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INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
[$ 26, B & C.
B.-The Nepalese hooked characters ; Plate VI. According to BENDALL's careful examination of the MSS. from Nepal, the hooked characters first occur in the 12th century and disappear towards the end of the 15th. The facts, stated above, which prove the occurrence of the Nepalese hooks" in Bengal inscriptions of the 12th century and explain their origin, leave no doubt that the introduction of this modification of the top-strokes is due to the influence of Bengal, which, as BENDALL has recognised, makes itself felt also in other points.
The first of the two specimens of this character in plate VI, col. XI, which is derived from the Cambridge MS. No. 1691, of A. D. 1179,4 shows in the majority of the letters the forms of the Horiuzi palm-leaves and of the Cambridge MS. No. 1049 (cols. V-VII), with a few small modifications, such as might be expected in a much later document. Irrespective of the hooks, special Bengāli peculiarities are observable only in I, 1, E and AI. Generally speaking, these remarks hold good also for the second specimen in plate VI, col. XII, from the British Museum MS., Oriental No. 1439, of A. D. 1286. But in this script the Bengali influence is visible in
E, na, dha and la compare the transitional forms of V, 39, XVIII, XIX), while its I is very Archaic.5
Nepal and Tibet seem to have preserved a number of other, mostly ornamental, alphabets of Eastern India, hand-drawn tables of which have been given by B. HODGSON (Asiatic Researches, Vol. 16) and by SARAT CANDRADAS (J.ASB., Vol. 57, plates 1 to 7). But up to the present time no reliable materials are available, on which a paleographical examination of these scripts could be based.
C.- The arrow-head alphabet: Plate VI. The arrow-head alphabet, plate VI, cols. XVIII, XIX, wbich C. BENDALL, its discoverer,7 is inclined to identify with Berūni's bhaiksuki lipi, appears to be confined to Eastern India. It, of course, has no connection with the Nagari, but, as BENDALL points out in his very careful description, is the immediate offspring of an ancient form of the Brāhmi. It would seem that the 4, A, ka, ña, ra and perhaps also the jha of the present alphabet have curves at the lower end. This peculiarity, as well as the peculiar E, noted by BENDALL (compare plate VIII, 8, VIII) and the absence of a difference between ? and ra, seem to indicate that the present alphabet belonged to the southern scripte, for which these points are characteristic (compare plate III, cols. X-XX, and plates VII, VIII). Its pointed kha, ga, and sa likewis) occur in southern alphabets (sce plate III, 8, VII; VII, 9, XI, XIV; VII, 11, XVII; 36, IV, XVI, XX). And the forms of na, ta, and na perhaps point rather to the south-west than to the south (compare plate VII, cols. I, II, &c.). Only in the case of the looped sa it is possible to think of northern (Gupta) influence; but the possibility that it is an independent new formation is not excluded. An inscription in the same alphabet, and shewing wedges instead of arrow-heads at the top of the letters, has been discussed by BENDALL in IA. 19, 77 £.
1 BENDALL, Cat. Sankr. Buddhist MSS. from Nepal, XXII ff.
• Op. cit. XXXY, XXXVII. * Op. cit. pl. 3, 4 : Berlin Oriental Congress, Indian Section, pl. 2, 1. • Pal. Soo., Or. Ser., pl. 32; Berlin Oriental Congress, Indian Section, pl. 2, 2, 3.
. For facsimiles of MSS. with Nepalese "hooked characters," heo BENDALL, Cat. Sanskr. Buddhist MSS. from Nepal, pl. 8; Pal. Soo., Or. Series, pl. 43, 57; COWELL and EGGELINO, Cat. Buddhist MSS. of the Royal Asiatia Society, J.RAS. 1876, 1, f.; for the alphabet, see BENDALL, op. cit. pl. 4; J. KLATT, de CCC Caņakyae sententiis, pl.
• Compare also Flex's remarks on ordainental characters, IA. 15, 364. "Seventh Oriental Congress, Aryan Section, 111 ff.; and Tenth Oriental Congress, Part II, 151 ff.
