Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/49

Rh displacement must have been in progress during the earlier part of the sixth century A.D. and must have been completed about 580 A.D., for in 588 A.D., we already find inscriptions in Bodh-Gayā (inscription of Mahānāman, Fleet, p. 274), which show an exclusive North-Western character. There is not a single inscription known, so far as I am aware, about and after 600 A.D., which show the distinctive marks of the old North-Eastern alphabet." This statement will have to be examined in the light of later discoveries made during the last two decades—


 * (i) The Dhānāidaha grant of Kumāragupta I, G.E. 113 = 432 A.D.
 * (ii) The Mathurā Jaina image-inscription of the time of Kumāragupta I, G.E. 113 = 432 A.D.
 * (iii) The Karamdaṇḍa image-inscription of Kumāragupta I, G.E. 117 = 436 A.D.
 * (iv) The Amaunā plate of the Mahārāja Nandana, G.E. 232 = 531 A.D.
 * (v) The Paṭiakellā grant of the Mahārāja Śivarāja; G.E. 283 = 602 A.D.
 * (vi) The Gañjām grant of the time of Mahārājādairāja Śaśāṅka, G.E. 300 = 619 A.D.
 * (vii) The Muṇḍeśvarī inscription of Mahāsāmanta Mahāprātīhāra Mahārāja Udayasena, the Harṣa year 30 = 686 A.D.