Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/30

12 (iii) The cave inscriptions at Pabhosa in the United Provinces, ca. 150 B.C.

(iv) The oldest inscriptions from Mathurā. These letters are principally taken from the oldest inscriptions discovered by Dr. A. Führer during the excavations at Kaṅkālī Ṭīlā, but the most ancient inscription from the district of Mathurā was discovered by Cunningham at Parkham. This inscription is incised on the base of a mutilated image of Yakṣa, at present in the Archæological Museum at Mathurā. Most probably its characters belong to the younger Maurya alphabet.

(v) The Hāthigumphā inscription of Khāravela of Kaliṅga, ca. 160 B.C.

(vi) The Nānāghāṭ inscriptions of the Andhras, ca. 150 B.C.

Among these, only the Nāgārjunī cave-inscriptions of Daśaratha can be said to belong to the North Eastern variety. During subsequent years one other group has been added to the above list:

(vii) The inscriptions on the railing-pillars around the great temple at Bodh-Gayā. The late Dr. Theodor Bloch drew attention to the fact that "the older part of the Bodh-Gayā railing was put up in the middle of the 2nd century B.C., about 100 years after the time of Aśoka". The cave-inscriptions of Daśaratha are about half a century older than those on the railing pillars at Bodh-Gayā. The following points are worth noting on the alphabet of the cave inscriptions:—

(1) the form of la closely resembles, that of the extremely cursive one, found in the Jaugaḍa separate edicts (see ante p. 14);