Vol. VI, No. 8.] The Kotwalipara Spurious Grant 431 



[N.S.] 



a previous number of the Journal I have tried to establish that 

 the Eastern variety of the early Gupta alphabet was dying 

 out in the early decades of the fifth century. The Patiakella 

 grant of Sivaraja ! and the Bodh-Gaya inscription of Maha- 

 naman * prove that the elimination of the Eastern variety of 

 the fourth century alphabet was complete by the end of the 

 sixth century A.D. This conclusion is further borne out by the 

 Munde6vari Inscription of Udayasena s and the Ganjam plate 

 of the time of SaSankaraja. 4 Moreover the ha of the Western 

 variety occurring singly and that of the Eastern variety 

 occurring in compounds (hma in brdhmana in line 11 and line 

 14), are hardly in keeping with the general tone of the characters 

 of the inscriptions. But I shall have to dilate on this point 

 later on. 



(2) In all cases, the long i has the form generally to be 

 found in the Eastern variety of the early Gupta alphabet. 

 The most conspicuous case is the % in Jivadatta in line 4 and to 

 some extent % in Kesav-adin in line 15. But in a genuine in- 

 scription of the Harsa year 34 one expects long i of the looped 

 form to be found in the MundeSvarf Inscription or the Ganjam 

 grant. 



(3) There are two cases of the occurrence of the short i 

 in its single form, and in each case it has a different form. The 

 I in icchamy-aham in line 9 consists of two dots, one above the 

 other, and vertical straight line to the proper left. The i in 

 icchato in line 14 consists of two dots, placed side by side with 

 a horizontal straight line below them. The usual form of % in 

 inscriptions of the first half of the seventh century is to be found 

 in the two copper-plate grants of Harsa varddhana and the 

 Ganjam plate of the time of SaSankaraja. This consists ot 

 two dots or circles placed side by side and a curved line below 

 them. 



(4) Many of the characters of this inscription exhibit 

 fourth century or early Gupta forms. In the majority of cases 

 the letter ma has the hooked form to be found in the Bharadi Dih 

 Linga inscription. The bipartite ya looks ill side by side with 

 sa, ja and ha (when it occurs alone), in which no acute angle 



can be traced. 



(5) La as a subscript letter occurs only once and resem bias 

 the hooked la of the Eastern variety. In this inscription la in 

 all other cases resembles the la of the Western variety of 



the Gupta alphabet. 



(6) Da has two forms when occurring in the same com- 

 pound ?ida:—c.L Suvarnda in line 3 and mandate m line 4 

 with Vatsakunda in line 7 'and Janarddaka-kuxda in line S. In 



l Ep. Ind., vol. ix, p. 286. 



* Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, p. 274 t pi. xlm. 



8 Ep. Ind., vol. ix, p. 289. * Ibid., vol. 



