cover image: The Origin of the Bengali Script

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The Origin of the Bengali Script

1919

From the beginning of the Empire of the Mauryas till the downfall of the Imperial Guptas Allahabad and its immediate neighbourhood formed the western limit of the use of the Gupta alphabet. [...] The records which can be assigned to the 1st century B. C. are very few in number : (I) Inscription on the upper side of the lower horizontal bar of the stone-railing surrounding the old stiipa in the south chapel of the main shrine 1. The second half of the inscription only is of earlier date the first half belonging to the second century A. D. (not the ard or 4th as Messrs. [...] It is impossible to assign it to the 2nd century B. C. The shortening of the verticals in pa and ha as well as the curvature in the base line of na indicates that the record must be assigned to the 1st century B. C. (ii) When clearing the south chapel the top of a stone railing became visible above the floor * * a short votive inscription on one of the stones places the erection of the railing [...] On this point Biihler says: The next step in the develoment of Brithmi of Northern India is illustrated by the inscriptions from the time of the Kuqiikla kings Kaniqka Huviska and Vfisu§ka-Vasu.deva the first among whom made an end of the rule of the older Sakas in the Eastern. [...] The use of the broad-backed ha the shortening of the verticals in pa and the ma in which the lower part is invariably triangular in form show that the inscription belongs to the early Ku Ana period.
language linguistics
Pages
130
Published in
India
SARF Document ID
sarf.144474
Segment Pages Author Actions
Frontmatter
i-vi R. D. Banerji view
Preface
vii-viii R. D. Banerji view
Chapter I Introduction
1-i R. D. Banerji view
Chapter II The Northern Indian Alphabets (B.C. 350—A.D. 600)
7-iv R. D. Banerji view
Chapter III The Eastern Alphabet—550-1100 A.D.
37-86 R. D. Banerji view
Chapter IV The Final Development of the Alphabet
87-112 R. D. Banerji view

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