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INDIAN BRANCH
303
Bengali Character (Fig. 182, 1) Bengali is a language of the eastern group of the Indo-Aryan languages, and is spoken by about 30 million people in the province of Bengal. It is divided into several dialects, but literary Bengali is employed all over the country in books and newspapers, and when speaking formally, Bengali literature goes back as far as the fifteenth century A.D. and earlier.
The Bengali script (Fig. 153, col. 14, and Fig. 163) is a development of the proto-Bengali type (p. 363). In the fifteenth and sixteenth the Bengali character appears "fully developed. Indeed, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there appear no changes at all. In the nineteenth century the forms of the letters became stereotyped by the introduction of the printing press. The order and the number of the letters are the same as in the Deva-nagari character.
A variety of the Bengali character is used to represent modern Assamese; the Oriya, Maithili and Early Manipuri characters seem also to be somewhat connected with the Bengali script: see below.
Oriya Script Oriya or Odri is a sister language to Bengali; it is spoken by about 9.700,000 people in Orissa (the ancient Odra-desa), Bihar, Bengal, the eastern districts of the Central Provinces and northern Madras Presidency.
A peculiar script is employed for the Oriya speech. The Oriyas probably developed their written character from the same source as the preceding script, under the influence of their South Indian neighbours, the Telugu and the Tarnils. However, the peculiar shapes of the Oriya letters are due to technical reasons.
। ଭୋରକ ବେଳେ ତାହାର ବଡ଼ ପୁଅ କ୍ଷେହରେ ଅଟ । ପଣି ଅସୁ ୨ ଘର କରରେ ପ୍ରବେଶ ହୋଇ ନାi୪ ଓ ବିଦ୍ୱାର
। ତରୁ, ପାହାର ଉକର ବିଡ଼ିକା ବେ ଖେଭଲ ସିଏ ରହୁ । ଓ ଘର ସୁଭଲ ଅଇସ୍ ଭ ବାଲା ଭ|ହୋଇ ର
ଏକ ଆଦୃକା ବୋ ଲିକା ଥା, ଆଜିର ଓ ଲେକେ ବିରସେ ଛୋ୪ ଦାଔରୁ
Fig. 64-Specimens of Oriya writing 1, Standard script (Kalahandi State). a, Chhattisgarhi (Patna State). 3. Hindustani, used
by the Orissa Moslens
