Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/67

Rh the Barābār cave-inscription of Ananta-varman, the Nāgārjunī cave-inscription of Ananta-varman, and the Nāgārjunī cave-inscription of Ananta-varman.

The principal characteristics of the alphabet, which remained current in North-eastern India, from 550-650 A.D. are noted below:

(1) The use of the tripartite form of ya. The only exception is the Gañjām grant of the time of Śaśāṅka, The difference cannot be accounted for at present, so long as the riddle of Śaśāṅka-Narendra remains unsolved. Why, probably surnamed Narendra, whose coinage is allied to that of the early or the Imperial Guptas, went to Kaliṅga and how he came to be acknowledged as a suzerain, by the Śailodbhava princes of the Koṅgoda-maṇḍala, is still a mystery to us. The introduction of the North-Eastern alphabet, into the Northern Sircars, was also probably due to this prince. We find the ordinary 6th century alphabet of Kaliṅga, in the Buguḍā grant of Mādhavavarman and the Parikuḍ plates of Madhyamarāja.

(2) The general prevalence of right angles at the lower extremities of certain letters e.g. gha, pa, pha, ṣa and sa.

(3) The absence of later developments such as tails or verticals on the right of these signs.