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36
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(FEBRUARY, 1892.
applied tentatively and hesitatingly in those cases in which the non-conjunct ya carried the vowels é or 8 (or ai or au). But the convenience of the cursive form gradually carried everything before it, and displaced the old form entirely about 510 A. D. In all probability this process commenced, in the case of manuscript writing, earlier than in that of documentary inscription, perhaps already about 350 A. D., and terminated proportionately earlier, perhaps about 500 A. D. On the other hand, in documentary inscription the process began later and ended later. Here the use of the old form may have lingered on to about 600 A.D.; but from that date, as already shown from the evidence of existing dated inscriptions, the use of the cursive form of ya enjoyed an undisputed possession of the field.
Accordingly, for practical purposes, the role may be laid down, that any inscription in the North-Western Indian Alphabet which shows the more or less exclusive use of the old form of ya must date from before 600 A. D.
With regard to manuscripts the same rule must hold good, with this modification, that the termini must be put back by about 50 (or it may be 100) years; that is, & MS. showing the exclusive use of the cursive from of ya must date from after 550 or 500 A.D., while & MS. showing the more or less exclusive use of the old form of ya must date from before 550 or 500 A. D., and may date back as far as 350 A, D.
That this rule, as deduced from the above collected facts, is correct is proved by the Horiazi MS. This MS. uses the cursive form of yi exclusively, and, as shown by Professor Bühler, it certainly dates from some time between 520 and 577 A. D.
This rule further proves that the elaboration of the so-called Sáradá alphabet may be placed abont 500 A. D. For it possesses the cursive form of ya. Hence it follows that any manuscript and a fortiori any inscription, written in the Sáradá characters must certainly be later than 500 A. D. ; though as the Sáradá characters, with slight modifications, are used up to the present day in Kasmir and the adjacent regions, a mere consideration of the form of the cursive ya is insufficient to fix with any approximation the date of such a manuscript or inscription in any particular year after that epoch.
Now let us see the bearing of the results of the above enquiry on the question of the age of the Bower MS. It is to be noticed that,
(1) The old form of ya is used almost exclusively throughout the MS. Indeed, in the second, third and fourth portions it is used exclusively, and it is only in the first and fifth portions, that the cursive (transitional or modern) form occasionally occurs.
(2) This cursive (transitional or modern) form is never used, except when carrying the vowels è or ai or o or au.
(3) Even with those vowels, the use of the cursive (transitional or modern) form is optional; though on the whole, it is more usual than that of the old form.
(4) of the two forms of the cursive ya, the transitional and the modern, the former is used almost exclusively; the modern cursive form occurring only in a few isolated cases.
The following examples are all taken from the two published plates: and I have only to remark, that the pages, figured on the two plates, are very fair specimens of the whole manuscript.
The transitional cursive form is to be seen on Plate I, No. 1,19 in yoga 1. 1, yoga 1.2 twice yógánai 1. 3, trayódasam 1.5, kalpavet 1. 9,; again on Plate III, upper page, in jivaniyê 1. 2, payó 1..4, jîvaniyais=cha 1. 4, lépayét 1. 4, vimiárayết 1. 6, prayójayết 1. 6, avagáhayet 1. 6, yo... 1. 6, léhayet 1. 8, prayójayết 1. 11. Note that it is always used with the vowels é or ai or o.
19 Plate I is in the April Proceedings 1891, and Plate III in the November Proceedings, 1890.
