1901.] Annual Report. 27 



us, anrl we must await further discoveries before we can say anything 

 witli reofaid to tlieir historv, the extent of their dominions, and their 

 relations with other contemporary rulers. 



With reg'ar-d to these matters the c.ise stands much bettec in Orissa. 

 Tlieie from the time of the conquest of th;it countty by the Ganga 

 kings, who came from tlie south, history bei;ins to dawn, and a com- 

 plete series of historical djtta is known to us both from inscriptions and 

 other sources. Babu Mano Moliaii Chakravai tti, who, having been 

 stationed in Orissa for some years, has made this part of Indian history 

 his special study, has again in the Journal of last year contributed a new 

 and valuable addition to our knowledge of Orissan histoi'y in a paper 

 in vvliich he publishes a long insciiption of Kapilendra Deva, one of 

 the Orissa kings — by the way, the earliest known specimen of writino- 

 in modern Uriva character — and in which he denls with the chronology 

 of the Inst rulers of that c<mutiy up to Mukunda Deva who was 

 ovei thrown by Ka1a|)ahar, the general of tlie Afghan kino: Sulaiman. 

 The same IcMrned author, when stationed at Gava, took the opportunity 

 to procure a good copy of an inscription Jit the KrsnaDvarika temple 

 there, and has contributed his reading and translation of the same to 

 our Joninnl. Tiie inscription refers itself to the time of Nayapala, one 

 of the predecessors of Miidanapala who is referred to above. It has now 

 been ivad completely, while ptevious editors were able to decipher only 

 portions of it. 



More geiicral questions touching on Epigraphy and Palajography 

 are dealt witli in a paper by Dr. Hoernle which was read before the 

 Society as lonjjf a^o as 1898. Ur, Hoernle has made a searching inquiry 

 into the various writing materials used in India, viz., Palm-leaf, 

 Birch-bark, and Paper, anil it led him to cei'tain conclusions as to 

 the loealities and times in which these materials were in use. From this 

 he proceeds Fuitlier. It is now generally acf^ep'ed th;it the ancient 

 Indian alphabet, as we find it first in the inscriptions of Asoka, was 

 borrowed from the Phoenicians. The date fixed for this is approximately 

 the 8th century B.C. Now, as certain changes, which the Plioeniciau 

 letters ha<i to undergo when taken over by the Indians, are best 

 explained if we suppose that they were adapted to a writing materi;il 

 such as palm-leaf, and, moreover, as we know tlie palm-tree, the leaves 

 of which were used for vrrititig purposes, is indigenous in Southern 

 India, Dr. Hoernle concludes that it was the South, and not the North, 

 of India, where the Phoenician alphabet first came into use. There 

 ceitaiidy existed an ancient trade throuuh the Arabian Sea, between 

 Phoenicia and Southern India, witnesses of which are some words of 

 Dravidiau origin that ci'ept into the ancient languages of Western Asia 



