektyo nasttoamrishte hrite tatha | 
 Bhinne dagdhe tatha chinne lekhyam anyat tu karayet 1| 
 
 C. 'De9antarasthe' sarvadha 'netum a9akyasthanasthe | 'durlekhye' duravabodhaxare [ 
 'bhinne' dvidha jate | 'chinne' 9irpe | Katyayano 'pi | 
 
 Malair yad bheditam dagdham chidritam vitam eva va | 
 Tad anyat karayel lekhyam svedeno 'Uikhitam tatha | \ 
 
 C. 'Vitam' vigatam | 'uUikhitam' unmrishtam ] yat punar Naradeno 'ktam | 
 
 Lekhye defSntaranyaste ylrne durlikhite hrite 3) ] 
 Satas tatkalakaranam asato drashtridarfanam ll iti | 
 
 C. Tat tathai 'va dhanadanodyatarnikavishayam | tatra lekhyantarakarane prayojana- 
 bhavatj 'kalakaranam' anayanartha»? tasya patrasya 'nayanayogyakalakalpanam | 'drashtri- 
 dar9anam' alabhyapatrarthajnatrijnapanaOT dhanapratidane karyam ity arthaA | etac ca 
 patrapatanasambhave 'pi saxina?;^ saxitvanivrittaye karyam | pratipadanapraka9anartha»i 
 ca pratidattapatra?« grahyaw | kalantare tu dhane deye lekhyantara»« karyam eva | ata 
 evo 'kta,m tena 'pi | 
 
 Chinnabhinnahritonmrishtadagdhadurlikhiteshu ca | 
 
 Kartavyam anyal lekhyam syad esha lekhyavidhiA smritaA || iti || 
 
 ') V. I. sa. 
 
 2) V. I. " lekhaniyataya. 
 
 i) V. I. tatha. 
 
— 105 — 
 
 Iti lekhyanirupanam^'lll 
 
 These two passages give all the real information respecting royal grants and docu- 
 ments transferring property, that I have been able to find in Sanskrit treatises belonging 
 to the Dharma9astra. The Madhaviya treatise on vyavahara merely copies the Smriti- 
 candrika, and the Sarasvativilasa contains nothing worth quoting here^K Of the numerous 
 kinds of deed, described in the passage I have given from the Smriticandrika, we have, 
 apparently, only royal grants, private transfers of land, and inscriptions recording 
 endowments, which are of any considerable antiquity and, therefore, of interest. Of all 
 these the royal grants are the most important. 
 
 Public documents of this description being generally in Sanskrit, and being, always, 
 even if in a vernacular language, intelligible to a few persons only, the growth of a 
 kind of symbolical language which served at once to explain the object of the grant, 
 and also to ornament it, is easily intelligible. This symbolism is in accordance with 
 the practice of Sanskrit law^\ and is obviously necessary in conditions of society such 
 as have always existed in India, where the literary and intelligent classes, have been, 
 and are still, separated by almost insurmountable barriers from the lower ignorant 
 masses. But the practice grew up in historical times, and seems to have been more 
 developed in S. India than elsewhere''^ The utility of this hieroglyphic or symbolical 
 language will be evident, if it be kept in mind that the stone stelae on which grants 
 were written were usually put in conspicuous public places, such as under the sacred 
 figtree which forms the place of assembly in a village, or by the boundary of fields, 
 or inside a temple enclosure. 
 
 The earliest symbol found on grants by Indian kings is the sacred royal emblem 
 (dhvaja), a mark of authenticity, and which, by its sacred character, would preserve the 
 document from destruction. This mark is generally a representation of the animal, a 
 figure which formed the standard of the donor; thus the use of 'totems' was undoubtedly 
 common in very early times in India. The ones used by the earliest S. Indian dy- 
 
 ') This passage is from the Tanjore MSB. Nos. 77, 9.253 and 9.254. The last was scarcely of any use. I have not 
 given all the vv. II., nor have I noticed the numerous errors of the MSS. 
 
 2) The corresponding section in the Vyavaharamayiikha (i6th cent.) is given in Stokes's "Hindu Lawbooks", pp. 26-30, 
 
 3) For example: a) A co-parcener who gives up his share is presented with a betel-leaf or some worthless object (Yajii. 
 ii., 118), and his partition is thus effected. i) Land is conveyed by a bit of gold and by pouring out water ('sahiranya- 
 payodharapurvaka', Colebrooke's "Essays" ii., p. 265). c) Its possession is established by even a partial enjoyment of 
 produce (Mit. ii., 27). d) When a girl is married a bit of gold is given with her. e) A son is given (in adoption) with 
 water (Manu, ix., 168). f) So also the remarkable custom of the widow or heir taking a bit of gold etc. from the hand of 
 the deceased, and thus assuming his place, g) Again, the breaking of a jar of water (ghatasphotana) on expelling a person 
 from caste is a similar practice. Many other instances might be mentioned. 
 
 *) It was, apparently, unknown in Java. 
 
 14 
 
— 106 — 
 
 nasties appear to be such as primitive tribes would select in such situations as these 
 kingdoms occupied, viz., the inland mountain districts— elephant, the plains— tiger, and 
 the sea-coast — fish; but it is useless to speculate on matters like these respecting which 
 we can never get any real information. Combined with the distinctive emblem of the 
 sovereign, other insignia of royalty such as the camari'^ and goad (ahku9a) are found. 
 
 To the royal emblem was soon added a representation of the moon, or sun and 
 moon. This is taken from the usual phrase in grants in India — "as long as the sun 
 and moon" or "moon and stars endure" — which is intended to express perpetuity. 
 
 Up to the 14th century the symbolical part of grants by kings of S. India does not 
 go beyond what has just been described; but under the Vijayanagara kings religious 
 emblems became common. Such consist of a representation of the deity worship- 
 ped, and for whom the grant is made, often with a worshipper adoring; in the 17th 
 century, this part becomes a very considerable picture^', and is often executed with 
 skill. The practice was common both to Hindus and to Jains. 
 
 THE EMBLEM OR SEAL. 
 
 I shall here give the information that I have been able to gather on this subject; 
 unfortunately, authentic specimens of seals are very uncommon, and it is impossible to 
 give anything like a series. The practice of using seals seems also of comparatively 
 recent date; they are not a legal requisite to grants according to the earliest law-books, 
 and are, apparently, first mentioned in the Yajnavalkyasmriti, though in use from at 
 least the 4th century A. D. as examples in existence prove. 
 
 a. Cera. Two or three examples occur, and in all these is simply the figure of 
 an elephant. 
 
 6. Fallava. One example occurs^'; it represents a tiger^^ 
 
 c. CaluTeya. Of the Kalyana branch I am not able to give an example. Of the 
 Eastern (Kaliiiga) branch I have found five: two of the seventh, one of the loth and 
 two of the Cola successors of the Calukyas, of the 1 2th century. These are remarkable 
 in having a device like those of the Valabhi dynasty of Gujarat^'. That of the earlier 
 
 1) The yak's tail used to drive away flies. , 
 
 2) See, e.g., Indian Antiquary, vi., p. 138. 
 
 3) Indian Antiquary, v., plate opposite p. 50. 
 
 *) At first sight one would take this to be the figure of a dog or jackal, but a Cola inscription of the nth century at 
 TiruvidaimaruSiir (in the Tanjore district) mentions the 'tiger-banner of Venijai', and there can be little doubt that the Palla- 
 vas belonged to this dynasty. In the nth century the S. Pallavas (feudatories of the Colas) used a figure of a reclining 
 cow (?). 
 
 5) Indian Antiquary, i., plates opposite p. 16. This similarity is another proof that South-Indian civilization came 
 from W. India, as is suggested by the origin of the S. Indian alphabets. (See p. 14 above). 
 
Fijim. 
 
 S E AL S. 
 
 i:. CaJxckya., 3^5 ^D 
 
 TcJZavcL, c. 5^Ceni/. E. Caluukyeo, 7^ cenb.A.T). 
 
 Jf. OeHa ua^AJa. 
 
 Tandy cu, c. 1600. 
 
 'Viiava;naQccrei,,Mrishn(vrcwa,, 
 
 Jia.,1601 AJ). 
 
 Cereu. 
 
 arco, 76 cefct. 
 
— 107 — 
 
 Kalinga Calukyas, grivishamasiddhi(A) is very appropriate; later, we find the boastful 
 device— Tribhuvananku9a(/^). Beginning with the loth century, the characteristic mark 
 of the Calukyas, the boar is used; this seems to have been used by both dynasties, and 
 is clearly referred to by the author of the Mitaxara''. A branch of the Calukyas 
 that reigned near Goa appears to have used a seal with the 'figure of a Jain (?) ascetic. 
 
 d. Vijayanagara. The kings of this dynasty adopted the boar of the Calukyas, 
 but their seals are without a motto. There is some reason to think that they also used 
 the figure of a peacock, but I have not seen an example as yet^'. Krishnaraya adopted 
 a new form of seal on which Krishna is represented playing on a flute and dancing, 
 with a worshipper on either side, underneath is a small figure of a boar. 
 
 e. The Nayaks that ruled the old Vehgi country and the north of the Nellore 
 district in the 1 5th century, used a seal with the figure of a recumbent bull or cow. 
 
 /. The Cola banner had a tiger on it, which the kings of this dynasty must have 
 taken from the Pallavas. 
 
 g. The PTmdya banner had a fish on it. 
 
 h. Tlie Travancore sign is a conch shell. 
 
 i. The Kadamha seal is mentioned by Mr. Fleet^' as having a representation on 
 it of an animal like a dog. This is, perhaps, intended for a lion or tiger. He also 
 mentions a recumbent deer or cow as used. 
 
 Of the original (Northern) Vehgi and many other dynasties, I have not been able 
 to find seals. 
 
 These seals are cast on the ring by which the plates are held together, and which 
 thus has the form of a huge signet ring; but owing to the way in which this is done, 
 the metal is always spongy, and, thus, is very liable to decay. It seems that the ends of 
 the ring connecting the plates were riveted, and the seal cast over this, so that no 
 change could be made. The plates of the grants found in Java were not connected in 
 this way, but each one (if there were several) was separate. 
 
 As far as I have been able to observe, the seals of royal grants used in S. India 
 have changed as follows: 
 
 1) See above p. 96, line 8. The Garuda seal was used by Bhoja and the kings of Dhar. See Indian Antiquary, vi., 
 pp. 48 ffg. The boar alludes to the Varahavatara and its object. 
 
 2,' Couto ("Asia", Dec. vii., 10, 5. f. 222 of the original edition of 1616) mentions a grant which the Portuguese 
 believed to be an endowment of the shrine of Saint Thomas, and to date from soon after his time. The account given of 
 the contents, however, clearly shows that it was a Vijayanagara grant of 9. 1259=1337 A. D. Couto describes the plates as 
 bearing the king's arras— a peacock. Lucena ("Vida do. p. F. Xavier " f. 173) gives much the same account (1600). 
 
 3) Indian Antiquary, vi., p. 23 etc. 
 
 14* 
 
— 108 — 
 
 a. From the earliest times up to the tenth century they were small and consisted of 
 little beyond a figure or a motto. 
 
 b. From the tenth to the fourteenth century they were much larger, and in addition 
 to a motto, have a number of emblems. About this time one first finds seals engraved 
 on the actual plates of the deed. 
 
 c. From the fourteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century they are again 
 smaller, but have no motto, and fewer emblems. 
 
 d. From the middle of the seventeenth century down to the present, seals contain, 
 almost exclusively, titles in writing, and, very rarely, an emblem. 
 
 Seals do not appear to have been used in Java at all. 
 
 It is necessary to remark that many of the Vijayanagara seals are really pictures of 
 the king's standard. It is almost certain that each of the later Calukya-Cola kings, as 
 also those of Vijayanagara, adopted a standard somewhat different to that used by his 
 immediate predecessor; the series of seals in existence is not sufficient, however, to 
 enable me to assert this as a positive fact. 
 
 In inscriptions on copper plates of the i yth century and later, it is not uncommon 
 to find the seal engraved on the vacant space of the first plate. 
 
 THE FORM OR WORDING OF ROYAL GRANTS. 
 
 Royal grants are of two kinds: i.) those made by the king himself; and ii.) those 
 made by his minister (Sandhivigrahadhikarin) for him. The first are the most 
 important. 
 
 I. Direct Grants by the King. 
 
 These constitute by far the largest number of the documents in existence, and are, in 
 every way, the most important. They always contain several clauses which are well 
 described in the Indian law-books, and are legally necessary to their validity; these are: 
 a) the donor's genealogy; b) the description of the nature of the grant, the people or 
 person on whom it is conferred, the objects for which it is made, and its conditions 
 and date; c) imprecations on violators of the grant; d) attestations of witnesses where 
 the grant is not autograph, but rarely. There is some difference in the forms of these 
 clauses, but each dynasty preserved much the same forms. 
 
— 109 — 
 
 a) The king's genealogy. 
 
 The earlier the date of the document the more simple is this part. In the very early- 
 grant of Vijayanandivarma it nearly complies with the direction of the Sanskrit lawyers, 
 in giving the names of three generations. 
 
 The earliest Eastern Calukya grant is also comparatively simple in this respect''; 
 the earhest Western Calukya grants are much more prolix. Towards the end of the 
 seventh century A. D. the Eastern Calukya grants assume, in the genealogies, a style 
 that is apparently peculiar to them — a simple enumeration of the succession of the kings 
 with the years they reigned, and recite a few historical facts*^ Those of the Western 
 Calukyas are far more bombastic, and mention only the king's parentage ^\ The pecu- 
 liarity of these Eastern Calukya grants is their historical character. The style of the 
 genealogies remains almost the same for a long series of years. Thus from 700 A. D. down 
 to the grants of the earlier Cola kings or about 1023 A. D. there is little change intro- 
 duced. In the grants of the Western Calukyas the same remark holds good of the old 
 kingdom; under the revival, a new style prevailed, and with predominant Brahmanical 
 influence, long mythical genealogies came into use which were intended to connect the 
 Dravidian princes of S. India with the two great mythical races of the North, and the 
 kings of Oude. An inscription of the i ith century of a Cola prince (already referred 
 to on p. 21, n. as E.) begins with Hari, Brahma, Atri, Soma etc.; 60 cakravartins who 
 reigned at Ayodhya in uninterrupted succession, Vijayaditya of' the Soma race, and 
 then Vishnuvardhana, Vijayaditya- Vishnuvardhana, Pulake9i and so on to the Eastern 
 ^alukyas. It is needless to remark that the Calukyas were originally Jains and could 
 never have claimed such a descent. 
 
 The Vijayanagara kings, even at their best period, did still worse. In their grants 
 we also find a long and purely fictitious genealogy, for it is certain that they were 
 men of low caste; but in addition to this, they indulge in the most extravagant self- 
 laudation which is supremely absurd, if compared with the reality of their existence so 
 difficult often to maintain at all. 
 
 In India, as elsewhere, the mother of imagination is ignorance, as Profr. Blackie truly 
 says. This characteristic Indian weakness was soon detected by the excellent Albirunl 
 (nth cent.). He says (Reinaud, "Fragments" pp. 148-9): "Les Indiens attachent peu 
 d'importance a I'ordre des faits; ils negligent de r^diger la chronique des rfegnes de leurs 
 
 1) PI. xxvii. 
 
