Indian Antiquary Vol 49

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 30

26
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ FEBRUARY, 1920
the following remark about its palæography: “The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets and are in every respect similar to those of the Mundeśvari inscription of Udayasena, from the Shahabad district ” (Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 286). This general remark he has illustrated in extenso by definite examples, but they are, I am compelled to say, far from being of a convincing nature. For, he himself admits, for instance, that the letters y (which is tripartite) and of the Mundesvari inscription are of the Early Gupta type 'a point of great importance which seems to have been missed when he assigns the record to the Harsha era and refers it to A.D. 636. This conclusion is based by him on a consideration of the affinity of characters existing between this inscription with those of the years 34 and 39 (of the Harsha era) from Nepal (op. cit., p. 289). But I submit, this comparison, and consequently the conclusion that it leads to, are incorrect. First, because, inscriptions of the same provenance, although they are available, have not been brought together for comparison which is a mistake in any palæographio examination of a scientific nature. There is no paucity of stone inscriptions, which date from the Harsha period and are not distant from the place whence our record comes, such e.g. as the Bodhgaya inscription of Mahânâman and the Âphsa inscription of Adityasena referred to above. Secondly, mere similarity of character between any two inscriptions is not enough to show that they necessarily belong to the same period, especially when they are separated by long distances. This important point is undoubtedly admitted by Bühler, who points out that the eastern variety of the epigraphic Gupta alphabet of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. represented e.g. by the Allah& båd pillarinscription of Samudragupta is to be found even in Pandit Bhagvanlal's inscriptions from Nepal26 which belong to the seventh century A.D. But if we follow Mr. Banerji's line of argument we shall be compelled to assign the Allâhâbâd pillar-inscription to the age of the Nepal inscriptions--a conclusion which I am afraid, no palmographist can ever bring himself to accept. The Mundesvari inscription cannot, therefore, precisely for the same reason, be brought in a line with the Nepal inscriptions; a fact which is in oppo. sition to the remark of Mr. Banerji that “The palæography of the epoch beginning with the last half of the sixth and ending with the first half of the seventh century A.D. can nowhere be studied with greater advantage than in Nepal.” (Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 286.)
It has been stated above that the inscription is throughout in right-angled characters, but the inscriptions with which it has been chronologically grouped by Mr. Banerji, viz. the Bodhgayâ and Aphsad inscriptions, are in acute-angled characters. This fact is rather interesting as it has an important bearing on the chronology of the records in question. Acute-angled form of letters has been acoepted by Bühler as a prominent characteristic of the North Indian epigraphs from the sixth century A.D. onwards. 17 And Mr. Banerji too, does not seem to have disputed it.28 It is difficult to reconcile this with the fact that the Mundesvari inscription, which is assigned by him to the seventh century A.D., is entirely in right-angled instead of acute-angled characters, In discussing the palæography of the four Faridpur grants99 which he calls spurious, Mr. Banerji explains
26 Ind. Pal., p. 46.
3 Ibid., p. 49. 38 "The presence of the acute-angle," he admite," is also another important feature in the determination of the characteristics of the alphabet." -JASB., N.S., Vol. VII, p. 295.
20 The Evidence of the Faridpur granto-Ibid.