Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/47

Rh *3. The Southern variety: specimens—
 * (i) the Bilsaḍ pillar-inscription of Kumāragupta I,
 * (ii) the Gangdhar inscription of Viśvavarman,
 * (iii) the Mandaśor inscription of Kumāragupta I, and Bandhuvarman,
 * (iv) the Vijayagaḍh inscription of the Yaudheyas
 * (v) the Vijayagaḍh pillar-inscription of Visṇuvar-dhana,
 * (vi) the Girnār (Junagaḍ) Rock inscription of Skandagupta.
 * 4. The Central Asian varietyy: specimens—
 * (i) the Bower Manuscript,
 * (ii) numerous other manuscripts written in the Central Asiatic variety of the Gupta alphabet discovered by the British and German expeditions.

Twenty-one years ago, five years before the publication of Dr. Bühler's work on Indian Palaeography, Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle recorded the following observations on the Indian script of the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.: "There existed at the time of the Gupta period two very distinct classes of the ancient Nāgarī alphabet, North Indian and the South Indian. The test letter for these two great classes is the character for m. The Northern class of alphabets, however, is again divided into two great sections which, though their areas overlapped to a certain extent, may be broadly, and for practical purposes sufficiently, distinguished as the Western and Eastern sections. The test letter in this case is the cerebral sibilant