Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/48

26 sha (ṣa)" This classification was also adopted by the late Dr. Bühler, who added two more test letters: la and ha. "The differences between the Eastern and Western varieties of the so-called Gupta alphabet appear in the signs of la, ṣa and ha. In the Eastern variety, the left limb of la is turned sharply downwards: cf. the la of the Jaugaḍa separate edicts. Further the base stroke of ṣa is made round and attached as a loop to the slanting central bar. Finally the base stroke of ha is suppressed, and its hook, attached to the vertical, is turned sharply to the left, exactly as in the Jaggayyapeta inscriptions. In the Western variety these three letters have the older and fuller forms." Another test letter, of the Eastern alphabet of this period, is the dental sibilant sa. In the inscriptions of the Eastern variety, this letter always has a loop at the end of its left vertical line instead of the customary curve or hook, cf. the form of the letter in the Allahabad pillar-inscription of Samudragupta. This form of sa has also been found in the inscriptions of the Kuṣāṇa period, discovered in Mathurā. The Kaṅkālīṭīlā inscription of the 25th year, shows that, in that inscription, all cases of sa, have this form.

The characteristics of the epigraphic alphabet of the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. have already been discussed at length by Dr Bühler. It will only be necessary to trace the history of the development of the Eastern variety in the following pages. In 1891, Dr. Hoernle perceived that, "in India proper, the North-eastern alphabet gradually came to be entirely displaced by the North-western alphabet, in comparatively very early times. This