Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/44

22 inscription on the pedestal of the Sārnāth Bodhisattva image; Kaniṣka (L. 1), bhikṣusya (L. 2), yaṣṭi (L. 3) of the inscription on the back of the Bodhisattva image from Sārnāth; bhikṣusya and Puṣya (L. 1) bhikṣusya (L. 2) in the inscription on the pedestal of the Bodhisattva image in the Indian Museum found at Sāhet Māhet; kṣatriyānaṁ, veliṣṭanaṁ (L. 1): vīcakṣaṇa (L. 2) on the inscription on the pedestal of the new image from Sāhet Māhet. It should be noted in this connection, that the form of the subscript lingual ṣa, as found in kṣatriyānaṁ (L. 1) and vīcakṣaṇa (L. 2), is still more archaic, having the cursive form of the older Maurya alphabet;

(iii) the cursive form of ha, which seems to have been derived from the cursive forms of the Jaugaḍa separate edicts and the Kauśāmbī edict on the Allahabad pillar: this form occurs on one inscription only, viz. on the pedestal of the new Bodhisattva image from Sāhet Māhet; Bohisatva (L. 1—3), but in all other cases the angular form of ha is found to have been used;

(iv) in the majority of cases, the subscript ya has the tripartite form. The only exceptions being Puṣya in (L. 1) of the inscription on the pedestal of the Bodhisattva image from Śrāvastī, now in the Indian Museum and in Śakyamuni on the fragmentary sculpture from Rājgir, which is also in the Indian Museum. The dearth of inscriptions, written in characters of the later variety of the Northern Kuṣāṇa alphabet, in Eastern India has already been noticed above. Inscriptions of the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., are also very rare in the whole of the Northern India. With the exception of two inscriptions from Mathurā, which I hold to belong to the 3rd century