Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/56

32 We should now proceed to the Palographical examination of a class of records, about which there is much difference of opinion. I refer to the four copper-plate inscriptions, which have been discovered at various times during the last three decades. The first three was published by Mr. F. E. Pargiter in 1910 and the last one was published by myself as well as by Mr. Pargiter in 1911. In size, script and composition the four records indicate that they belonged to the same variety. These four grants differ from all other copper-plate inscriptions discovered in India on the following points:—

(i) they are not grants of lands, made by any paramount sovereign, nor by any feudatory chief, with the sanction of his suzerain,

(ii) they purport to be deeds of transfer of property, made by certain local officials, to a private person, as well as deeds of grants, made by those private persons to certain Brāhmaṇas;

(iii) they mention a number of officials by their proper names, and not merely by designations, as usual.

The facts, quoted above, would alone go to prove that the records were spurious. But in addition to them, we have the palographical evidence, which shows that the alphabets of two different periods and in the case of the last one, of three different periods, have been used in the composition of these inscriptions. In these records we find that, (1) ṣa, la and ha have two forms and often three; and are used in conjunction with forms of the sixth or even of the seventh or ninth centuries A.D. In the first grant: the grant of Dharmāditya of the year 3, we find