Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/43

Rh at that time and has since suffered much from the weather. When I examined the stone in 1906, I found that the fragmentary inscription, was almost illegible. The use of the broad-backed śa, the shortening of the verticals in pa, and the ma in which the lower part is invariably triangular in form, show that the inscription belongs to the early Ku āṇaKuṣāṇa [sic] period. Yet, the doubtful ya in the opposite corner of the inscription, which is archaic in form, proved that the record must be referred to a period slightly earlier than those, in which the later, fully developed tripartite form of ya is found to be used.

II. The Eastern variety of the North-Indian Alphabet of the Kuṣāṇa period, later variety. No inscription, which can be safely referred to this class, has been discovered as yet in any part of North-Eastern India.

The principal characteristics of the earlier variety of the North-Eastern Kuṣāṇa alphabets are:—

(i) the use of the broad-backed śa:—daṇḍaśca and Śāvastiye (L. 2 Śrāvastī image-inscription, Indian Museum, daṇḍaśca (L. 7), Śāvastiye (L. 8) of the Indian Museum umbrella-staff inscription, Śīvadharasya, Śiāvāsta (L. 1), kuśalā, bhuyakuśalaṁ, and Śivamitrena (L. 3) of the new Bodhisattva image-inscription from Sāhet Māhet, Śakyamuni, on the fragmentary sculpture from Rājgir; Indraśiri and Parahaśalika (L. 2) in the inscription on the newly discovered pedestal from Rājgir; (ii) the lingual ṣa, angular in form in which the cross-bar does not reach the left vertical line: Kaniṣkasya (L. 1), bhikṣusya, Puṣya (L. 2), yaṣṭi and pratiṣṭhāpito (L. 4), kṣatrupena (L. 8), pariṣā (L. 9) of the Sārnāth Umbrella-staff inscription, pratiṣṭhāpito (L. 1), kṣatrapena, mahākṣatrapena and Vanaṣparena in (L. 2) of the