432 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1910. 



the last two cases the compound has the form to be found in 

 all Northern Indian inscriptions from the second to seventh 

 century A.D. 



(7) The scribe has made a serious mistake in using some 

 eighth century characters of the Northern variety in the 

 word Parkkati in line 19. The letter pa in the word does not 

 resemble the remaining ones, which are usually rectangular in 

 form, seldom showing an acute angle. In this letter, the right- 

 hand vertical and the horizontal straight lines of the letter 

 have merged into a single curve. The earliest occurrence of 

 this form of pa is to be found in inscriptions of the seventh and 

 eighth centuries A.D. But the more important piece of evidence 

 is to be found in the second syllable rkfca. This consists of two 

 looped kas and a superscript ra. But even in the Banskhera 

 and Madhuban plates of Harsavarddhana, which are inscribed 

 with characters so cursive and at the same time the execution is 

 so very beautiful that they may be taken to represent the current 

 script of the period, the looped form of ka in the sixth century 

 A.D. are to be found in the Bodh-Gaya Inscription of Maha- 

 naman and the Ganjam plates of the time of S'asahka. 1 



This form of ka becomes fairly common from the last 

 quarter of the seventh century A.D. and afterwards. 



Thus, we find that the characters used in this copper- 

 plate inscription were collected from alphabets in use in three 

 different centuries : 



(1) The alphabet of the third and the first half of the 

 fourth century A.D., c.f. ha in hma and la in sloka. The form 

 of ma shows that it was copied from the early Gupta alphabet 

 of the Eastern variety. 



(2) The alphabet of the last half of the fifth century and 



the first half of the sixth century A.D. of North-Eastern India. 



The absence of acute angles in ja, pa, ha and la shows that the 



alphabet of the period of the Munde6varl inscription was also 

 included. 



(3) The regular alphabet of the sixth century with its pro- 

 fusion of acute angles is also very conspicuous. This alphabet 

 came into general use in North-Eastern India in the earlier 

 part of the seventh century A.D. 



Apart from the palseographical evidence, the wording of 

 the inscription itself is sufficient to prove that it is a forgery. 



The formula of a regular grant of land as is to be found 

 in majority of copper-plate inscriptions may be divided into 

 three separate parts : — 



(1) The first portion may be either in prose or verse anc 

 generally gives the genealogy of the king or eulogium on him 



i Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, p. 274, pi. xlia : Epi.Incl.. vol. vi ? 143. 