 2) For an example, see pi. xxviii. 
 
 3) See pi. XXV. 
 
— 110 — 
 
 rois; quand ils sont embarrasses, ilsparlent au hasard"^ — a remark just as true now as it 
 was more than eight hundred years ago! Again elsewhere (v. Reinaud, "Memoire"p. 281): 
 "Les Indiens ont toujours profess^ une opinion exag^rde d'eux et de tout ce qui les touche, 
 de leur origine, de la puissance de leurs rois, de la prddminence de leur religion et de la 
 superiority de leurs lumieres. lis font mystere de leur savoir entre eux; a plus forte 
 raison ils en font mystere pour les Strangers; a leurs yeux, il n'y a pas d'autre terre que 
 rinde, il n'y a pas d'autre nation que les Indiens." This remark might also be the 
 result of observation at the present day. 
 
 The grants of the Cera dynasty that are in existence agree in the style of the ge- 
 nealogical part very nearly with those of the Calukyas; there is an enumeration of the 
 ancestors of the donor with comparatively little exaggeration''. 
 
 The Vijayanagara style is purely conventional bombast, and in bad verse for the 
 most part. The succession of kings is carelessly given, and often sacrificed to the 
 exigencies of metre. Fictitious conquests are mentioned in detail, and the king's cha- 
 racter and actions are made to correspond exactly with the ideal of a Hindu sovereign 
 according to the Alankara9astra and astrological imaginations^^ This style continues 
 much the same from the 14th century down to the end of the Vijayanagara kingdom 
 about 1 600 A. D.; the latest grants are, however, far the worst. In all of them the king's 
 panegyric is extravagant, . and spun out with childish conceits''. In the later Vijaya- 
 nagara grants these are stereotyped, and there is rarely any difference in this part. 
 
 The old South-Indian dynasties (Cola and Pandya) differ from those already mention- 
 ed in this part of the grants, though, as nearly all the existing Tamil grants are on stone, 
 and therefore very brief; the omission of a genealogy is of not much significance. In 
 most of these grants the king's name only is mentioned, very rarely that of his father 
 or other ancestors, and the usual eulogies are generally confined to often questionable 
 statements of conquests and victories. 
 
 At first sight even, it is easy to account for these genealogical fictions. In India, as 
 in other countries, there arose at a certain stage of civilization the notion that only 
 certain persons could be legitimate kings. In the law-books we find that a king should 
 be a Xattriya; but with the Brahmanical revival in the early centuries A. D., only 
 kings sprung from the Solar and Lunar races satisfied the popular notions of a legiti- 
 mate prince. The influence of the epics is to be traced plainly in this. Again, the 
 
 1) See, e.g., the Mercara and Nagaraahgala grants. 
 
 2) Cfr. the descriptions of Rama, Buddha etc. 
 
 3) See the requisites of an epic poem according to the Tamils in Beschi's "Clavis" pp. 109-110 (founded on Dandin's 
 Kavyadarya). In this way the later Indian poetry became merely mechanical composition. 
 
— Ill — 
 
 conventional idea of a Hindu king rendered necessary the ascription of all kinds of 
 fictitious conquests and qualities''. 
 
 In the development of this most tedious pedantry a great similarity with the gradual 
 change of style in the introductory phrases of literary works may be detected. The 
 earlier works are free from the 'mangala9loka' and the like which is so absurdly cons- 
 picuous in most Sanskrit books, ^ankaracarya (about 700 A. D.) is moderate in this 
 respect; but in later times it is impossible to imagine worse taste and greater pedantry 
 than is to be found in the preliminary verses which are never wanting in later Sanskrit 
 books, and which the inscriptions closely follow in style. 
 
 The above will show that it is impossible to use the later inscriptions for genealogical 
 purposes without the greatest care; the earlier are, fortunately, more trustworthy in 
 this respect. There can be no doubt that the Jains paid more attention to history than 
 the Brahmans. 
 
 This part of inscriptions will often show the religion of the reigning king, and may 
 thus furnish important historical facts; but it must be remembered that Indian kings 
 have always been very lax in religious matters, and frequently changed their faith, s.o far 
 as one can see, merely from caprice. The vagaries of a late S. Indian potentate in 
 this way will be within the memory of many. As, again, it never entered into the mind 
 of a Hindu to suppose that any fictitious being worshipped as a god did not exist 
 liberality to all persuasions was possible, and did really exist in India with certain re- 
 strictions. Vira Cola was, e. g., a ^aiva in faith, but he nevertheless patronised a Bud- 
 dhist. Even at the present day, Hindu bigotry is only aroused by encroachments on 
 what particular sects consider their exclusive rights as regards privileges and proces- 
 sions, or by the attempt of a rival sect to "take the shine out of" the established temple 
 of the place by erecting a more substantial and higher temple near it. This is the real 
 reason why {e. g.) Brahmans so often object to the erection of substantial Christian 
 churches in country villages, though they have, perhaps for centuries, tolerated a humbler 
 kind of edifice used for the same purpose. 
 
 b) Description of the Cfrant, its Conditions, Date, etc. 
 
 After the genealogical part, that of most importance is the description of the grant 
 made and its conditions, as this part often contains information as to tenures and local 
 administration, and shows how persistently the tenures varied in the different portions 
 
 1) See, e. g., the Mercara and Nagamangala grants. 
 
— 112 — 
 
 of South-India". This difference of tenures is often alone sufficient to show from what 
 part of S. India a document of this kind comes, and also to detect forgeries; for, since the 
 Muhammadan conquest of the South, many of the old terms have fallen into disuse, or 
 even foreign words have taken their place. Thus the old Tamil 'kaniyatsi' is now 
 called 'mirasi' {i. e. miras, an Arabic-Persian word = heritage), and the real name is little 
 known; but this is only since about i5oo A.D., except, perhaps, in the Madura district. 
 For this reason alone, it would be safe to condemn many grants existing in the Madras, 
 Arcot and.Cuddapah provinces which purport to have been executed in the 12th or 
 1 3th century, even were the style of writing not conclusive against them. 
 
 As regards royal grants it is obvious that, at most, they could convey no more than 
 the kings who made them were entitled to. In India, kings appear to have often acted 
 illegally, but it is remarkable that they do not appear to have encroached on the rights 
 of the people^^ the chief instances of wrong-doing by the earlier kings seem to have con- 
 sisted in illegal resumption of grants, and the existing grants always refer to this sin 
 in such a way that it must have been very common, like resumption of endowments in 
 Europe. 
 
 Now, the king's dues were one-sixth of all produce according to Sanskrit law^'. 
 This, then, was, originally, the utmost limit of a grant, and as village communities always 
 existed from the earliest times*' and in all parts of India, the village was commonly 
 taken as the administrative unit, and a grant of the royal dues from a village to 
 one or more persons became the commonest form of grant; if personal privileges 
 or dignities of any kind were granted, which was very rarely done''^ it was always as 
 attached to rights over territory; the two were inseparable. Such privileges or 
 dignities consisted in the faculty of using to a greater or less extent the ensigns of 
 royalty — umbrellas, palankins or particular kinds of musical instruments. A nobility, 
 resembling that of the feudal times of- Europe and with military service to render, seems 
 to have sprung up in India after the Muhammadan invasion, and is not to be traced in 
 the earliest S. Indian grants. 
 
 11 As indicated by F. W. Ellis. 
 
 2) I do not refer to instances of capricious barbarity or cruelty which were common enough. 
 
 8) Cfr. the term 'shashthamyavritti' applied to Hindu kings in Sanskrit literature. In S. India it seems, however to 
 have been often a half. 
 
 i) Strabo mentions this fact, which is to be inferred (from Manu viii., 237, 245, and similar passage's) rather than con- 
 clusively stated, but the terms of existing grants leave no doubt of it, and De Laveleye has accepted it as established: "De la 
 propri6t6 at de ses formes primitives," 2d. ed. pp. 66-69. 
 
 5) The grant to the Cochin Israelites {Madras Journal, vol. xiii.; Indian Antiquary, iii., pp. 333-4) is perhaps the best 
 example of such grants. 
 
— 113 — 
 
 As might be expected from the nature of Indian ideas'^ regarding Brahmans, nearly- 
 all the grants in existence are to Brahman families or, often, to a Brahman settlement. 
 In such case, each head of a family got one or more shares (bhaga), but his right could 
 not be conveyed by gift or sale without the royal sanction in the grant, and this is only 
 to be found in the more recent documents. Each Brahman community (agrahara) thus 
 became an universitas indivisibilis, and formed an idle landlord-class, which must 
 have powerfully contributed to the brahmanizing of the primitive Dravidian popula- 
 lation of agriculturists. The grants of Vira-Cola (nth century) seem to have been 
 expressly made with this object in view. We find, e.g., a large number of Tamil 
 Brahmans (as the names show) settled in the Telugu country, and provision is made 
 not only for the support of Brahmanical temples but also for the support of Sanskrit 
 science and literature. In one grant of this kind, the teachers of the Rig-, Yajur- 
 and Saraa-vedas each have a single share, the Mima^zsa-teacher has two, the Vedantist 
 one, and the Grammarian also one. Professors of the Puranas, medicine, astrology and 
 the like get each a share. These endowments do not appear to have helped to promote 
 the study of Sanskrit literature in S. India, though they, undoubtedly, perpetuated certain 
 branches of study in a mechanical way. 
 
 These lists of Brahmans who received grants are still of great interest as 
 regards the literary history of India, for they often include mention of the Vedic gotra 
 and ^akha which each followed, as well as the science he professed. Thus, 'shad- 
 aiigavid' is a common attribute^'. 
 
 The Sanskrit law-books^' often mention grants of a 'nibandha' or corrody, and they 
 explain this by so many areca nuts out of a certain weight of such nuts, or so many 
 leaves out of a bundle of betel leaves. I have not, as yet, met with any such grants, 
 except at Tanjore and In the Tamil country; Royal grants of allowances in kind (rice, 
 butter, bassia oil etc.) to temples there are not uncommon. These would constitute 
 charges on the treasury. 
 
 Limited grants are not uncommon; such, e.g., as a half of the royal dues in a 
 village. 
 
 Where rights are granted over a village, the boundaries are carefully specified, 
 and this is done in the later documents with the greatest minuteness. These details 
 
 1) They asserted (as is well known) that the stability and welfare of the world depended on them and their sacrifices, 
 and such notions are often met with in grants as the reason for making them. 
 
 2) Cfr. the directions on p. lol. These inscriptions prove that the laukika gotras are modern. 
 
 3) "Mitaxara on Yajnavalkya" ii., 12I (p. l86); Madhaviya, p. 12 (of my translation of the part on Inheritance and 
 Succession). The modern Bengali compilation translated by Colebrooke mentions aDowances of this kind in coin. 
 ("Digest", Madras ed. i., p. 443.) 
 
 15 
 
— 114 — 
 
 are as prescribed by the law-books'\ and will often be of great value in archaeological 
 enquiries; for, incidentally, many interesting objects are mentioned of which there are 
 now no traces ^\ 
 
 The details of the grant and the boundaries are most commonly given in a vernacular 
 language even where the rest of the grant is in Sanskrit. 
 
 In the Tanjore district there are in existence two or three grants to castes (washer- 
 men, fishermen), but they belong to recent times. 
 
 c) Imprecations and conclusion; attestations. 
 
 The last clause in most grants (whether royal or private) consists of imprecations 
 on those who resume or violate them; and these generally consist of the words from 
 the Vyasasmriti given above ^', though often with considerable variations. In later 
 grants the imprecation often is that the violator of it will incur the same sin as one who 
 kills a black cow on the banks of the Ganges. I have met with this in an endowment 
 in favour of a church by Tamil Christians of the last century! 
 
 Finally, the names of the person who drew up the document (kavyakarta), the writer 
 or engraver are sometimes added. There is little uniformity of practice in this respect. 
 The names of witnesses, though not required, are often found in royal grants; but in such 
 cases it would appear that the grant was by proclamation, and the witnesses attest 
 merely the record of it. Where the names of witnesses are not found, the grant must 
 be supposed to be written by the sovereign, and 'svahasto mama' or 'svahastalikhitam' 
 occurs at the end of documents of this kind*\ 
 
 Signatures (or rather marks) appear to have come Into use about 1 400 A. D. ; they 
 mostly represent objects which are held sacred by Hindus, e.g., a conch shell which is 
 often used by ascetics, a goad (anku9a), a dagger or sword'', and similar insignia. The 
 Vijayanagara kings appear to have usually signed documents; but only Harihara seems 
 to have used his own name for this purpose. 
 
 1) Cfr. "Manavadharmafastra," viii., 245-251 ; "Mitaxara," p. 236 (Calcutta ed. of 1829); ii., 154. Narada, xi. 
 
 2) In a Pallava grant, e.g., of the nth century I find a "Sakkiyaf^akyajppajli" or Buddhist temple mentioned. I 
 believe that this is the only S. Indian mention of such a building in the Tamil country. 
 
 3) p. 97. 
 
 ^> The N. Indian lawyers (see Colebrooke's "Digest", Madras ed. i., p. 445) have decided that only part ("so much 
 land given to such a person") need be autograph. 
 
 6) The sign-manual of the king of Orissa was a short double-edged sword (khanda). See : Beamfis, Comparative Gram- 
 mar, vol. ii., p. 105. The bards of Gujarat used much the same sign. Forbes, RIs-MUla, vol. i., p. ix. 
 
— 115 — 
 
 II. Grants by the Minister {Sandhivigrahadhikarin) for 
 and by authority of the King. 
 
 The law-books refer to documents of this kind, but they are not common.. Examples 
 occur in PI. xxvi. and in the Indian Antiquary^\ Beyond the statement (at the end) of 
 the fact that the minister wrote or made the grant, these documents do not differ in 
 style from direct royal grants. 
 
 Royal grants form the most important material for the reconstruction of S. Indian 
 history; but they must be used with great caution so far as the genealogical parts are 
 concerned, for I have already abundantly proved that these are often fictitious from 
 beginning to end. But it is also necessary to scrutinize most narrowly the authenticity 
 of such documents, for, unfortunately, there is every reason to believe that forgeries 
 of all kinds were common. 
 
 In the brief lists of crimes preserved in the law-books, the penalty of death is 
 assigned for forgeries of royal grants^'. Considering the comparatively small number 
 of documents of this kind which are in existence in S. India, the number of palpable 
 forgeries is very great, and justifies the severity of the Indian law. The law-books also 
 contain a special chapter on the scrutiny of documents (Lekhyaparlxa) ; the rules'' are 
 very strict, but evidently represent rather the ideal of pedantic lawyers than the actual 
 practice which was followed; for it is not too much to say that if these rules be impli- 
 citly adopted, hardly a single document could pass as genuine. This carelessness in 
 execution is also found in the inscriptions of Ceylon*'. The most common clerical errors 
 are : omission of a letter and wrong spelling. Taking into consideration what is known 
 of the history of writing in India, as well as the unusually complicated nature of the 
 Indian graphic systems, and also the fact that written books were but little used for 
 instruction, it is easy to see that errors of this kind must have naturally occurred, and 
 
 i; Vol. vi., p. 87. 
 
