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INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
[$ 22, A.
On the other hand, we meet, from the 7th century, with inscriptions in northern characters first on the coast, in the west in Gujarāt, and in the east even beyond Madras. Documents of this kind appear from the middle of the 8th century also in the central Dekhan, and during the 12th and 13th centuries they penetrate as far as Vijayanagara in the Kanarese country (see below, $ 23). But they never come into sole use beyond the northern limit of the Dravidian districts.
The ancient MSS. hitherto found in Kashgar, Japan and Nepāl, the oldest of which probably were written in the 4th century, show only northern letters. The palm-leaf MSS. of Western India, which begin in the 10th century, agree with the inscriptions of the period, and prove that the northern Nāgari was generally used in Rājputāna, Gajarāt, and in the northern Dekhan as far as Devagiri (Daalatābid). The gradaul advance of the northern characters towards the south probably is explained by the predilection of many southern kings for northern customs, and by the immigration of northern Brahmans, castes of scribes, and Buddhist and Jaina monks, to which facts the statements in various inscriptions and the historical tradition bear witness. $ 22.-The so-called Gupta alphabet of the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.; Plate IV.
A.- Varieties. . The differences between the eastern and western varieties of the so-called Gupta [47] alphabet appear in the signs for la, sa and ha.7 In the eastern variety the left limb of la (plate IV, 34, I-III, V, VI) is turned sharply downwards ; compare the le of the Jangada separate edicts (see above, $ 16, C, 35). Further, the base-stroke of $a (IV, 37, I-III, V, VI) is made round and attached as a loop to the slanting central bar. Finally, the base-stroke of ha (IV, 39, I-III, V, VI) is suppressed, and its hook, attached to the vertical, is turned sharply to the left, exactly as in the Jaggayyapeta inscriptions (see above, 20, ). In the western variety these three letters have the older and fuller forms.
The specimens of the eastern variety in plate IV. have been taken from the oldest Gupta inscription, Harişena's Allahabad Prasasti (cols. I—III), which certainly was ineised during the reign of Samudragupta, probably between A. D. 370 and 390, and from the Kabāam Prasasti of A. D. 460 (cols. V, VI) of the time of Skandagupta. It appears, besides, in Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions (CII. 3) Nos. 6–9, 15, 64, 65, 77; in BHAGVĀNLĀL's inscriptions from Nepal, Nos. 1-3; and in CUNNINGHAM'S Gayā inscription of Samvat 64.10 The fact that FLEET'S No.6 is found far west, near Bhilsa in Mālva, may be explained by its having been incised, during an expedition of Candragupta II. to Mālva, at the command of his minister, who calls himself an inhabitant of Patalipatra. Nothing is known regarding the origin of Fleet's No. 77, which is incised on a seal, purchased in Lahore, but possibly manufactured in Eastern India.
Fragments of insoriptione with northern characters of this period, from Valsbhi, are preserved in the Museums of Bombay (the Branch of the Royal Asiatio Society) and Rajkot. Compare also the sign-manuale on the Gurjara land-grants, J.RAS., 1855, 247 ff.
. B. ESIP. 53, and plate 22 a; IA. 18, 181, 172.
I agree with HOLENLE, who considers oertain portions of the new Godfrey colleotion from Kasbgar to be older than the Bower MS.; J.ASB. 66, 258.
* KIELHORN, Report on Sanskrit MSS., 1880-81, 1 ff.; PETERSON, Second Report, Appendix I, and Third Report, Appendix I. • J.RAS. 1895, 247:
• Compare B.EISP. 20, 58 ff.; FLEET in EI. 3, 2. Compare HORNE, J.ASB. 60, 81, who mentione m alone, because his remarks refer also to the type discussed. below in $ 28.
* SB.WA. 122, XI, 32 ff.
.IA.9,163 ff. ; in my opinion the ora is not, as FLERT holds in Gupta Insoriptions (CII. 3), Introduction, 98, 177 ff., that of A. D. 818-19, but one poouliar to the Nepalese. the exact beginning of which he still to be determined.
10 C.MG. pl. 25; the era may be that of the Guptas.
