Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/87

Rh From this point onward, we shall have to confine ourselves to the development of the Eastern alphabet only, and to compare it with that of the central. This, again, will be called Western, from the point of view of our observation, for the sake of better distinction. In the earlier part of the 9th century A.D., the Gurjjara-Pratīhāras founded an extensive empire in Northern India, which extended from Bihār in the East to the Punjab in the West and from the Himalayas in the North to Malwa and Gujrat in the South. In Bengal, Devapāla succeeded Dharmapāla and kept the Pala Empire in tact. But his successors, Vigrahapāla I and Nārāyaṇapāla, were not so fortunate and we find that the Gurjjara-Pratīhāra emperors wrested Northern and Southern Bihār from them. We know from three different inscriptions that Magadha or Southern Bihār was included in the dominions of the Emperor Mahendrapāla:

1. The Dighwā-Dubhauli grant of Mahendrapāla, V.E. 955 = 898 A.D.

2. The Rām-Gayā inscription of Mahendrapāla, the year 8.

3. The Guṇeriā image-inscription of Mahendrapāla, the year 9.

The following inscriptions of the 9th century A.D. may be safely referred to the Eastern variety of the Northern class:

1. The Munger grant of Devapāla, the year 32.

2. The Ghoṣrāwā inscription of the time of Devapāla.