 2) Ma)iavadharraa9astra, ix., 232. Yajnavalkyasmriti, ii., 240. 
 3J e. g. Katyayana : Varnavakprakriyayuktam asandigdham sphutaxaram | 
 Ahinakramacihiiam ca lekhyam tat siddhim apnuyat || 
 and — Sthanabhrashtas tv apanktistha^ sandigdha laxanacyutaA | 
 Yada tu samsthita varnaA kutalekhyam tada bBavet || 
 Harita : Yac ca kakapadaklrnam tal lekhyam kutatam iyat | 
 
 bindumatravihinam ca 
 
 Narada (iv., 71) says that "a document split in two, torn ... or badly written, is void." (Dr. Jolly's translation.) 
 ■1) P. Goldschmidt "Report on Inscriptions found in the N. Central Province and in the Hambantota District" (1876), 
 p. 4: "Like most ancient inscriptions this also abounds in clerical errors." 
 
 15* 
 
— 116 — 
 
 that, by themselves, they are not adequate to throw doubt on the documents in which 
 they occur. 
 
 The forms of royal grants show a gradual but very perceptible development from 
 the earlier down to the more recent times, and each dynasty seems to have used forms 
 peculiar to itself. 
 
 B. Private Transfers of Property. 
 
 Documents recording endowments by private persons are perhaps the most common 
 among South-Indian inscriptions. There is scarcely a temple in South-India on the 
 walls of which numbers of such are not to be found; others are on stelae or rocks. 
 They convey all kinds of property, sometimes land or produce in kind, more often they 
 record donations of gold, etc., and vary accordingly in form from elaborate deeds in 
 the style already described^' down to brief notes of the gift''. The endowments to the 
 Conjeveram temples are mostly of saltpans; in the S. Arcot district (at Tirunamalal) 
 flocks of goats are mentioned, and these records of endowments show a very primitive 
 condition of society down to comparatively recent times. Inscriptions of this nature to 
 which there are not witnesses must be taken to be holographs. 
 
 These documents have not the seal, but in other respects the form is much the same 
 as that of the royal grants;' it must be, however, clearly understood that their direct 
 value for historical purposes is very small. Some king's name is mentioned in nearly 
 all of them, and perhaps also, the year of his reign in which they are supposed to be 
 written; but very often a purely mythological king is mentioned, and in some recent 
 documents of this kind, after some purana mythology, Krishnaraya or some other well 
 known king is eulogized, and then the Muhammadan Government or the "Honorable 
 Company" is praised ''. These details are, then, nearly always worthless and of no 
 value for history. The year of the king's reign, when a real sovereign is mentioned, 
 is (as might be expected) often several years wrong. In constructing genealogies of 
 S. Indian royal families it will be most important to exclude all information derived 
 from private documents, the value of which consists entirely in the details of tenures 
 which are often very complete. 
 
 1) See Madras Journal, xiii., part 2, pp. 36-47. do: part i., pp. 46-56. 
 
 2) Do: part i., p. 47. 
 
 •') F. W. Ellis ("On Mirasi Right" pp. 67-82) gives four specimens of private deeds: two in Canarese, one in Telugu 
 and one in Tamil. 
 
— 117 — 
 
 To fully understand this part of S. Indian inscriptions it must be recollected that 
 down to quite recent times the land in S. India was held in common by village com- 
 munities''; and, thus, the greatest number of existing private deeds are of grants to 
 temples etc. by the sabaiyar (from Sanskrit: 'sabha') that is, the heads of the community 
 acting on its behalf^\ The earliest documents of this kind which are now in existence 
 indicate that the earliest form of communal property (in which the common land was 
 cultivated by all the owners in common who divided the produce^') had already be- 
 come uncommon; for, though townships still exist where this system is followed, and 
 there are other traces of it, yet the inscriptions indicate that the system which still 
 exists to a great extent in S. India*', viz., communal lands with shifting lots changed 
 periodically'^', was already widely practised. Under this system, the rights of ownership 
 in a township are divided into a number of shares, and these again are subdivided often 
 to a great extent. The township-land is divided into a number of kattalai which answer 
 to fields. And these are subdivided into lots which answer to the shares (paii'yu) or 
 fractions of shares owned by the several members of the community. But the township- 
 land consisted only of the arable land; the ground on which the houses of the community 
 were built (urnattam), that on which the serfs or artizans resided (paraisserinattam etc.), 
 the village burning ground (sudukkadu), water- courses and tanks, temples, waste land 
 (iraiyilinilam=land without owner) were private property, or reserved for the public in 
 general, and over which the members of the community had merely right of use. What 
 could be transferred was, therefore, a certain extent of land within the township limits 
 and corresponding to a share or shares or part of a share together with the undefined 
 rights over the public property which attached to every member of the community, but 
 which were not, and still seldom are, mentioned in deeds, or to the separate property"' of 
 the individual member or family. There can be no doubt that all such transfers of 
 either kind were illegal and void without the sanction of the community, and the 
 
 1) It is now admitted that this is the oldest form of property in land— De Laveleye, "De la propridtfe et de ses formes 
 primitives," p. 2. 
 
 2) On the constitution of village communities in S. India, see F. W. Ellis in Mr. Brown's collection of Papers "On Mirasi 
 Right," pp. 5, ffg. The chief was called nattan in the Tondaimandalam villages. 
 
 3) De Laveleye, u. s. p. 5. 
 
 *) There are still many such villages in the Tanjore district. According to the "Fifth Report" (p. 830) there were 1774 
 such in 1805-7; i' i^ useless to look for later information. 
 
 5) The usual practice now seems to be to effect a re-distribution of the lots every 15 or 17 years. 
 
 ") Acquisition of separate property by 'occupation' of res nullius is mentioned in the lawbooks, Madhava says : 
 "Ananyapurvasya jalatrinakashthadeA svikaraA parigrahaA." The technical term 'parigraha' appears to have a larger 
 meaning in the earlier books. 
 
— 118 — • 
 
 Sanskrit lawyers clearly recognized this principle''; it is much to be regretted that 
 Anglo-Indian jurisprudence has entirely ignored it, and thus destroyed a salutary 
 restraint upon evil-disposed persons. The numerous attestations to transfers of property 
 are intended to represent the co-proprietor's assent and ratification rather than evidence 
 of execution of the document''. 
 
 This peculiar system of communal villages has always subsisted in greater integrity 
 in the Tamil country than in the Northern part of the Deccan occupied by the Telugu 
 and Canarese people''. 
 
 Every village community had a number of public servants, priests, schoolmasters, 
 artizans and menials, and all these had house-ground and allowances in return for their 
 services. It is no longer possible to explain precisely many of the technical terms 
 relating to this subject which are to be found in old documents; the English revenue 
 administration being based originally on the Muhammadan system, as modified to suit 
 the theories of the so-called political economists, has, naturally, completely obscured 
 the primitive system'*'. 
 
 Private documents of this description are generally in the vernaculars; the usual 
 Sanskrit imprecations are sometimes added at the end, after the names of the witnesses 
 who should be, at least, three. 
 
 The earliest I have found are Tamil documents of about the eleventh century. 
 There is every reason to believe that mortgages were common, but old documents 
 of this kind do not appear to be now in existence. 
 
 >) See, e. g., Mitaxara, i., i, 31. The author (to suit his theory of property) limits the meaning. That this principle 
 prevailed in S. India is evident from statements in the "Fifth Report", pp. 826-7: "It is essential to the validity of every 
 transfer that it be sanctioned and authenticated by every individual concerned in the property of his village." On the 
 next page absolutely inalienable property is mentioned. "The Vellalar only could hold landed property; to secure this, the 
 right of pre-emption v?as in the joint proprietors of the village, so that no stranger, even of their own caste, could obtain a 
 settlement in it without the formal consent of the whole." Ellis, "Mirasi Right", p. 60. The conveyance of complete 
 rights in all kinds of documents is by renunciation of what is commonly termed 'ashtabhogaV nidhi (treasure-trove); 
 nixepa (unclaimed deposits) ; pashana (mines) ; siddha (improvements actually made) ; sadhya (improvements which can be 
 made); jala (irrigation water); axini (actual privileges?); agami (future privileges?). This seems to be a Tamil form origi- 
 nally, and thence translated into Sanskrit, for it only occurs in the later documents. See (for the memorial verse) Colebrooke's 
 "Digest", Madras ed. i., p. 22, where the editor (the late Mr. Marcar) gives it. 
 
 2) Even at the pr»sent day an attestation is supposed by natives to convey assent. 
 
 8) Ellis, u. s. pp. 62-3. 
 
 ^) The chief information on the interesting subject of S. Indian communal villages is to be entirely found in books now 
 forgotten: "Fifth Report"; Strange's "Notes of Cases" (i., pp. 260 Sg.); "Minute of Revenue Board" (tSio) ; "Transactions, 
 Royal As. Society" (ii. pp. 74 fFg.); Briggs's "Land Tax"; Wilks's "South of India". For Java see also: Raffles's 
 "Minute on Java" (1814) pp. 121-3; and Da Laveleye, u. s. The only valuable contribution in recent times to this 
 important subject is by Mr. H. J. Stokes, "-Indian Antiquary, vol. iii., pp. 65 ffg. It is useless to search either the 
 Reports of the Law-Courts or the Revenue- Administration Reports. 
 
— 119 — 
 
 Forgeries of private documents are excessively common, and are caused by the 
 usual motives; the law-books (and especially Varadaraja's treatise) explicitly state the fact 
 of their being common''. Detection of these forgeries is easy. In the first place if an 
 attempt be made to imitate an older character (which is very seldom done), it is so bad 
 as to betray the forger at once. Again, as the dates of the rise of the chief religious 
 sects in the South are well known, forms of names and usages which owe their origin 
 to these sects infallibly point to the period in which a forgery has been committed. 
 All documents of this kind which contain recitals of previous transactions are very 
 doubtful, for this is the favourite way of getting up a case in S. India. 
 
 Valueless as these private documents are for what is commonly termed history, 
 they are of immense importance for what is really of more consequence, the history 
 of property and the social condition of the people. By the aid of such documents, 
 taken together with royal grants, a history of property in S. India is quite practicable 
 from the nth century down to the present time. Indeed, in the Tanjore district at 
 least, it would be quite possible to trace in a satisfactory way the economical history 
 of several communities. A little research In this way would remove many common 
 errors. That the land-tax (for such it, originally, was in S. India — not rent) should 
 amount to half the produce, has long been quoted as an instance of rapacity of the 
 Muhammadan and English Governments, from the illustrious B. Niebuhr's early letters 
 down to modern public discussions by people ignorant of Indian history; but It has 
 nothing to do with either. The inscriptions at Tanjore show that the indigenous Cola 
 kings In the 1 1 th century took about half the produce, and F. W. Ellis long ago 
 asserted (on other grounds) that the tax was always more than the sixth or fourth per- 
 mitted by Sanskrit lawyers^\ A little consideration of royal grants and old private 
 documents would also conclusively show (as the Sanskrit lawyers asserted) that the 
 government never had any right to the land. 
 
 It is necessary to remark that in all documents in S. India the provisions of Hindu 
 law are followed; there Is nothing In them that can be traced to any other system. In 
 
 1) The early enquirers into Indian tenures do not appear to have been aware that this is the case. Some such docu- 
 ments seem to have been used to mislead Sir T. Munro. See his "Life" by Gleig (1861) p. 163. (Letter from him to Col. 
 Read, d. l6th June 1801.) Of late years, the number has been greatly increased by the now common desire of the lower 
 castes to prove that they are entitled to a higher position in the social scale than they actually occupy. Several such 
 forgeries, I have seen, come from the extreme South. I have also seen one feeble attempt at forgery intended to falsify 
 history. It is needless to remark that only alleged transcripts are produced in such cases; there is always some reason 
 given for not discovering the original, though its existence is asserted and circumstantial details about it are always 
 furnished, but forgery on copper plates or stone would involve too much trouble and expense, nowadays, to be thought 
 of in S. India. 
 
 2) u, «. p. 63 note 28. 
 
— 120 — 
 
 this respect the Hindu law has been, and still is, more generally adopted in S. India, 
 than even in respect of inheritance or adoption''. Great as has been the influence of 
 Muhammadan ideas in S. India, it has only extended to the administration. 
 
 II. OTHER DOCUMENTS. 
 
 A. Most of these are what may be termed 'Historical' Inscriptions, as they re- 
 cord events, such are: 
 
 1. Memorials of Suttee. The practice of widows burning themselves with their 
 deceased husband's corpse has never been common in S. India. Records of this kind 
 are only to be found in the Telugu-Canarese country in the South; in the North (in 
 Gujarat, e. g.) they are more common. 
 
 2. Memorials of religious suicide. This amazing practice has been known to be common 
 in India from the time of Alexander's expedition. It seems to have been practised in 
 historical times chiefly by Buddhists and Jains^\ 
 
 Monuments to deceased Hindus (especially Mahrathas and Lingaits) are not un- 
 common in S. India, but the custom of erecting them is modern; and I have never, as 
 yet, met with an inscription on one^'. 
 
 3. Inscriptions recording the erection and repair of temples. Contrary to what is the case in 
 Northern India, these are all very modern. The earliest, I know of, recording the 
 restoration of a temple, is of the end of the 14th century*'. The reason for this is 
 that all the temples in S. India, with trivial exceptions, belong to two great temple- 
 building periods: that of the Colas in the nth century, and that of the Vijayanagara 
 kings in the 1 6th. At favourite shrines, like Madura, Avadiyarkovil and Ramanad, there 
 are numerous short inscriptions recording additions and improvements chiefly at the 
 cost of trading castes. None of these go back beyond 1500. The only inscription that 
 I know of, on a fort, is of the 1 7th century. 
 
 4. Inscriptions recording the dedication of sacred images, ponds, etc. Inscriptions recording the 
 dedication of Jain images are to be met with in Mysore, S. Canara, and in the S. Tamil 
 country. Some are old, but dates are rare in them. The most common form is: "So 
 and so of such a country caused this sacred image to be made (or dedicated)"^'. In a 
 
 1) This is remarkable, for, except the Malaya) am "Vyavaharasamudra", there is no vernacular treatise on law that is 
 even a century old. 
 
 2) For examples see the Indian Antiquary, vol. ii., pp. 266 and 323-324. 
 
 8) Gfr. Rogerius, "De Open-dsure", p. lot (1651); Colebrooke's "Life" by his Son, p. 152 re. 
 
 *) Indian Antiquary, ii., p. 36-1. 
 
 ^) For a longer inscription on the great image at Karkal (S. Canara) see Indian Antiquary, ii., pp. 353-4. 
 
- 121 - 
 
 few instances one finds brief inscriptions recording the deposit of a broken or defiled 
 idol in a tank or some such safe place, and the consecration of a fresh idol; but these 
 are also modern, and since the Muhammadan invasions. Inscriptions recording the con- 
 struction and dedication of tanks and dams are rare, except in the oeuntry ruled by 
 the later Vijayanagara kings; examples occur near Vijayanagara, at Cumbum and at 
 Nellore. The great irrigation works in the Kaveri delta were chiefly constructed by 
 Cola princes in the i ith and 12th centuries, but I have only heard of one inscription on 
 a work of this kind''; it is near Musiri (in the Trichinopoly district) and is of about the 
 beginning of the 13th century. 
 
 5. Inscriptions recording the erection of resting-places. In Malabar, charitable people 
 often erect two stone pillars about five feet high, and place a flat slab on them; this is 
 intended for the convenience of people who carry burdens on their heads, and who can 
 thus rest on their way; if they had to place their loads on the ground, they could not 
 lift them again without help. The name of the persons > who have had such stones 
 erected is generally found inscribed on them. 
 
