Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/191

 173 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [Juki, lfi Society ; many of the notices, however, are very imperfect, and some are full of inaccuracies that may mislead. These two works contain all that is as yet rally available towards a history of the < Ymarese Country and its language. And, as, in addition to many of the inscriptions thus published being altogether insignificant, and in addition to some in one of the two books beins only diiferent copies by another hand of those in the other, the photographs are on a very small scale* and frequently are so indistinct in details as to be practically illegible, the field thus offered for investigation becomes of a very limited extent. Official duties leave but little leisure for pri- vate study; but, as a commencement towards placing on record for general reference a series of Old Canareso inscriptions in a connected form, I propose publishing from time to time in the pages of tins journal such of the contents of these books as I have leisure to look into. Occasionally 1 may add inscriptions copied from the originals by myself or under my direct superintendence. And, whenever I am able, 1 shall give such notes of my own on the subject of inscriptions at other places as may tend to elucidate- the .subject-matter of the text, or to indicate whore further information bearing on it may be found, if others, to whom other copies of the.se two oilh-ctions may be available, will cooperate, of the inscriptions as can be satisfactorily edited from the photographs may soon bo dis- ced of, and a great deal of useful information be placed on record. According to the language used, the inscrip- of the Canarese Country may be distri- buted over three periods. In the older inscrip- tions the language is as a rule entirely San occasionally Old Canarese words are introduced, but they are not of frequent occurrence, and from their isolation it is often difiicnit to deter- mine their meanings. In the next sta^e, both the Sanskrit and the Old Canarese Iangoj are used conjointly, the latter usually predomin. feting; frequently the transition from the Sans- on — "■ "*r w N T T'.'*' ,•'••:" '"■•™«jiiir room nit v on »rtone-Ublet 112" ugh by ftp broud. Ti,- £^2 a in the moat exoehrat order, and must be levibl, C lWtung -to esd w,tL esse and certaintv ; but* Z J,' ate i be letters m the photojrrapb, that it i'n a TOrv .j;£ ,, to decipher and edit the content.. To pLtoS krit to the Canarese language and idiom, anil vice versa, is very abrupt. Lastly, the m on- modern inscriptions are entirely in the Old Canarese language and idiom, with of course a copious intermix tnre of pure as well as cor- ru] 1 1 id Sanskrit words; the opening invocations and the closing benedictive and imprecatory Verses are sometimes pure Sanskrit and some- times Canarese. Speaking generally, tho pure Sanskrit period lasts up to about the middle of the ninth century a,d., the mixed Sanskrit and Old Canarese period lasts from then up to about the middle of the eleventh century, and the pure Old Canarese period then commences ; the limits of these periods may be more defi- nitely fixed when a greater number of the inscriptions have been examined in detail. Pure Sanskrit inscriptions are of course to be met with down to the last, but, after the in- period specified above, they are the exception and not the rule ; it should be remarked, how- ever, that copper-plate inscriptions are almost always Sanskrit, whatever their age may be. The inscriptions of the earliest period are not very numerous ; by far the majority belor the second and third periods. As regards the characters used, the earlier inscriptions of the pure Sanskrit period are in the old Cave-alphabet, the source of both the modern square Dcvanugari characters and the round Canarese characters. The Old Canarese alphabet- began to be elaborated, by rounding off the angular points of the characters of th e Cave-alphabet, towards tho end of the pure Sanskrit period. By about the middle of tenth century it assumed a defined and settled character. About the commencement of the thirteenth century the characters begun t teriorate and to pass into the modern fori in some respects the modern Telngu alphabet represents, more closely than (he Modern Oana- rese alphabet does, the Old Canarese alp!: of the third period specified above. Pure Sanskrit inscriptions of the latter part of the first period and of the second fend third BW frequently engraved in the Old Canarese SffS! H ?l 1k? «***bb l«**th Dj