Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/68

42 In other words, the North-eastern epigraphic alphabet of the 6th century A.D., presents the ordinary characteristics of the North-western variety of the early Gupta alphabet.

Early in the latter-half of the 7th century A.D., we find a marked change in the North-Eastern alphabet. The Shahpur image-inscription of the Harṣa year 66 = 671 A.D. and the undated Aphsaḍ inscription, both of the time of Ādityasena of Magadha, exhibit this change for the first time. From this time onward, the eastern variety of the northern alphabet, develops by itself and the western variety never succeeds in displacing it again. For a short time only, during the domination of the Gurjjara-Pratihāra princes, a western variety, called Nāgarī, makes its influence felt and divides the eastern variety into two different branches. Out of these sub-divisions, the western one is gradually absorbed in Nāgarī, while the eastern one develops separately and becomes the Bengali script, of the llth and 12th centuries A.D. At this period, it is necessary to take a more complete survey of the Eastern alphabet, than that done in the case of the Eastern variety of previous centuries. In the latter half of the 7th century A.D., we find the following characteristics of the eastern variety of the northern alphabet.—

I. Vowels.

(1) The upper part of the left limb of a has become a slightly elongated nail-head or wedge, while the lower part is converted into a regular curve, with a knob at its top, looking more like a comma. The right limb together with the line joining both the limbs, can be drawn at one stroke of the pen and the letter resembles the Bengali one, in its present form. Cf. a in ajanayad (in L. 6).