 6. Inscriptions recording the dedication of statues, temple utensils, vessels, bells, lamps, etc. 
 
 These are to be found in all temples; but as there is hardly a single S. Indian temple 
 that has not been pillaged more than once, very few of these inscriptions are of any 
 remote period, and they are nearly always records of gifts by strangers, even from N. 
 India ^'. The dedication of statues was a common practice of the Buddhists; that the 
 Hindus did so has been doubted, but without reason. Hemadri mentions the practice, 
 and instances occur still earlier in the Tanjore inscriptions. Such statues were, 
 commonly, of copper or stone, sometimes of gold^\ and represented not only forms of 
 the god as worshipped in the temple where they were dedicated, but also of eminent 
 saints and devotees. In Vaishnava temples, representations of the 'cakra' were commonly 
 dedicated. It has also been always a common practice to dedicate silver, or even gold 
 representations of the 'vahana' or animal on which the god is supposed to ride. In 
 S. India many worthless objects are often dedicated in temples; such, e.£:, are the 
 earthen pots (which serve to shade lamps from the wind) at Tirukkalukunram; most of 
 these bear the donor's name. So again, the pottery figures of horses which are seen 
 
 i)Mr. Walhouse kindly drew my attention to it. 
 
 2) For an inscription on a bell, see Indian Antiquary, ii., p. 360. 
 
 3) 'Mahavamso' (p. 243); Abd-al-razzak (in "India in the fifteenth century." Hakluyt Soc); Castanheda (translated by 
 N. L. 1583,/. 106) mentions a gold idol of 30 pounds weight with emerald eyes; "Wyllie ("Essays", p. 342) mentions an 
 image of Krishna, with diamond eyes, in Kattywar. There is a gold statuette of Buddha in the Museum at Batavia, and 
 also a gold linga. A gold idol of Ganeya valued at f 50,000 was taken from the Mahrathas in 1819. 
 
 16 
 
— 122 — 
 
 in such numbers near the temples of Aiyyanar (a popular village-god in S. India), who 
 IS supposed to ride on them at night when he goes his rounds to redress wrongs or 
 confer blessings and punishments; Articles of jewelry are commonly dedicated. 
 
 B. Devotional and explanatory inscriptions. Of these the first are common 
 on the floors and in all parts of S. Indian temples; they simply record the adoration 
 of, perhaps, wealthy and distinguished pilgrims, and are very short. The inscription 
 at Seven Pagodas'* is the longest I know of. 
 
 Inscriptions explanatory of sculptures appear to occur only on the so-called rathas 
 at the same place. 
 
 Inscriptions in two characters occur very rarely; they are, generally, recent and 
 intended for the benefit of pilgrims. The first character is that in use at the place; 
 the second is nearly always some form of Nagari; and the texts, repeated in this form, 
 are often much abridged. 
 
 X^HE above pages will show what eplgraphic documents are to be found in S. India; 
 this branch of Sanskrit and S. Indian literature is of evident value, but it is necessary 
 to remark that it will have to be long studied, before appreciable results in restoring 
 the history (in the ordinary sense of the word) of the past can be expected. The 
 inscriptions already known, unfortunately, belong to a few periods and dynasties, and 
 often clear up only a century at the most. Wide gaps follow which at present seems 
 likely to remain so. The historical sense seems hardly to have ever existed in India; 
 and facts, as recorded in these documents, are so much mixed up with mythology and 
 fable, that, without corroboration, they cannot go for much. But it is only from such 
 documents that any real information about the past of S. India can be gathered, and as 
 proof of this, it is sufficient to point out that the inscriptions already studied have 
 completely upset the traditions which used to be accepted as history. That these 
 results can be so far safely accepted, is proved by the corroboration which they find 
 in the Muhammadan historians, and even in the works of early European travellers. It 
 
 1) See above, p. 38, note 4. 
 
— 123 — 
 
 is not too much to expect that a scientific study of these documents will yet lead to 
 larger and more important results. 
 
 The chief want at present felt by students of S. Indian history is of accurate copies 
 of inscriptions. Of those on copper plates, impressions are easily made with printing 
 ink. For those on stone, photography will often answer; but the best and safest method 
 is by 'estampages' or impressions on moist paper. The warning against sketches or 
 copies by hand has been so often given that it is unnecessary to repeat it here, or to say 
 more than that most distinguished scholars have repeatedly been led into error by such 
 copies. In a few cases where the stone is much worn, all mechanical methods of taking 
 copies will fail; in such instances, it is, sometimes, possible to read them when the sun's 
 rays fall slantingly on the surface of the stone, and, thus, the depressions are in shade. 
 It was in this way that Rafn managed to read the Runic inscriptions of the Piraeus; 
 but such readings must go for what they are worth. 
 
 Palaeography will, eventually, be of considerable use in restoring Sanskrit and other 
 Indian texts, but this is too large a subject to enter on here. 
 
 16* 
 
APPENDIX A. (Seep. 14 
 
 OR the successful interpretation of the S. Indian inscriptions, as well as for extended 
 researches into Dravidian Comparative Philology, it is now indispensable that a 
 history of Dravidian phonetics should be drawn up. The materials that exist for this 
 purpose are more extensive than might be supposed, and go back to perhaps nearly 
 two thousand years. The earliest certain traces are a few words recorded in the A^oka 
 inscriptions, and, later, a few more by the Greek geographers of the early centuries 
 A. D.; secondly, some Tamil words mentioned by Kumarilasvamin (700 A. D.), and 
 others in the Mahavawso and in the travels of Chinese pilgrims; thirdly, the earlier 
 inscriptions recording the campaigns of the Calukyas and Colas; fourthly, the native 
 grammarians of about the tenth century A. D. for the most part. Much help will also 
 be gained from the earlier metrical compositions^^ The Cera inscriptions show that the 
 Canarese knguage had the peculiarities which now characterise it, already, in the 5th 
 century A. D.; and Tamil inscriptions of a date a few centuries later prove the same 
 of that language. It is, therefore, almost certain that the three great Dravidian 
 languages had, already, separated and assumed their characteristic forms some two 
 thousand years ago^'. 
 
 An investigation of this nature is important from a palaeographical point of view; but, 
 at present, I can do no more than show with reference to the propositions I have advanced 
 above (on p. 40): 
 
 i. That the Tamil alphabet has always been, and is still, a very imperfect system 
 for expressing the Tamil sounds, and that it is not adapted from a Sanskrit prototype, 
 ii. That the Canarese and Telugu alphabets are adaptations of the Sanskrit alphabet, 
 and are tolerably perfect expressions of the sounds found in those languages. 
 
 The Dravidian languages naturally separate into two classes — the Telugu which 
 stands by itself, and the Tamilic dialects which comprehend all the other languages of 
 S. India. As far, however, as the history of the expression by alphabetic signs of the 
 sounds used in these languages is concerned, the Tamil and old Malayalam stand apart; 
 the Canarese and Telugu must be classed together. 
 
 1) Dravidian words adopted in Sanskrit, and they are many, are too much disfigured and of too uncertain source, to 
 deserve a place in this list of materials for the phonetic history of these languages. 
 
 2.1 The grants to the Israelites and Syrians and other inscriptions from the W. Coast prove that Tamil and Malayalam 
 were really the same language in the 8th century A. D. The dialogues in Varthema show that colloquial Malayalam was 
 the same in 1 503-8 as it is now. Cfr. also No. ii. of my "Specimens of S. Indian Dialects", preface. 
 
125 
 
 § 1. TAMIL PHONETICS. 
 
 As the Tamil alphabet now stands it is a very imperfect representation of the sounds 
 to be met with in Tamil. 
 
 There are at present vowel-marks for a, a, i, i, u, u, e, e, ai, 6, o and an; but of 
 these in addition to the usual pronunciation of u and ai, these two letters have very 
 commonly the value of u, and this is noticed by the earliest grammarians". Again a, 
 i, i, and u have distinct secondary^' values in some cases, viz., they become 'mixed'. 
 
 These values occur in certain definite circumstances, but they are so numerous as 
 to render the Tamil alphabet very defective as far as the vowels are concerned. 
 
 The expression of the consonants is also defective^'. 
 
 Thus the following letters have distinct values : — 
 
 zttef 
 
 I. 
 
 Initial 
 
 2. Medial 
 
 T,. Medial (if doubled') 
 
 k 
 
 =: 
 
 k 
 
 H 
 
 k 
 
 s 
 
 = 
 
 s 
 
 Si] 
 
 t 
 
 a 
 
 t 
 
 =: 
 
 t 
 
 d 
 
 t 
 
 t 
 
 :=: 
 
 t 
 
 5 
 
 t 
 
 P 
 
 = 
 
 P 
 
 b 
 
 P 
 
 According to the pronunciation of some places k following a nasal = g, and t follow- 
 ing a nasal = d; but it is impossible to ascertain now if this was originally the case*'. 
 
 Now the earliest specimens of Tamil that are to be found in foreign records 
 show that the language then possessed these sounds for which there are no separate 
 
 1) Tolkappiyam, i., 2, 24. Nanniil, ii., 6, etc. 
 
 2) The cause of this I have been able to discover by means of Mr. Melville Bell's admirable book "Visible Speech". 
 These simple vowels are effected by the following consonant when it closes the syllable in certain cases. These consonants 
 are t, 1 and 1, but at the end of a syllable they necessarily induce modification of the vowels. As Mr. Bell (p. 75) says: 
 "The various positions of the tongue which produce 'centre-aperture' consonants, form vowels when the channel between the 
 organs is sufficiently expanded and firm to allow the breath to pass without oral friction or sibilation. The vowel positions 
 thus bear a definite relation to the consonant attitudes of the different parts of the tongue." 
 
 3) It is quite certain that the Tamil alphabet was always limited in extent, for the Tolkappiyam (i., 1, i) and Nanuul 
 (ii., 4) expressly put the number of Utters at thirty. The Nannul (ii., 8) says also: "Beginning with a, twice six are 
 vowels beginning with k, (there) are thrice six consonants: thus say the learned." 
 
 It is remarkable that only in one system of writing and that just deciphered, we find the same character used to 
 express both the sonant and surd consonants of the same class; I mean the mysterious Cypriote syllabary {'^Journal des 
 Savants", Sept. 1877, p. 560). At the very first view it is easy to trace striking resemblances between some of the Cypriote 
 characters and Vatteluttu letters (e. g. ^=V.S, Kq; Xs, Xt); fS, YVJ); but the syllabic nature of the former makes it difficult 
 to suppose any real connection between the two in their forms as now known. Further research into the systems of writing 
 once used in the Levant and in the Aramean country will, I have no doubt, eventually clear up the origin of the Vatteluttu. 
 
 *) In Canarese and Telugu, as spoken in some places, cS (d) has distinctly the value of fl; but not everywhere. 
 
— 126 — 
 
 alphabetic characters, and which seem to have puzzled the Tamil grammarians who 
 leave them unnoticed '\ These words are as follows: 
 
 In the second Girnar tablet of A9oka's edict (9. 250 B. C.) we find Pa(n)da as the 
 name of a king; there can be no doubt that Pandiyan or the Madura king is here in- 
 tended; and Pliny, Ptolemy and the Periplus also have Pandion. 
 
 The next traces we find are in Ptolemy and the Periplus of the Red Sea which may 
 be put as representing Tamil from the first to the third centuries A. D., and Kumarila 
 Bhatta who lived in the 7th century. As regards the various powers of some of the 
 vowels there is not much satisfactory evidence to be found'^\ but the evidence regard- 
 ing the consonants is conclusive. It is as follows: 
 
 k, If. i) Sangara (=sah'yadam) in Periplus Maris Eryth. § 60. 2) Sangamarta = Tam. 
 sah-ya-maratta; {i.e. the town or camp by the Monetia Barlerioides trees; a station of 
 the Nomad Sorae. Ptolemy vii., i, § 68). 3) Bettigo (Ptolemy vii., i, § 68) which Dr. 
 Caldwell has rightly identified with the PoBiyai mountain. 4) MaYoop (do:). 
 
 t, d. i) Pandion = Pandiyan. (Periplus Maris Eryth. § 58. Ptolemy vii., i, §§ 11 & 
 79. Pliny, vi., 105.) 2) Tundis, i.e. the Tam. tundi (Periplus Maris Eryth. § 54. Ptolemy, 
 vii., I, § 8). 3) Cottonara (Pliny, vi., 104); the last part is here evidently nadu (country) 
 and the expression of d by r is also found in the 'sangara' of the Periplus. 4) Kuma- 
 rila has nader = nadai^'. 
 
 t, d. i) Kolandiophonta (Periplus Maris Eryth. § 60). The first part of this name 
 for boats or ships is most probably the Tam. kulin&a = hollowed ; the last, odam = boat''^ 
 
 2) Modoura = Ma5urai. (Ptolemy, vii., i,§89. Pliny, vi., 105.) 3) Pu5u-pattana (Cosmas) — 
 TOoSojratava. 4) noSoTtspoopa in Ptolemy. 
 
 p.b. i) Keprobotros = Keraputra (Periplus M.Er. §54). The b here clearly shows the 
 influerice of the Tamil pronunciation. Pliny (vi., 104) has Caelobothras. 2) Apeji. poop (Pt.) 
 
 3) Kumarila has pamb or pamp = pambu. The best mss. I now find have pamb. 
 
 It would be easy to add other words from the Greek geographers which point to this 
 fact, but as their identification presents more or less difficulty, I shall omit them here. 
 The omission of the Tamil grammarians to notice this fact that the consonants have 
 
 1) Except they intended to include them under vague statements of irregularities of pronunciation. — Nannul, ii., 33, 
 etc., copying Tolk. i., 3, 6. 
 
 2) Except in the words which occur in Kumarila Bhatta, and as these neglect the final u (as it is now written), it is 
 safe to assume that it was then pronounced u as is the case at present, and was therefore neglected in the Nagari transcrip- 
 tions as being a sound unknown to the Sanskrit alphabet, and almost imperceptible to foreigners. 
 
 3) I have already discussed the passage where these words occur in the Indicm Antiquary, vol. i., pp. 309-310. Dr. 
 CaldweU (C. Gr. 2nd ed. p. 5 note) has misunderstood what Kumarila says about 'al'. 
 
 ■*) It seems to be contrasted with the 'sahijSdam' or raft. 
 
— 127 — 
 
 double values (viz., as surds and sonants) is unaccountable except that they had to deal 
 with a language already reduced to writing. Tamil words, however, appear to have 
 puzzled northern and Singalese authors, and they evidently were aware that the Tamil 
 and Sanskrit or Pali t did not mark the same sounds. Thus the Pali has Damila; the 
 Sanskrit Dramila, just as Ziegenbalg in his Tamil Grammar (171 6) calls the language 
 "Lingua Damulica," though Baldaeus (1672) being a Dutchman has T''. To show how 
 the Dravidian sounds differ from the Sanskrit sounds indicated by the same letters 
 would take too much space to be admissible here, and would need the use of special 
 type. Since Mr. Melville Bell's "Visible Speech" has been published, and the Prati- 
 9akhyas have been edited by Profr. Whitney and others, (to which may be added the 
 use of the phonograph), an enquiry of this kind need not present any special difficulties. 
 At the present stage of philological research in S. India it is indispensable. 
 
