Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/57

Rh that two different forms have been used, in the case of three test letters ṣa, la and ha.

I. Ṣa:—

(i) Eastern variety.

1. Ambarīṣa (L.I), 2. viṣayapati (L.3), 3. viṣayamahattara (L.4), 4. Ghoṣacandra (L.5), 5. kṣettra (L.7), 6. viṣaye (L.8), 7. viṣaye (L.10), 8-9. kṣettrāṇi and kṣettra (L.11), 10. dṛṣṭi (L.12), 11. ṣaḍ-bhāgaḥ (L.13), 12. abhilāṣa (L.14), 13. ṣalaṅga, (L.19), 14. modaneṣu (L.21).

(ii) Western variety. Strictly speaking, the forms of the letter, used in the following words, are much later in date than the North- Western Gupta alphabet. In all cases, the letter is found in the ligature kṣa and we find that peculiar curvature before ka denoting the presence of the ṣa, which we see for the first time in the inscriptions of Ādityasena and those of the Gāhaḍavāla princes of Kanauj, in the 11th and 12th centuries A.D. There are five instances of this later form in the first grant—

1. kṣettra (L.16), 2. anugrahākāṁkṣiṇā (L.18), 3. kṣepa (L.21), 4. dakṣiṇeṇa (L.23), 5. kṣeṇī. (L.25).

II. La:—

1. lavdha (L.2), 2. kālasakha (L.5-6), 3. durllabha (L.6), 4. lābhah (L.18), 5. saṁkalpābhiḥ (L.14), 6. Śīlakuṇḍaś=ca (L.214).

1. kāle and 2. vārakamaṇḍale (L.3), 3. āluka (L.5), 4. kuṇḍalipta and 5. kulasvāmi (L.6) 6.