1898.] Annual Address. 57 



>for a time almost as extensive as that of A§oka. The second period 

 may be reckoned to have extended to the end of the twelfth century 

 A.D. From that time the Northern Indian alphabets as they now 

 exist have practically become established. The earlier period, also, 

 seems to me to divide itself similarly into two sub-periods about the 

 commencement of the Christian era. The later sub-period is charac- 

 terised by the " Indo-Scythian characters," used under the kings of the 

 Tndo-Scytliian dynasty, in the first and second centuries A.D. Their 

 empire was in North- Western India and reached as far as Mathura, 

 where the numerous Jain inscriptions written in the Indo-Scythian 

 script, referred to in the preceding part of my address, have been found. 

 In this connection I may note a remarkable discovery, made by Dr. 

 W. Hoey in 1896 in Gopalpur in the Gorakhpur District. '7 It is that 

 of a few bricks of large size (10|^ by 4<^ incbes) inscribed with portions 

 of certain Buddhist sacred books. They were dug out from an under- 

 ground chamber, and the circumstance of some Indo-Scythian copper coins 

 having been found with them shows that their deposition must be referred 

 to the third century A. D. This is confirmed by the character of the 

 writing which is transitional between the Indo-Scythian and Gupta scripts. 

 With the exception of the legends of the Gupta coins, inscriptions dating 

 from the period between 250 and 400 A.D. were almost altogether lacking. 

 The discovery, therefore, of these bricks now helps to fill up a con- 

 siderable gap in Indian epigraphy. Moreover it is startling to find 

 the Indian Buddhists using bricks, as the Assyrians did, to preserve 

 long documents. Speaking of Gupta coins I may mention that we now 

 possess an excellent and exhaustive monograph on the subject, published 

 in 1889 and 1892 by Mr. V. A. Smith in the Journal of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society.'^ Some of the gold coins and medals, issued by the 

 kings of the Gupta dynasty, are among the finest known in Indian Numis- 

 matics. With regard to this dynasty a very important discovery was 

 made in 1888 at Bhitari in the Ghazipur district. This was a large 

 seal of copper and silver, the legend on which in 1889 I succeeded in 

 deciphering,^^ and which proved that the dynasty consisted of nine 

 members instead of the seven hitherto known. The two new members 

 are Pura Gupta and Kumara Gupta II. The history of two earlier 

 members, Samudra Gupta and Candra Gupta, has been examined in 

 detail in three very interesting papers published by Mr. V. A. Smith in 



n Published by Mr. V. A. Smith in our Proceedings for 1896, p. 99. 



18 Also in our own Journal, Vol. LlIT, for 1884 ; see also his papers on "Numia* 

 matic Novelties" in our Journal, Vols. LXV and LXVI. 



19 Published in a joint-paper by Mr. V. A. Smith and myself in our Journal^^ 

 Vol. LVIII, for 1889. 