 The Tamil alphabet differs from the other Dravidian alphabets in using n (ear) which 
 is simply a. final n (t. e. of the syllable), and is therefore unnecessary according to the 
 S. Indian system. It is here, however, a distinct letter as it was in the Vatteluttu, 
 and in its original form not unlike the Sassanian ri. generally read man. 
 
 It follows, then, that the pronunciation of Tamil cannot have changed materially 
 since the third century B. C; but, as it is impossible to put the introduction of writing 
 into the Tamil country at so early a date, it is evident that the Tamil alphabet is an 
 imperfect expression of the phonetic system of that language from its origin, and that 
 it cannot have become so by progress of phonetic decay ^'. As the alphabets used in 
 
 1) So the Peutingerian Map and the Ravenna geographer (ed. Parthey, pp. 14, 40, etc.) have Dimirice (i. e. Tamil + 
 ike) which is the proper reading for the name, and not Limurike as printed in the Periplus • and Ptolemy. 
 
 2) The utter uncertainty of S. Indian chronology renders it difficult to use the TamU literature for purposes of illustra- 
 ting the history of Dravidian phonetics ; but I can help, in a small way, to clear up the existing darkness. Buddhamittra 
 (a Buddhist of the Cola country, and apparently, a native of Malakuta or Malaikkurram) wrote in the nth century a Tamil 
 Grammar in verse, with a Commentary by himself, which he dedicated to the then reigning Cola king and called after him 
 ' Virasoliyam'. This C. cites a great number of Tamil works current in the i ith century, and is therefore of much 
 historical importance, for the approximate dates even of most Tamil works are hardly known. He cites: Araritasagaram ; 
 Avinayanar: Arurkovai; Eliviruttam; Kapilar; Kamban; Kaviviruttam ; Kakkaipadiniyar; Katantra{s); KanSi; Kundalakesi- 
 viruttam; Kural; SaiiTfaiauthors ; Sintamani; Solarajavarisai; Tandi; Tirussirrambalakkovai ; Tirumaunivalaru ; Tolkap- 
 piyam; Nambi; Nalavenba; Nariviruttam; Naladis'ar; Niyayassiidamani ; NeminaSam; Perunflevar's Bharata (Venba) ; 
 Manippiravalam ; Mayesuranar ; Virasolanmerkavi. This then represents the oli Tamil literature prior to the nth century, 
 and to it must be added the older ^aiva works. The above mentioned literature cannot be older than the 8th century, 
 for in the 7th century Hiouen Thsang expressly states that the Tamil people were then indifferent to literature. That 
 this literature arose under N. Indian influences and copied N. Indian models, can hardly be disputed; but it is time now to 
 assert that it is nothing more than an exact copy; if there be any originality, it is in some of the similes and turns of 
 expression only. This was, long ago, remarked by Mr. Curzou (/. M. As. Soc), and has since been emphatically asserted 
 by M. J. Vinson. ("Le Verbe dans les langues Dravidiennes", pp. viii-ix. and in Hovelacque's "La Linguistique".) Some 
 have supposed, but without the least reason or evidence, that this Sanskritizing literature supplanted an older Tamil 
 literature of an indigenous growth. 
 
— 128 — 
 
 the A9oka inscriptions prove, the Sanskrit grammarians had already extended the 
 alphabet to suit their marvellously accurate discrimination between the different sounds 
 of the language in the 3rd century B. C; it is impossible, therefore, to suppose that 
 the Tamil alphabet is to be attributed to them. Besides their treatment of the Canarese 
 and Telugu phonetics is totally different, as I shall now show, though the Canarese 
 grammar was formed on the same model as the Tamil. 
 
 § CANARESE PHONETICS. 
 
 The Hindu civilization of the Canarese country is quite as old as that of the Tamil 
 people, but the earliest traces we find of writing are in a modified form of the A^oka 
 character, and the orthography, with a few unimportant exceptions and allowing for the 
 obsolete form of the letters, is just what we find now. About the tenth century A. D. 
 Canarese grammar was treated on the principles of the Sanskrit grammarians of the 
 Aindra school'^ and with steady reference to Sanskrit phonetics; the author of the 
 Canarese Grammar "^abdamanidarpana" evidently considered the alphabet he used as 
 a mere adaptation from the Sanskrit, and he was perfectly right in doing so. His 
 account is as follows^^: 
 
 There are fourteen Sanskrit- Canarese vowels (a, a, i, i, u, u, ri, ri, Iri, Iri, e, ai, o 
 and au) and in Canarese e and o have both long and short forms. There are 34 
 Sanskrit- Canarese consonants classed (vargaxara) and unclassed (avargaxara), that is to 
 say, the ordinary Sanskrit alphabet with xa; but of these aspirates are not used in 
 Canarese, except in some peculiar cases. To these are added the peculiarly Canarese 
 letters r, 1 and 1. The author then states (p. 44) that there are only 47 letters in pure 
 Canarese — a, a, i, i, u, u, e, e, ai, 6, o, au; k, kh, g, gh, n, c, ch, j, jh, n, t, th, d, dh, 
 n, t, th, d, dh, n, p, ph, b, bh, m, y, r, 1, v, s, h, x, r, 1, 1. The Sanskrit pre- 
 possessions of the author have induced him to include erroneously the aspirates and 
 x; h is the modern representative of p. Rejecting these letters, therefore, the re- 
 mainder represent very nearly the sounds we find really to exist in Tamil. 
 
 This Canarese Grammar is, like the Tamil Tolkappiyam and Nannul, a very complete 
 work, and is really what it professes to be. 
 
 1) As to what is to be understood by the Aindra Grammar see my book on this subject, 1875. 
 
 2) Kittel's "^abdamanidarpana", pp. 13-45. 
 
129 
 
 § 3. TELUGU PHONETICS. 
 
 Here again the grammar has been formed on Sanskrit models, but the pattern is 
 either Panini's or Hemacandra's treatise, and the terminology, chiefly, that of Panini'^ 
 
 The earliest of the two grammars is by Nannaya; he begins by saying that Sanskrit 
 has fifty letters, Prakrit ten less, but the Telugu has thirty-six, as the other letters only 
 occur in SanSikrit words which have been adopted in that language. These letters he 
 says are: a, a, i, i, u, u, e, e, ai, 6, o, au, two anusvaras (o and c ), k, g, two c (c 
 and t), two j (j and d), t, d, n, t, d, n, p, b, m, y, r, 1, v, s, r, 1''. 
 
 Atharvanacarya is by no means so precise, but as he is later than Nannaya what 
 he says is of little importance. He mentions seven or (excluding ai and au) five vowels 
 {i. e. a, i, u, e, o) which might be short, long or pluta^.K He does not^ specifically 
 enumerate the consonants. 
 
 Thus two Telugu grammarians, not of the Aindra school, have treated the Telugu 
 alphabet far more completely than was done by Aindra grammarians in respect of the 
 Tamil, though the Telugu grammarians hold the strange theory that the Telugu langu- 
 age is a "Vikriti" of Sanskrit*^ and treat the grammar as a mere appendix to Sanskrit 
 and Prakrit grammar. 
 
 This theory is an important one in considering references to foreign words in Sanskrit 
 grammatical works, and has been, as yet, quite misunderstood. The meaning of the 
 term vikriti, as thus used, is as follows: The grammarians (as is required in Hindu 
 cosmogony^') considered all languages to be eventually derived from the Sanskrit, 
 much as in Europe, in the Middle Ages, Hebrew was supposed to be the source of all 
 
 ') The dates of Nannaya Bhatta and AtharvanacSrya can easily be fixed. Nannaya Bhatta translated the first part of 
 the Mahabharata into Telugu for Vishnuvardhana who was Ramanujacarya's chief convert, and therefore lived in the middle 
 of the nth century ["Cyclic Table" by C. P. Brown; Mad,ras Journal, a., p. 52; Brown's "Telugu Grammar" (2nd ed.), 
 p. i.]. Atharvanacarya is generally supposed to have preceded Nannaya; but this cannot be the case, as he twice cites 
 Hemacandra by name ("TrilingafabdanufSsana", i., 5; iii., I3 of the Madras MS.). Hemacandra was probably born in 
 1088 A. D. and died in 1 173 A. D. (Bombay Journal, 1^., p. 224); Atharvanacarya must, therefore, have written about 
 fifty years later than Nannaya, and was probably a Jain rival of this Brahman. 
 
 S*) "Andhrafabdacintamani", i., 14-18 and 23. 
 
 3) "Trilihga9abdanu9asana", i., 8-1 1. "Prana/j sapta svarupena" (8) "vacam (read aucam) vina svara/i panca hrasva- 
 dirghaplutais tridha" (9). 
 
 *) "Andhrafabdacintamani", i., 12. iii., 8. 43. 59. 83. iv., 2. 11. 23. 28. 42. 46. Thefirst of thase sutras is: 'Adya- 
 prakritiA prakritif ca 'dye, esha tayor bhaved vikritiA." Ahobala says on this : " 'Adyaprakritift' iti sarvabhashamiilaka- 
 tvena Andhrabhashahetutvena ca 'dya Samskritabhasha." — " 'Esha' Andhrabhasha." 
 
 5) See Muir's "Sanskrit Texts" (i., pp. 480 ffg.) where several passages are to be found in which it is asserted that 
 peoples of quite different races, e. g. Odras, Dravidas, Kambojas, Yavanas and Cinas (Manu, .\., 43-4); Yavanas, Cinas, 
 Pahlavas, Andhras and KTimbojas (Cantiparvan); ^akas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Colas and Keralas (Harivamya) were origi- 
 nally Xattriyas. This notion is found already in the Brahmanas. 
 
 17 
 
— 130 — 
 
 languages then known; they also considered merely the external forms of words and not 
 the meaning^K It was thus easy to find a plausible explanation of any foreign words 
 by means of Sanskrit. The Mimawzsists contended against this doctrine, as they attached 
 rnore importance to the meaning than to the fom-\ In considering foreign words men- 
 tioned by Sanskrit grammarians it is necessary to keep the nature of this theory in view. 
 , Comparing the Telugu-Canarese alphabets with the Tamil it is, then, impossible to 
 suppose that the last is the work of Sanskrit grammarians; for had they been the authors 
 of it, it would have been far more perfect '^ and would have shown signs of adaptation 
 which are wanting in it. Add to this that the Tamil letters 1, 1*' and r are totally distinct 
 from the Telugu-Canarese corresponding letters and n superfluous, and the amount of 
 proof that the Vatteluttu is of independent origin, and not derived from the S. A9oka 
 character, appears to be conclusive '^ 
 
 APPENDIX B. (Seep. 17.) 
 
 (^HAT the alphabets of the Inscriptions of Java and Sumatra present many points 
 "^of similarity with old Indian and Pali alphabets was early noticed"', and traditions 
 pointed to Kaliiiga as the source of the old civilization of Java, but proof of the 
 true origin of the Kawi and Javanese alphabets has only lately been furnished by the 
 discovery of the late Dr. Cohen Stuart that two Sanskrit inscriptions in W. Java are in 
 
 1) Thus Durgacarya (on Yaska, Naig. ii., i) says: Ekeshu defeshu prakritaya eva dhatufabdanam bhashyante vikritya 
 ekeshu | dhator akhyatapadabhavena ya/i prayoga/i sa prakriti/i | naraibhutasya tasyai 'va yaA prayogaft sa vikriti/i ||". 
 There is no question of meaning here but of form merely. 
 
 2) See the article by me (on a passage in Kumarilasvamin's " Tantravarttika") in the Indian Antiquary, vol. i. pp. 309-10. 
 S) The Sanskrit-Malayalam alphabet, as adapted to Malayalam uses g, j, d, to express %, j, 5. 
 
 *) In Telugu 1 is always expressed by d; e. g. Coda = sola. 
 
 5) It may perhaps be well to remark that the Tamil people (as Mr. F. W. Ellis first noticed) have always put their 
 language and literature on a level with the Sanskrit, calling their own tongue Tenmoli (southern speech) and the Sanskrit 
 Vadamoli or northern speech. 
 
 C) Raffles, ("Java", i., p. 371) noticed the almost complete identity of the Kawi and the square Pali characters. F. W. Ellis, 
 about the same time, drew attention to the resemblance between the Grantha-Tamil and Java alphabets, but, rather hastily, 
 assumed the first to be the source of the last. Friederich, ("Over Inscriptien van Java en Sumatra", p. 78) compared the old 
 Kawi alphabet with the Calukya. Mr. K. F. Holle has now in the press a very complete collection of the Alphabets 
 of the Archipelago compared with those of India— "Tabel van oud en nieuw-Indischo Alphabetten." sm. folio, 
 Buitenzorg (Java), 1877. 
 
— 131 — 
 
 a character identical, so to speak, with that of the Vengi inscriptions''; these very- 
 interesting lines are in Sanskrit verse, and are engraved on rocks at Tjampea and 
 Djamboe, places not far from Buitenzorg. They apparently are intended to record a 
 conquest or taking possession of the country by engraving the impression of the king's 
 feet on a rock, and these lines explain who it was that did so — Purna Varma. 
 
 An inscription in a character nearer that which I have termed "Eastern Cera" (PI. 
 xii.) and which is a development of the Vengi character, occurs at a place called Kebon 
 Kopi. It is probably of the same nature as the two already mentioned, as near it are 
 representations of an elephant's foot-prints. This inscription is not legible in the photo- 
 graph given in the "Oudheden van Java" (No. 12), and is evidently much weatherworn^'. 
 
 These three inscriptions are, unquestionably, the oldest that have been as yet found 
 in the Sunda Islands. Profr. Kern puts the first at about 450 A. D., and it appears to 
 me probable that the third may be of about 600 A. D. With these inscriptions in view, 
 it is impossible to doubt the general truth of the Java tradition which derives the civiliza- 
 tion of the islands from Kaliriga^', and this is rendered more certain by the name Purna 
 Varma; for varma was in general use as a title by the Verigi and.Pallava kings, and by 
 them only, of all the dynasties then reigning in India which could possibly have fitted 
 out an expedition to Java. The title 'varma' is (according to Hindu law-books) a pro- 
 per one for Xattriyas; but it was very little used in S. India, except by the Vengi- 
 Pallavas. 
 
 But it appears to me that a close consideration of these inscriptions will make it 
 possible to define still more precisely the relation between the character we find in 
 them, and those used in Eastern India. 
 
 I have already mentioned (p. 36) that the Vengi dynasty which ruled on the Telugu 
 sea-coast, and the Pallavas of the Tamil coast near what is now Madras, were probably 
 of the same family. For many reasons, which would take too much space to give here, 
 it appears to me that the territory of these kings extending from the borders of Orissa 
 down to near Madras constituted the three Kalingas, mention of which often occurs, 
 and except Conjeveram be allowed to be one, it seems impossible to make up the num- 
 ber; for Vengi proper was the most northern, and between these (according to Hiouen 
 Thsang) was only one kingdom which must answer to the Nellore country. 
 
 1) See his paper in the «Bijdragen" (1875) with Profr. Kern's note following, and also: "Over hat opschrift van Djamboe" 
 ("Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Konink. Akademie van Wetenschappen", Afd. "Letterkunde". 2de Reeks, D. vi.) 
 
 2) I much regret that want of time prevented me from visiting the place; with a Utile trouble, the inscription might 
 probably be read from the rock itself, as the letters appear to be very large. 
 
