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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIV No. 1 1 Sri-Sadār[nna]va-Gandhahasti-Vasantali2 la-Harshavarddhana-paksha pātaḥ(ta)3 Pärvva-dēsīsya*)-Va(Ba)lavarmmaņa[h] [l*]
4 likhitam Tamyra(Tāmra)ghatēna | Among palaeographical peculiarities of the inscription, reference may be made to the mark of punctuation at the end, which is similar to the sign in other inscriptions at Jägēsvar. The expression pakshapata in line 2 is of lexical interest as it has apparently been used in the sense of 'one who works on behalf of someone else'. The person named Balavarman, who was responsible for the inscription, is thus stated to have caused the record to be engraved on behalf of four other persons named Sadārnava, Gandhahastin, Vasantalila and Harshavardhana. There is little doubt that Balavarman performed the pilgrimage to Jāgēsvar as a proxy of the four persons mentioned. As we have seen elsewhere, people of ancient India, who were themselves unable to visit holy places, sometimes sent others on pilgrimage at their cost with the belief that part of the merit of visiting the holy places in question would fall to their share. Balavarman is described as one hailing from Purva-dēša or Eastern India, defined in ancient Indian literature as the land lying to the east of the eastern districts of U.P. The inscription is stated to have been written by a person named Tämraghata. By written', apparently writing the letters of the record on the stone with a paint for facilitating the work of the engraver was intended.
No. 2 1 Sri-Pētt-A[na(na)]rtha-Lava-Kracha-Bhanda- 2 [Vi]dyādhara-Ch[urgas-Vajrāha-pakshapāta
3 Va[tējávarasya Purva-dēbisyasya /*] Some of the letters and signs of this epigraph, written in characters similar to those of No. 1 above, are ornamental. The vowel-mark in vi at the beginning of line 2 is so ornamentally formed that the akshara looks like ki and may be compared with the form of the same akshara in No. 22 below. The most interesting from the palaeographical point of view is, however, the letter & in the last akshara of the inscription. Its ornamental shape resembles the late medieval type of the Bengali 6. The modern Bengali form of the letter first occurs in the manuscript of Chandidasa's Srikrishnakirtana written in the fourteenth or fifteenth century A.D.' It is really strange that a form, in which the precursor of the developed shape of the letter can be easily traced, is found in the epigraph under study which belongs to the early medieval period. This shows that the tendency towards the final development of the letter was already there in the early medieval period in the Siddhamätrikā stage of the Gaudiya or East Indian alphabet which gave rise to the Bengali script about the fourteenth century A.D. It is interesting, however, to note that similar forms have not yet been traced in earlier records.
The word paksha-pāta has been used in this inscription in the same sense as in No. 1. The record states that it belonged to (i.e. was caused to be engraved) by Vatosvara of Purva-dēka on behalf of Pētta, Anartha, Lava, Kracha, Bhanda, Vidyadhara, Churga and Vajrāha. Vatēsvara apparently performed the pilgrimage as a proxy of the said persons. It appears that Balavarman of No. 1 and Vaţēsvara of No. 2 visited Jägēsvar together. The probability is that both of them hailed from the Bengal region of Purva-dēga. This is possibly suggested by the form of 6 in No. 2, which does not resemble the shape of that letter in the other alphabets of the eastern region such as Maithili and Oriya.
1 See above, Vol. XXXI, pp. 100-01 ; cf. Vol. XXXII, pp. 103 ff. 1 Cf. Siroar, Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India, pp. 172-83. .R.D. Banerji, Origin of the Bengali Script, p. 110;JRASB, Vol. IV, 1938, p. 376,
