________________
APRIL, 1876.]
INSCRIPTIONS FROM KÅvt.
113
grâ, Amod, and Jambûsar, were included in the Bharu kachchha Vishaya, just as the southern Ankuleśvara or Akrûreśvara Vi. sha ya comprised the tâlukA of Anklesvar together with the Petta Mahal Hamsot (Hamsapattaka ?).
of 385 the eri 1 and ga of srivitarágasúnoh come also nearer to the Devanagari than to the forms of the so-called cave-characters. Further, in the Umetà grant the sign-manual is as below:
s
The last point which requires attention is the G T Å HA en a examiner will observe that it contains four letters St L AN u TO
sign-manual of king Jayabhata. Any casual
which are nearly pure Devanagari, viz, the double ma in , the syllable Sri 1, and the letter ya y. It is also very remarkable that the hori- and exhibits a large number of perfectly and zontal strokes over the remaining letters of the imperfectly formed Devanagari letters, as well sign-manual are unusually long. If Jayabhata's as the horizontal and vertical strokes which are grant alone showed these peculiarities, they characteristic of that alphabet. might be used as an argament against its genu. The same peculiarity may also be observed in ineness, or they would, at all events, be diffi- the Kavi grant of the Rashtrakata king Gocult to explain. Fortunately this is, however, vinda raja, dated 827-28 A.D. and translated not the case. Professor Dowson's grant of 380 below, where the sign-manual is engraved with a shows in the sign-manual three times a form of stylus, while the body of the grant has been 8 T which is exactly the same as that now used punched in as usual. There also the letters of in Mårvåd, and the noh in Srivitarâgasûnoh the signature are highly ornamented half-formed resembles exactly the Devanagari form now in Devanagari, and about twice the size of the nse (
F 1 ). Again, in Professor Dowson's plate | letters of the grant.
qur INZZ NEYB
These facts, I think, suffice to prove two There are other points, such as the existence of things :-firstly, that the engravers of the plates a few inscriptions of the eighth and ninth centried to imitate the signatures of the kings turies written in Devanagari characters, which which they had before them in the written do- make it very probable that the alphabet now cuments which they copied ; and, secondly, that in general use throughout the greater part of already, in the beginning of the fifth century India is much older than is commonly supposed. A.D., an alphabet resembling the present Deve- But the subject is too important to be treated någari, and based like it on the principle of incidentally, and I must reserve its fuller consifitting the old cave-characters between hori- deration for another opportunity. For the zontal and vertical lines was used for the pur- present I only wish to draw the attention of poses of everyday life.
Sanskritists to this point. ..........cfeaf arer fag f ra...................... %.... [HOT]a regret: 16 T am ........ .... T h at 7 TITTAT HITT
T rafa ...... ........ H a lamat 7 T: TEHT: Tangarafareri........ ........g ada # THITETTOata at sagata[er] ...... .. कृतोस्ति भसिधाराजलेन शमितमासभ वलभीपतेयुदे यो नशेषलोकसभापकलापदस्तायिकानल....
There are two Devanagart inscriptions dated in San found a third, dated Samvat 900, on a PALA at Waghel. vat (Vikrama) 802 under the images of Uml- Maheśvara . In line 1 read of a 1.8-464648194; 1914 and Ganapati at Anhilv&q.Pathar, and Major Watson has 1.6- 18- , a . feü incertain