 3) Collected in Lassen's I. A. — K. 
 
 17* 
 
— 132 — 
 
 Admitting then that Kalinga extended even into the Tamil country '\ it is possible 
 to look there for the type of character which represents the original of the Djamboe 
 inscription, and, in fact, the earliest Pallava character suits this purpose even better than 
 ■ that used in Vehgi. The two (as I have already said ^'> ) do not differ sufficiently to 
 constitute separate varieties of the developments of the 'Cave' character, though the 
 writing of the earliest Pallava inscriptions presents some slight, yet peculiar, variations. 
 These are: i) the tendency to put a round dot at the top of the strokes which end 
 vertically, where the Vehgi has an angular mark (p. 17); 2) the letters in the Pallava 
 character are slightly more round than those of the Vehgi; 3) the letters are less 
 regularly formed in the last than in the former. 
 
 Now if the character used in the W. Java inscriptions be compared with that of the 
 Vehgi and Pallava inscriptions, it will at once be seen that it is nearest to the last. The 
 Java character has the peculiar small m used for a final m (t. e. with virarna), and we find 
 this also in both the Vehgi and Pallava characters, and in them only. 
 
 For these reasons, it appears to me that the source of the primitive Hindu civiliza- 
 tion in Java must be looked for in the N. Tamil coast, rather than in Kalinga proper, or 
 the Telugu sea-coast; to seek it in Bengal is out of the question, and it is also impossible 
 to seek it directly in Western India, though that is the ultimate source of all S. Indian 
 civilization of which we have any traces. 
 
 The Gupta and Valabhl characters are now well known, but though a general re- 
 semblance, such as exists between all the Indian alphabets of the 5 th century A. D., can 
 at once be traced between them and the character of the W. Java Sanskrit inscriptions, 
 this entirely fails in respect of details, which must be, in this case, the means of deter- 
 mining the exact origin of the character in question. 
 
 That S. India is the source of the early civilization of Java, is also established by 
 other facts: 
 
 i) The civilization of Java is Sanskrit, as was that of S. India, but Sanskrit words occur 
 in Dravidianized tadbhava forms rather than in their original shape as might be expected^'. 
 
 1) With the narrow meaning generally given to 'Kalinga' it is impossible to explain many facts. At Singapore I found 
 the Klings to be all Tamil people, mostly from the upper Tamil coast, though many came from the Tanjore coast. The 
 early Portuguese writers (in the 1 6th century) make it plain that this was the case even then: Correa ("Lendas", vol. 
 ii., pt. i., p. 264) says that in 1 511 the chief of the Klings at Malacca was Nynapam (i. e. Nainappan) which can only be 
 a Tamil name. Pulicat was, then, the chief port of trade with the Straits. A Kling told me (1876) that the only Telugu 
 people he knew of in the Straits were convicts from India. 
 
 -) Above pp. 16-17 and p. 37. 
 
 8) e g. Bramban ; Citraxan ; Bhiiriyravan ; -an is ths Tamil formative for proper names. So also -ramyan, yighran etc. 
 seem to be Dravidianized forms. I must remark that Profr. Kern does not accept a S. Indian origin of the Javanese 
 civilization, though he admits Dravidian influences. I take the above words from the "Zang xv. van 't Bharata-Yuddha" 
 by Prof. Kern. 
 
— 133 — 
 
 2) Dravidian words occur in Kawi and Javanese, and these are, apparently, all 
 Tamir^ 
 
 3) The architecture of the temples in Java is South-, not North-Indian in style. 
 From the W. Java inscriptions there exists a very complete series of inscriptions 
 
 with dates down to modern times^\ and a close examination of these will show that the 
 Kawi and, hence, the modern Javanese alphabets came from the W. Java (or Pallava) 
 type. 
 
 In this respect the Brambanan inscription (No.xxvii. of Cohen Stuart) is very important, 
 for it shows the derivation of the peculiar Kawi T\\ (=k) which might seem at first sight 
 to be nearest to the old Pali square form. In this inscription this letter has the form ^T^, 
 and this is merely a development of -f which occurs in the Pallava inscriptions. This 
 development is also apparent in inscriptions at the Djeng and Djogja (HoUe, "Tabel" 
 
 PP- 4-5)- 
 
 The other letters do not need any remark, for the gradual changes in form are evi- 
 dent; but it is necessary to notice a remarkable additional letter which was very early 
 added to express a sound not marked in the Indian prototype, viz., © for the short e. The 
 presence of this sign in Kawi is the more remarkable, as it was, till quite recent times, 
 not. marked in the Prakrit or Dravidian alphabets, all which languages possess this sound. 
 This letter occurs, however, in the earliest Kawi inscriptions, or from the 8th century 
 A. D.; and is, evidently, a modification of the mark for the short i, and is not, therefore, 
 of Indian origin. For, if it were, a modification of the mark for e would have been 
 used, as is now done in the Dravidian languages. 
 
 The development of the Kawi- Javanese alphabet into the actual forms as used in 
 Java, Bali and elsewhere, was very slow compared with that of the Indian alphabets, 
 for several centuries; and the current alphabets do not appear to be older than the 15th 
 or 1 6th century. 
 
 It is impossible for me here to even attempt to consider the exact origin of the 
 many different alphabets in use in the Malay Archipelago; as regards many, it seems 
 probable that the question can never be solved; for old specimens of writing seem to 
 be entirely wanting. But there can be no doubt that it will be possible to trace the 
 development of some in a perfectly satisfactory manner, and the necessary materials 
 
 ') t:.g. tinghal, tangal. 
 
 2) The most important are those published by Cohen Stuart ("Kawi Oorkonden"). The chronological order is: No. 
 xviii. = 9. 746; ii. = 762; xxv. = 77g; xxiii. = 784; xi. = 8oo; xiv. = 8o3; xv. = 8o4; ix. = 8o8; xxiv. = 828; i. and 
 xx. = 84i; vii. = 853; xxii. = 86i; iv. = 945; xxviii. = l2i6; iii. = l3i6; xxvii.= l37l. There is an inscription of 9. 
 .1265 in the Z. d. d. M. G. vol. XVII. 
 
— 134 — 
 
 will be found in Mr. K. F. Holle's excellent "Tabel van oud en nieuw-Indische Alpha- 
 betten" (1877). 
 
 At present it does not appear necessary to distinguish between the varieties of the 
 Kawi alphabet, except so far as the Java and Sumatra types are concerned: the last 
 are slightly archaic as compared with the former'^. Considering the number of flourishing 
 kingdoms that existed in the Island of Java before the Muhammadan invasion, and the 
 great extent of the Island, it seems most probable that several types of the Kawi alpha- 
 bet will be discovered to have been in use in different parts'^', but, at present, the 
 materials necessary to decide this question are imperfect. The places where several 
 inscriptions were discovered is, unfortunately, unknown, and most of those in existence 
 are from the east part of the Island. But with the great progress of archaeological 
 and scientific research in Netherland's India, this blank will not long remain. 
 
 These questions, however, do not form part of the scheme of this book, and beyond 
 the mention of the immediate origin of the Kawi or old Javanese alphabet, do not, 
 strictly speaking, relate to S. India. 
 
 The most superficial observation will now suffice to make it clear that the old 
 Cambodian alphabet is very near the E. Calukya character; this fact was first noticed 
 by Dr. R. Rost, but materials for the history of the Indo-Chinese alphabets are, as yet, 
 wanting. 
 
 'J See the Inscriptions of Batoe Beragong (y. 1269) and Pagger Roejong— both from Sumatra, in Friederich's Essay. 
 Both these Sanskrit inscriptions have been satisfactorily explained by Profr. Kern (Bijdragen). The alphabets of Sumatra 
 were first given by Marsden in his work on that island (1783). Since then Miiller is the chief authority on this subject, 
 but Holle's work will supersede all earlier essays. 
 
 2) Holle (u. s.) distinguishes two types, viz., the E. and W. Java. 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 ^S alphabets of the hands and styles of writing current at different periods give 
 ;but a faint impression of the character of the documents from which they are 
 
 derived, I shall now give specimens of the most important inscriptions from which 
 I have derived the alphabets already discussed. 
 
 Without inordinately extending the size of this work it would be impossible to give 
 complete copies of all these inscriptions, as most of them are, at least, five or six times 
 as long as the specimens given. Nor do I give a translation of the passages, as it 
 would be irrelevant to my purpose. I give however a transliteration (as far as possible) 
 of the specimens that are likely to prove not easy to read at first. Where I have found 
 it necessary to add a letter that has been omitted, I have done so in ( ). My 
 
 object being purely palaeographical, I have been obliged to choose these specimens 
 accordingly. 
 
 Plate xxiv." 
 
 This grant may be taken as an exact copy of the forms given in the law-books. 
 lb. line i. svasti. vijayaVenglpurad. bhagavacCitrarathasvamipadanuddhyato Bappabha- 
 
 2. ttaraka^'padabhaktan paramabhagavataq ^alankayano^' maharaja Ca- 
 2. I. ndavarmmanas sunur jyestho maharaja^riVijayanandivarmma Kuduharavishaye 
 
 2. Videnurpallika*'grame munyadasahitan'*' gramy(a)n samajiiapayati: asti 
 2b. — I. asmabhir asmatkulagotradharmmaya(9a)Akanti''^kirttipravarddhanaya etesha(/») 
 
 Karava- 
 
 ') This document was first described by Sir W. Elliot (in Madras Journal, xi., pp., 302-6) who then showed that it 
 belongs to a dynasty that preceded the Eastern or Kalinga Calukyas. According to that account the plates were "found 
 in the Itol or (read koleru] lake near Masulipatam, some years ago (i. e. prior to 1840) and had been laid aside as utterly 
 unintelligible." A facsimile and transcript in Nagari are promised in this article, but I have not been able to find them in 
 any copy of the Madras Journal, accessible to me. I have used an impression made on China paper, which I got from a man 
 formerly in Sir W. Elliot's employ ; of the original plates I can learn nothing. It has been lately published by Mr. Fleet 
 in the Indian Antiquary, vol. v. p. 177. 
 
 2) ? Some local deity. 
 
 3) Cfr. gana 'rajanyadi' (P. iv. 2, 53); it is included among the Bhrigu gotras of Ajvalayana, and was of course that 
 of the family-priest. 
 
 *) In modern Telugu pallika is palliya. 
 
 5) On munyada (?) see Mr. Fleet's remarks; he would correct to amatyadi. May it not be some Telugu title of a head- 
 man or chief? 
 
 8) Read (as Mr. Fleet satisfactorily amends it) ya9aAkanti. Indian Antiquary, vol. Vi, p. 69. 
 
2. 
 
 — 136 — 
 
 ka9rivaragraharvastavyana(/«) nanagotracaranasvaddhyayanaw 
 saptapanca9aduttara9atanam brahmananam esha gramax pratta^. tad avetya 
 de9adhipatyayuktakavallabharajapurushadibhis sarvapariharaiA 
 
 3*. — I. pariharttavyo raxitavya9 ^^- pravarddhamanavijayarajyasaptamasa(/«)vatsara- 
 2. sya Paushyamasakrishnapaxasya 'shtamyam pattika'^datta. || tatra 'jnapti^ 
 
 4. — I. mulakarabhojaka^^ || "bahubhir vvasudha datta bahubhi9 ca 'nupalita 
 
 2. yasya yasya yada bhum(i)^ tasya tasya tada phalaw || 
 
 3. shashtivarshasahasrani svargge k(r)idati bhumida axepta ca 'bhimanta ca tany 
 
 eva na(ra)ke vase(t)." 
 
 Plate XXV. 
 
 West (Kalya^a) Calukya, 690-1 A. D. 
 
 (This is from an inscription somewhat later than that [d. 609] from which the alphabet 
 on pi. iii. is taken, and the first page of which I gave as a specimen in the first edition; 
 but as it is far better preserved and more correct^' and legible, I give first leaf instead 
 from the excellent impression in the Indian Antiquary, vi., p. 86.) It illustrates the earlier 
 and better kind of genealogy. Mr. Fleet has translated and commented on it. 
 
 1. svasti. jayaty avishkritazw VishnoA varahaw xobitarnnavaw; daxinonnatadaw- 
 
 shtragraw vi9ranta- 
 
 2. bhuvanaw vapuA'". ^rimataw sakalabhuvanasaiwstuyamanaManavyasagotranaOT 
 
 3. Haritiputrana»2 saptalokamatribhis saptamatribhir abhivarddhitana»2 Karttikeya- 
 
 pari- 
 
 4. raxanapraptakalyanaparamparana?« bhagavan Narayanaprasadasama- 
 
 5. saditavaraha Ianchanexanaxanava9lkrita9eshamahlbhrita?7i Calukya- 
 
 6. nam kulam alankarishnor a9vamedhavabhrithasnana pavitrlkritagatrasya 9rlPu- 
 
 7. Iake9ivallabhamaharajasya sunu^ parakramakranta Vanasasyadiparahri- 
 
 8. patimandalapranibaddhavi9uddhakirtti^ Kirttivarmmaprithivlvallabhamahara-[jas 
 
 tasya 'tmajas etc^ 
 
 ') Pattika for patrika, and the construction asti. . . .prattaA point to Prakrit influences. 
 
 ^) The grant is therefore of the royal dues (legally one-sixth) from the village. The village itself (or the proprietary 
 right to the ground) could not be given by Hindu Law as it belongs to the occupants; all the king could give is his right 
 to certain shares of the produce etc. (See the discussion which settles this point in Mimamsasutra, vi. 7, 2.) This phrase 
 occurs in the oldest grants (as above) and also in the Calukya and Calukya-Cola grants. 
 
 3) The endless errors in this document render it almost unintelligible. It must have been dictated to a lipikara who did 
 not understand it. These men seem to have been mere artizans, and not scholars. 
 
 4) This is ii 5-Ioka. 
 
— 137 — 
 
 Plate xxvi. 
 
 I owe the following revised transcription to Mr. J. F. Fleet, Bombay C. S. The docu- 
 ment presents many difficulties, but is interesting as a specimen of a grant by a minister 
 (see p. 115). I give only the first page. It is in Canarese mixed with Sanskrit. 
 
 1 . Svasti'\ ^akanripakalatitasa«2vatsara»^gal elnurir(ir-)ppattarane- 
 
 2. ya subhanu e/«bha(-ba) va(r)shada Vaisakhamasakrishnapa- 
 
 3. xaparicama(-i) brihaspativaramagl(-i) svasti(-i) prabhu- 
 
 4. tavarsha9riprithuvivallabhamaharajadhirajapa(ra)me- 
 
 5. 9varaGoyindara bhatarara gamundabbegal mahade- 
 
 6. viya(-a)ragi(-i) rajya(-a)pra(va)rdhamanakaladol etc. 
 
 Plate xxvii. 
 
