Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/64

38 (iv) The Muṇḍeśvarī inscription of the Mahāsāmanta Mahāpratīharā Maharājā Udayasena, H.E. 30=636 A.D.

II. The final settlement of the chronology of the Gurjjara-Pratīhāra dynasty of Northern and Central India, by the researches of Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar and the late Mr. A.M.T. Jackson, has placed the introduction of the Nāgarī alphabet into Northern India one hundred and thirt-yseven [sic] years later. On this point Dr. Bühler said "In Northern and Central India, the Nāgarī appears first on the copper-plate of the Maharājā Vināyakapāla of Mahodaya probably of A.D. 794." The real date of Vināyakapāla's grant is V.E. 988=931 A.D. instead of H.E. 188=794 A.D.

III. The discovery of a number of inscriptions in North-Eastern India, specially of the Pāla kings of Bengal, makes it possible to distinguish two different varieties of the North-Eastern alphabet, as early as the 8th century A.D., and shows that Nāgarī has had very little influence on the development of the Bengali alphabet.

Sixteen years ago, the Bodh-Gayā inscription of Mahānāman was the only known dated inscription of the 6th century A.D., in North-Eastern India. In it, Dr. Hoernle and Dr. Bühler, found, for the first time, that the Eastern variety of the early Gupta alphabet has been entirely displaced by the Western one. But, we have already seen, that fresh discoveries place this displacement more than a century earlier. The next point to be considered is the tripartite form of ya and the downward limit of its use. In 1891 Dr. Hoernle fixed 600 A.D. as the