Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/124

90 (b) The length of the vowel is denoted in the Cambridge Manuscripts by a slanting straight line placed below the short I.

5. U:—

(a) The form used in the Kamauli grant shows a hollow wedge instead of the top-stroke, the inward curvature of the vertical line, and the shortness of the terminal curve. (b) The form of the letter in the Torpondighi grant is not much different. Here the top stroke is a very short horizontal line instead of the wedge. ''Cf. ubhan'' (L. 51).

(c) In the Cambridge Manuscripts we find the development almost complete. The only change needed is the addition of the curve placed in the modern form above the top stroke.

This stroke we find for the first time in a Bengali Manuscript of Śāntideva's Bodhi-caryāvatāra written at Veṇugrāma in the Burdwan District in V.E. 1492 = 1435 A.D. which was discovered by Mahāmahopādhyāya Hara Prasāda Śāstri, C.I.E., in Nepal. We find this U in L. 1 of the last page (66) in the word Koccha-uccha.

6. U is of very rare occurrence and is to be found in the Cambridge Manuscripts only where we find that the length is denoted by the addition of a second curve at the bottom. The only addition in later periods was the curved stroke above the base line which seems to have been made about the same time as that in the short one.

7. Ṛ is, also, of very rare occurrence and we find it for the most part in manuscript records:—

(a) It occurs in the Kamauli grant, where it consists of a triangular va, with a wedge for its top stroke and a