 This document was found near Vizagapatam in 1867, and is now (?) in the Govern- 
 ment Office at Madras^'; it is correct in form according to the law-books. 
 PL i.line i. SvastiA 9nm(an)Calukyakulajalanidhisamudito nripatini9akara^ sva- 
 
 2. bhrulatavajna(a) namitar(i) punripatimakutamaniprabhavicchuritacaranaravin- 
 
 da- 
 
 3. dvaya^ Satya9raya9rivallabhamaharajaA; tasya priyanuja^ sthalajala- 
 
 4. vanagirivishamadurggeshu labdhasiddhitvad vishamasiddhi^ dinanathadvija- 
 
 vasuvrishti- 
 
 5. pravarshanataya Kamadhenu^ yuvatishumadanayamanacaru9arirat(v)an Ma- 
 
 karadhvaja(A) 
 2. I. svadanarnnaveshu parimagnakaliprabhava^ anekasamaravijayasamudita- 
 
 2. vimalaya90vi9eshavibhushitasakaladihmandalaA Manur iva vinayajiiaA Prithu- 
 
 3. r iva prithukirttiA Gurur iva matiman Paramabrahmanya.^ 9rlVishnuvarddha- 
 
 namaharaja^ 
 
 4. Dimilavishaye Kalvakonda(?)gramadhivasina(>^) kutumbinas samavetan imam 
 
 arttham a- 
 
 5. jnapayati yatha: adhltavagatavedavedangasya Brahma9armmanaA pautra- 
 bhyam adhi- 
 
 :JMr. Fleet reads: 'Svatti' as sometimes occurs in early inscriptions. The original is doubtful as the letters of the 
 word are prolonged and thrust aside to make room for the second line. 
 
 2) For the lunar eclipse mentioned in pi. iii., that which occurred in 622 A. D. (July 28) appears to satisfy all the necessary 
 conditions. See "L'art de verifier les dates" (8° ed.) second series: vol. i., p. 309. Mr. Burgess suggests that of July 17th 
 623 as preferable because fully visible, but as this occurred in the evening, it seems, astrologically, inadmissible. {Cfr. 
 Hemadri's Danakh. pp. 61-2, 79.) The only possible date is either 622 or 623. 
 
 18 
 
— 138 — 
 
 2h. I. gatasva9akhacoditasvakarmm5nushthanatatparasya Du(r)ga9armmanaA pu- 
 
 trabhya(««)vedave- 
 
 2 . dangetihasapuranadharmma9astradyanekagamatatvadidbhyaOT Gautam(a)go- 
 
 trabhya(»i) 
 
 3. Taittirikacaranabhyaw'^ Vishnu9armmaMadhava9armmabhyaOT Puki(?)vishaye 
 
 Cerupura- 
 
 4. gramam adhivasata^ ^ravanamase candragrahananimitte sarvvakaraparihare- 
 
 5. na 'graharikritya^^ svapunyayurarogyaya9obhivriddhaye, gramo 'jz.m datta/^; 
 
 asya 
 3 . I . kai9cid api na badha karanlya | atra Vyasagitau: bahubhir vvasudha datta bahu- 
 
 2. bhi9 ca 'nupalita; yasya yasya yada bhumi^ tasya tasya tada phalaw shasti- 
 
 varsha- 
 
 3. sahasrani svargge modati bhumida^ axepta ca 'numanta ca tany eva narake 
 
 4. vaset. 9rimatimatsya ? liprasutaA svabhujabalapratapavanataripu- 
 
 5. r ajnaptirada(?)vidurjjayaA. sa»« 16; ma 4; di 15''. 
 
 Plate xxviii. 
 
 This plate gives the first eighteen lines of an Inscription d. 945 A. D. and thus of 
 the most flourishing period of the Eastern or Kalinga Calukyas. See p. 109. 
 
 I. (i) Svasti. 9rImata/« sakalabhuvanasa»/stuyamanaManavyasagotranaiw Hari-(2) 
 tiputranaw Kau9ikivaraprasadalabdharajyana»? matriganaparipalitanaiw (3) svamimaha- 
 senapadanudhyatanaOT bhagavanNarayanaprasadasamasadi(4)tavaravarahala[ncha]nexa- 
 naxanava9ikritaratimandalanama9vamedha-(5)vabhritasnanapavitrikritavapusha Calukya- 
 Vi?im kulam alawkarishno^^ Sa-(6)tya9raya vallabhendrasya bhrata Kubjavishjiuvarddhano 
 'shtada9a varshani Vengi-(7 de)9am apalayat tadatmajo Jaya,si»2has trmqa.ta.m | tadanu- 
 jendrarajana-(8)ndano Visnuvarddhano nava | tatsunur Mangiyuvaraja^ pahcaviM9atiOT | 
 tatputro 9) Jayasiwhas trayoda9a | tadavaraja/^ Kaukikilish shan masan | tasya jyeshto 
 bhra — 
 
 II. (i) ta Vishnuvardha(nas tarn) uccatya saptatri»29ataOT tatputro Vij ay adityabhatta 
 rako (2) 'shtada9a | tatsuto Vishnuvardhanash shattri/«9ataOT | tatsuto Vijayadityanaren- 
 dra-(3)mrigaraja9 ca 'shtacatvariOT9ata»« | tatsuta/^ Kalivishnuvarddhano dvyarddhava(r) 
 
 1) Should be Taittiriya; it is here correctly called a Carana. Max Muller's A. Sanskrit Literature, p. 371. 
 
 2) i. e. the inhabitants were constituted into an agrahara and the village was then given to the two persons named, who 
 had then a right to the dues formerly paid to the king. 
 
 3) The reading of this date is due to Mr. Fleet; Vishnuvardhana's reign must, thus, have begun about 606-7 A. D. 
 
139 — 
 
 sh(a)ni |] (4) tatsuto Gunaga/«kavijayaditya9 catu(9c)atvarm9ata»i5 1 ta-(5)danujayuvaraja^ 
 Vikramadityabhupat(e)/^ sunu9 Calukya-(6)bhlmabhupalas trimqatam \\ tatputra^ KoUa- 
 bhigandavijaya-(7)dityaA shan masa(n) | tatsu(nu)r AmmarajaA sapta varshani || tatsutam 
 Vijaya-(8)dityaj!« balam uccatya Talapo masam ekam | ta(m) jitva yudhi Calukya(9)- 
 bhlmabhumipates suta/i Vikramadityabhupo 'pan masan ekada9a xitiw. || 
 
 Plate xxix. 
 
 It is unnecessary to give a transcript of this, as, coming after the earlier grants, the 
 character presents no difficulty. 
 
 Plate XXX. 
 
 I . (9ri)ya»« Bhukkabhupati?« yatkirtilaxmaA kridanty ava- 
 
 hamanda»« ratnamanthapaw? muktacchatraw 9a9a(«)- 
 
 kasudlpa^ 9ukradivakarau | dharm(e)na raxati 
 
 x.{o)n{i)m vira9rlBhukkabhupatau | niratawkabha- 
 5. yat tasmin nityabhogotsavaA praja^ Gaurisaha- 
 
 carat tasmat pradurasin Mahe9varat | 9aktya 
 
 pratitaskaw9aw90 [sic?) raja Harihare9vara^ | sarva- 
 
 varnasamacarapratipalanatatpare | tasmin 
 
 catuAsamudrawta bhumiA kamadugha 'bhavat sim- 
 10. hasanajushas tasya ki(r)tya bha/«ti di90 da9a ] u- 
 
 dayadrigatasye 'ndo(r) jyotsna yeva'^ kalanidheA | 
 
 tulapurushadanadimahadanani shoda9a | kri- 
 
 tavan pratirajanyavajrapatatmavaibhava^ || 
 
 9rimadrajadhirajaparame9vara^ | pu(r)vada- 
 1 5. xinapa9cimottarasamudradhi9varaA | sa nishka- 
 
 ritadushtaraj araj anyabhuj a»«gavainateyaA | 
 
 daranagatavajrapa»2Jarah ] kalikaladharma^ | 
 
 KarnatakalaxmikarnavatawsaA ] catu(r)varnadara- 
 
 (na) palaka^ | kalagiritatalikhitaghoshanaA 
 20. ranarawgabhlshana^ ] pararajarajlvasudhaka- 
 
 ' ) Yeva, the common Teli%u way of writing e v a cfr. pi. ix. There are several errors in orthography and mistakes 
 in this document. Much is in 9lokas. 
 
 18* 
 
— 140 — 
 
 ra^ I paranarisahodara/^ | punya9l(o)kapraTia(r)sha^ | 
 9ardulamadabhawjana^ | CeraColaPandyasth(a)- 
 panacaryaA | Vedabhashyapraka^aka^ | vaidikamarga- 
 24. sthapanacarya/2 | karmopetaca(?)ryaA 1 rajakalyana9ekhara- 
 
 [sidhasarasvatetyadivirudavalibhushita/z sa khalu DraviratapaHariharamaharaya^ eic] 
 
 This is sufficient to explain ray remarks (on p. no) respecting the later, bad official 
 style. , 
 
 Plate xxxi. a. 
 
 The MS. from which this is taken is a Vratavalli which was written for the last of the 
 Telugu Nayaks of Tanjore — Vijayacokka. He was conquered by the Mahrathas soon 
 after 1670. There is no distinction made between long and short i, otherwise every 
 letter is perfectly distinct and legible. 
 
 Plate xxxii. a. 
 
 This contains the first leaf of the grant in possession of the Israelites at Cochin. 
 The date may be safely put at about 750 A. D. I have already given a revised transla- 
 tion of the whole elsewhere. {Indian Antiquary, iii. pp. 333-4.) It was translated for 
 the first time by Mr. F. W. Ellis. 
 
 1. Svasti 9ri — ko'yon araai kondan. ko ^ri Parkaran 
 
 2. Iravivanmar tiruvadi pala nurayira- 
 
 3. ttandum sen'yol nadatti yala ninra yan- 
 
 4. du irandam, andaikk' eSir muppattaram andu Mu- 
 
 5. yirikottu irunSa 'ruliya nal pirasa6issa 'ru- 
 
 6. liya pirasa8amava5u : Issuppu Irappanukku 
 
 7. anjuvannamum.vediyalum payanattalu- 
 
 8. m pa'yudamum anjuvannappBrum pa-yalvi- 
 
 9. }akkum pavadaiyum'' an5ola'yamum kudaiyum [koduttom]. 
 
 Though this grant is of the 8th century, yet it fulfils the prescriptions of the Sanskrit 
 law-books, except as regards the imprecations. I give the Tamil pronunciation. 
 
 J J pavadai=variegated cloth (chintz) used as a kind of petticoat. The Portuguese writers show that in the 1 6th century 
 men of rank in Malabar wore this kind of dress which must have resembled the Malay 'sarong', but the practice is now 
 quite unknown, and only white clothes are used. 
 
— 141 — 
 
 Plate xxxii. h. 
 
 I give this document in full as transcribed by a Nayar accustomed to read the 
 character, 
 
 ctJ06)aj§cft>OTl(D?), (gvacm csuoig) g.6inn(!JvTOlasGCY2JDa afolomoQ csrajc^o ojaila OT)S)aD GojemaacYr) g.6im 
 c!jr®1-£y«n1s>a?)0 Gc/aoaio, (ffiacm oiejla cnacm ogjoD (gnacsglffl^c^. cr)(X!^(a)l(o1 ctjiloji^ siojoglaD cnlcaj 
 
 aajooao_iSc&oQ)l06 aoftiO^toTO). 
 
 S)a-S)ie)0§tnrai cSicroajsi.'Biog-p — cD 
 
 S)ei-6&easicmffl<es) QjaTxmlral (ijg_jiftorra(Soarab oncq^inilraleso 
 
 6>0-5>ia>o65g!irati oncr^dnlralcSin s><Si05t5ra) ojlroojo^ i^sng — ^ 
 
 S50-(sragjo oncryirmlralififfl QjlfoajogTl igsr^ — ^ 
 
 (oicrnlaesoaj.isroi aiemieaQ-jlea i9s ojlraajogfl igsr§ — .a 
 
 (8iai5>ie) Scufo oj-ttT) S).Sio§(!!ra) ojlroajo^ i^^ng — qj 
 6>a-®slQjfm-cnaUjO(onaora-en_)ro a--mao — eiojagojonaora- 
 (SojO) cQ--moo — t&)Smc6«ajl@@.2ofO- So-ira mg-crroo 
 
 eia-cnocmcTaoro Gq_i(0 zjoo'-om oaio^sro® <9>aisnTl 
 
 acjaoeJ — ^it)!E»ujfa' 
 
 ffla-QjoeTlaiitSooro Scura (joa-oD s)<ft)0§nji3) Qao&i — crjoirr) 
 
 6)a-CY)CYU5lQ_lOslG£Jic96i SiO (31(3)00 GQJSmaaom Q_1061OT(J)Knlfflm ^CUaQQinOOS (3rai22c95i ^OJcOYIslcSJ) 
 
 oajslc9>3' — ojosobIcq) ojlaTls-CTOffi c^oojloao ^sl (gY5)aos ^'oodj®. 
 
 ffla-Qjcocu Q^go-ismno fd^'ioajjoo. coaoaio ojsmo fL^Y^^o-oOTwaT) arjoJildJj ©caiO^OTO) ojl^cao^o 
 
 SJiUCffl, 
 
 This is taken from a Granthavari (or book of counterparts of leases, etc.) belonging 
 to the Zamorin. I have not been able to get an earlier specimen of this character. 
 
142 
 
 Plate xxxiii. a. 
 
 This is a page of a Vritti (on the Purvamlma»2sa sutras of Jaimini) called Phalavati. 
 
 Plate xxxiii. b. 
 
 This is easily legible; it is a page from a Tamil Mahatmya. 
 
 Plate xxxiv. 
 
 This illustrates the way of describing boundaries. The village of Kumadiman-yalam 
 must be somewhere not far south of Madras, but I cannot identify it. 
 
 1 . olai seySu nattar vidutta araiyolaippadi nilattukk 'el- 
 
 2. lai: kilpark 'ellai, kunamolivaykkalukku me(r)kkum; tenparkk 'ellai, 
 
 3. irandu mavukke kilakku nokki ppayn5a utsiruvaykkalukku vadakkum; me- 
 
 4. Ipark 'ellai, madaittalaivaykkalukku kilakkum; vadapark 'ellai madaitta- 
 
 5. laivaykkalu terkumaya — ivvise(di)ttaperunanif 'ellaiyalilum a- 
 
 6. ■yappatta nilattul suduyadu oru mavaraiyura nlkki, unnilaholivihri, udu- 
 
 7. m b'odi amai tavaln5a5 'ellam Kumadimahyalam ennum peral pira- 
 
 8. maSSyama-ya (brahmadeya) pperra&arku pperra pariharam nadatsiyum Qratsiyum vattina- 
 
 9. liyum puSaranaliyum tattakkayamum llamputsiyum idaipputsiyumm anru [ . . senra5u || ] 
 
 It will be observed that this inscription (like all old Tamil inscriptions found as yet) 
 is in language much like what is now spoken; this is a very strong reason for regarding 
 the SenBamil as an artificial style, for at the time this document was written but little of 
 the poetical literature was in existence. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 TEXT, 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction 
 
 CH. 1. The probable Date of the Introduction of Writing into India I 
 
 1. FalaeograpMcal Blements. 
 
 CH. II. The South-Indian Alphabets and their Development I ' 
 
 § I. Telugu-Canarese Alphabet 'S 
 
 A. The Vengi Alphabet '^ 
 
 B. Western Calukya '7 
 
 C. Eastern Calukya ^' 
 
 D. Transitional ^5 
 
 E. The Old and Modern Telugu-Canarese Alphabets 29 
 
 § 2. The Grantha-Tamil Alphabets 33 
 
 A. Eastern Cera 35 
 
 B. Coja-Grantha and Middle Grantha 39 
 
 C. Modern Grantha (E. Grantha) and Tulu-Malayalam (W. Grantha) 41 
 
 D. Grantha-Tamil 44 
 
 § 3. The Vatteluttu 47 
 
 § 4. The South-Indian Nagarl Alphabets S^ 
 
 Note. Foreign Alphabets used in South-India 57 
 
 CH. III. The South-Indian Numeral Figures 59 
 
 § I. The Modification of the 'Cave' Numeral Figures found in the Vengi and Cera Inscriptions . 67 
 
 § 2. The Tamil Numeral Figures • ■ 68 
 
 § 3. The Telugu-Canarese Numeral Figures • • • .... 69 
 
 § 4. The Javanese Numeral Figures . . .' • 70 
 
 Note. On the different Methods of Marking Dates . . '. 70 
 
 A. The Eras 71 
 
 B. The Method of Expressing Numerals 77 
 
 CH. IV. Accents and Signs of Punctuation 81 
 
 11. Elements of South-Indian Diplomatics. 
 
 CH. V. The Writing Materials used in South-India • 84 
 
 A. Books 84 
 
 B. Letters ■ ■ • • ... 89 
 
 C. Grants and Public Documents ....... 90 
 
 Ink, Pens, etc 93 
 
 CH. VI. The Formulae of the different kinds of South-Indian Inscriptions . . 94 
 
 I. Documents conveying a right to Property 94 
 
 A. Royal Grants .... ... 94. 
 
 The Emblem or Seal 106 
 
 The Form or Wording of Royal Grants 108 
 
 B. Private Transfers of Property 116 
 
 II. Other Documents 1 20 
 
 APPENDIXES. 
 
 A. A Comparison of the expression (by written signs) of the Phonetic Elements of the Dravidian 
 
 Tongues 124 
 
 B. The Origin of the Kawi or Old Javanese Alphabet 130 
 
 C. Transcriptions of the Specimens given in the Plates xxiv— xxxiv 135 
 
 Contents, List of Plates, Addenda, Errata, etc. 143 
 
LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 Seeds used by the South-Indian Dynasties 
 
 Plate: 
 
 Frontispiece, 
 {to face p. 106) 
 
 ALPHABETS 
 
 i. 
 
 Vengi Alphabet 
 
 
 
 ii. 
 
 Cera do. 
 
 
 467 A. D 
 
 iii. 
 
 Western Cslukya Alphabet 
 
 609 
 
 iv. 
 
 — - 
 
 
 690 
 
 V. 
 
 Eastern Calukya Alphabet 
 
 680 
 
 vi. 
 
 — 
 
 
 945 
 
 vii. 
 
 Transitional 
 
 do. 
 
 1079 
 
 viii. 
 
 — 
 
 
 1134 
 
 ix. 
 
 Old Telugu 
 
 do. 
 
 1356 
 
 X. 
 
 Haja Kannada 
 
 do. 
 
 1428 
 
 xi. 
 
 Eastern Cera 
 
 do. 
 
 0. .950 
 
 xii. 
 
 _ _ 
 
 do. 
 
 c. 700 
 
 xiii. 
 
 Cola-Grantha 
 
 do. 
 
 1070 
 
 xiv. 
 
 Grantha 
 
 do. 
 
 1383 
 
 XV. 
 
 - 
 
 do. 
 
 present time 
 
 xvi. 
 
 Tulu 
 
 do. 
 
 — — 
 
 xvii. 
 
 Vatteluttu 
 
 do. 
 
 c. 750 
 
 xviii. 
 
 Tamil 
 
 do. 
 
 1080 
 
 xix. 
 
 — 
 
 do. 
 
 1456 
 
 XX. 
 
 Nandinagarl 
 
 do. 
 
 1400 
 
 xxi. 
 
 — 
 
 do. 
 
 1601 
 
 xxii. 
 
 Nagari of Seven 
 
 Pagodas and Java 
 
 xxiii. 
 
 Numerals 
 
 
 
 SPECIMENS 
 
 xxiv. 
 
 Vengi 
 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Western Calukya 
 
 690-1 A. D. 
 
 xxvi. 
 
 Cera 
 
 804-5 
 
 xxvii. 
 
 Eastern Calukya 
 
 622 
 
 xxviii. 
 
 — — 
 
 945 
 
 xxix. 
 
 • _ _ 
 
 1087 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Nandinagari 
 
 1400 
 
 xxxi. 
 
 Telugu and N. Nagari MSS. 
 
 c. 1600 
 
 xxxii. 
 xxxiii. 
 
 Vatteluttu and Koleluttu. 
 Grantha and Tamil MSS. 
 
 
 xxxiv. 
 
 Tamil 
 
 c. 1050 
 
 n to hinder Plates i. to xxxiv 
 
 . to come after the text.) 
 
ERRATA AND ADDITIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 1 note I. Profr. Whitney has lately (PP. Am. Or. Soc. 1877, pp. i. and it.) expressed doubts as regards the 
 
 Egyptian origin of the Phoenician character. 
 
 2 — 4. For: 64, a. read: 61, o. 
 
 4 line I, etc. „ Vatteluttn „ Vatteluttu. 
 
 6—20 from bottom. Spiegel ("Eranische Alterthumskunde, iii., p. 759) still insists that V^ dip = V^ Up. 
 9 — 14' Profr. Euting appears to accept the Egyptian origin of the Phoenician alphabet. See Curtiss' transl. 
 
 of Bickell's 'Hebrew Grammar' (plate at end). 
 12 — 5 from bottom. For: Kanci read; Kanci. 
 
 21 — 3. When this was originally written and now reprinted, I was not aware that Sir W. EUiot had already 
 
 noticed this dynasty in a paper in Madras J. (N. S.) IV. 
 
 22 — n from bottom. For: dhama read: dhama 
 
 23 note I. This view (that 'Trilinga' must be a recent fabrication) is fully confirmed by the result of Mr. Kittel's 
 
 researches in respect of linga-worship, by which it is established that this religion was foreign to the 
 South of India, and was introd uced in comparatively recent times. Another proof of this can be added 
 the great linga-temples of S. India are all built outside the towns, and, therefore, must belong to a 
 time subsequent to the foundation of the towns which are certainly, in many cases, very ancient. The 
 great Tanjore temple is mentioned in an inscription of the i ith century (a few miles to the North of 
 Tanjore) as then being 'outside the town'. 
 
 23 Ikie 6 from bottom. For: \I te] , sf^ t(i\. read: V^tel, V^tel 
 
 27 — 16. For: M. Rhys Davids „ Mr. Rhys Davids 
 
 27 — 7 from bottom. For: unkown „ unknown 
 
 28 — lo „ „ Dwara- „ Dvara- 
 
 37—18 „ „ Gah-jaikkondansolapuram read: Ganijai-kondah-solapuram 
 
 39 The Cola capitals appear to have been as follows: 
 
 2nd. century A. D. Uraiyiir (Trichinopoly) 
 7th. „ „ Malaikiirram (Combaconum?) 
 
 loth. „ „ Tanjore (?) 
 
 I Ith. „ „ Pandnilr (sic Albiruui) ? Tanjore. Without points, the two words would, 
 
 in Arabic letters, be nearly alike. 
 40 note 2, line 2. For: eta- read: etat- 
 
 40 — 3- According to Mr. Rhys Davids ("Num. Or." , pt. vi., p. 20) Ceylon was conquered in 1050. 
 
 42 lines 14 & 16. For: Eluttacchan read: Eluttaccan 
 
 43 line 13 from bottom. „ Pulakkale „ Pulakkale 
 
 43—11 „ „ Eluttacchan sanyasi „ Eluttaccan sannyasi 
 
 44—21 „ „ Purchas' "His Pilgrimes" „ "Purchas His Pilgrimes" 
 
 44—6 „ Add: The Supplement (1878) to Brunet's "Manuel du Libraire" mentions a book printed at Goa 
 
 in 1561 by J. de Emdem and J. de Quinquencio (s. v. Compendio). 
 45 — 19 „ For: GanTfai-kkonda read: Ganijai-kondan 
 
 47 The "Vatteluttu is now called ononoeeaocno (nanammonam) in Travancore, but what this name means 
 
 I am unable to say. 
 
 51 note 3. The best representations of the Pahlavi characters are to be found in Euting's "Drei Tafeln des Pahlevi- 
 
 u. Zend-Alphabets" 1878. 
 
 52 line 9. F. W. Ellis explains 'kol' by 'durbar'. 
 
 53 — II- For: unquestionable read: unquestionably 
 
 53 last line. „ Raffle's "Java". „ Raffles' "Java". 
 
 54 line 2. „ the alphabet „ a. specimen. 
 
6i 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 62 
 
 note 
 
 3 
 
 63 
 
 — 
 
 I 
 
 68 
 
 line 19. 
 
 80 
 
 last line. 
 
 86 
 
 line 3. 
 
 — 146 — 
 
 Page 
 
 54 line 32. Add: Fleet in Bombay Journal, vol. xii. 
 
 59 V. Kremer ("Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen" , ii. p. 440) adopts the 9th century as 
 
 the date of the importation of the Indian numeral figures by the Arabs. 
 61 — 6. See pi. xxvii. The old system was, then, in use up to the 7th century A. D. in Central India. This 
 fact would put the common use of the cypher still later even than I suggest. It is obvious that the figures 
 In pi. xxvii. are the prototypes of the modern Tamil signs. I have also met with (Tamil-Grantha) iJJ = S > 
 CI = 6 ; 0=7, but of uncertain date. ? loth century. 
 from bottom. For: arika read: (ahka) 
 
 A large shell is, however, sometimes used to mark the -cypher. 
 
 See Chasles "Aperyu historique" (2ud ed.) pp. 456 ff. also his "Histoire de 1' Arithm^tique" pt. i. 
 p. 9; pt. ii. pp. I, 2, 15-17 etc. It is impossible now to doubt that the Abacus was in common use long 
 before the introduction of the Arab arithmetic and that value by position formed part of the system. It 
 is remarkable that in the Abacus system the numbers were read from right to left, which is the contrary 
 of the Indian practice, but points to a Semitic origin. 
 For: Kodun read Kodun 
 
 „ Pilerins „ P&lerins 
 
 Older MSS. (of 1008 and 1084 A. D.) have lately been brought from Nepal; they are written on 
 Talipat leaves with ink. See "Palaeographical Society's Facsimiles of Ancient MSS. Oriental Series", 
 pt. ii., plates 16 and 17. 
 87 line 20. Add: Alblrunl (Reinaud, "Fragments", p. 149) mentions that a chronicle written on silk cloth was 
 
 preserved at Nagarkot (Panjab). 
 
 For: there are many read: there are not many 
 
 Mr. Fleet has found an instance (W. Calukya) of the 6th century A. D. 
 For: sandhivigrahadikarina read: sandhivigrahadhikarina 
 
 „ samxepena „ samxepena 
 
 from bottom. For: Vyavaharamayiikha „ Vyavaharamayukha 
 
 Other Kadamba seals present merely the name of the king (India/n Antiquary, vi. and vii.) Mr. Fleet 
 has found an old W. Calukya seal with a boar. (Indian Antiquary, vii., p. 161.) 
 109 — This gross exaggeration even attracted the notice of the Portuguese. Jarric (after many remarks on the 
 
 arrogance displayed) gives the following as the usual preface to letters of the Vijayanagara kings 
 ("Thesaurus", i., pp. 653-4): 
 
 "Sponsus Sebuasti (id est bonae sortis) magnarum provinciarum Deus, regum potentissiraorum rex, 
 cranium equitatuum Dominus, magister et doctor loqui nescientium, trium Impp. Imperator, omnium quae 
 videt conquisitor, conquisitorum conseruator; quem octo mundi partes metuunt et formidant, exercituum 
 Mahometicorum destructor, omnium provinciarum quas subegit dominus, spoliorum et opum Ceilanensium 
 direptor, Eques, cui nemo par, et fortissimorum quorumque debellator, q\ii potentissimo bellatori 
 Viraualalano cervices praescidit, dominus Orientis, Austri, Septentrionis, Occidentis et maris, elephantum 
 venator, militari scientia innutritus, exercitus nobilis" — and he goes on to state that these titles were 
 assumed by the wretched Vehkatapati! Still earlier, Prataparudra of Orun'jfal indulged in much the 
 same boasting. 
 
 For: nearly all read: most 
 
 „ (sudukkadu) ,, (suduifadu) 
 
 On recently visiting the so-called tombs of the Rajas near Tanjore, I found a small monument erected 
 quite recently with a Mahratha inscription on it, but so badly written as not to be legible. Memorials 
 erected on the places where cremation has taken place, are either : temples, with a linga, if in memorial of 
 a male, and a female idol, if of a woman ; or are small masonry platforms with an ornamental short pillar, 
 and a kind of pot on the top for a tulasi (Ocymum Sanctum) plant. Lingavants are buried, and a linga, 
 usually in cement, is erected over the place. 
 
 125 _ 8 from bottom. For: vowels beginning read: vowels; beginning 
 
 I2C . — 2 „ The Safa alphabet seems to be the link between the Phoenician and Himyaritic characters 
 
 {Journal As. series vii., vol. x.) and other alphabets will, no doubt, be found. 
 
 126 — 14. For: PoSi'jai read: PoSi'jai 
 
 88 
 
 — 
 
 14. 
 
 92 
 
 — 
 
 21. 
 
 96 
 
 — 
 
 10. 
 
 99 
 
 - 
 
 18. 
 
 105 
 
 — 
 
 9 
 
 107 
 
 — 
 
 19. 
 
 "3 - 
 
 - 1-2 
 
 117 - 
 
 - 18 
 
 120 - 
 
 - 16 
 
— 147 — 
 
 That the Klings were Tamils about 1600 appears from Houtman's Voyage (see Dutch ed. of 1648, 
 
 36). 
 
 For: "agram vi" read,: "agravi" 
 
 „ gotranam , gotranam 
 
 „ Vanasasyadiparahri" „ Vanavasyadiparanri" 
 
 „ vasuvrishti- „ vasuvrishti- 
 
 „ pi. iii. n pi- 2 i. 
 
 ta(m) „ ta(m) 
 
 ko'joii amai kondan. I have given this reading which was justified by F. "W. Ellis (for reasons, see 
 Madras Journal, xiii. pt. 2, p. 2) ; but 'ko konmai kondan' seems far preferable ; 'konmai' being from 
 'kol' and = sovereignty. 
 142 — 6. The terra manifalam in S. India signified a Brahman village or agrahara inhabited by mere householders ; 
 
 puram etc. — town where only priests live. [See Manasaia (filpaf astra) etc.] But there is no such 
 distinction now. 
 List of Plates iii. For: 609 read: c. 578. 
 In a few instances the long mark over i etc. has got broken in the impression. 
 
 132 
 
 note I. 
 
 136 
 
 line 18. 
 
 136 
 
 - 19- 
 
 136 
 
 - 25. 
 
 137 
 
 - 19- 
 
 137 
 
 - 32. 
 
 139 
 
 — 4- 
 
 140 
 
 - 18. 
 
 It having become necessary to reprint pp. 17-21 and pi. iii. in order to give the latest discoveries, I have taken 
 advantage of the delay to give above some additional information. (September 1878,) 
 
 A. B. 
 
O' 
 
 
 VENGI, 
 
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A LU K YA, e. 578 A.D. 
 
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