1884.] V. A. Smith — The Nandindgari character. 3 



The following coins have been acquired under the Treasure Trove 

 Act: 



8 silver coins of Menander from the Commissioner and Superinten- 

 dent, Amritsar Division. 



The Secretary read a letter from Mr. W. A. Holwell of Quebec, 

 thanking the Society for presenting him with the numbers of the 

 Journal and Proceedings containing an account of Mr. Bayne's excava- 

 tions on the site of Old Fort William, of which the following is an 

 extract : 



" I have some fine old portraits (believed to be by Reynolds) of ' The 

 Governor' and family ; one of them is a full length portrait of my honoured 

 ancestor, superintending the building of the monument erected by him 

 at Calcutta, to commemorate the catastrophe of 20th June, 1756, with 

 a view of ' Fort William' in the distance. I have also one of his mother 

 Sarah Holwell, who was burned in her bed at the age of 102 ! I have also 

 the original ' Grant of Arms' (dated 7th December 1762) to Governor 

 Holwell, in which the ancient family crest (a Goat) is replaced by a 

 'demi-man, representing Suraja Dowla &c.' " 



The President stated that a letter would be written to Mr. Holwell 

 asking him to oblige the Society by obtaining a photograph of the por- 

 trait of Governor Holwell referred to. 



The Philological Secretary read the following note by Mr. V. A. 

 Smith on the Nandinagari character. 



" The South Indian form of the Nagari character, as current in 

 modern times, usually goes by the name of Nandinagari, a name which is 

 quite as difficult to account for as Devanagari. The Nandinagari is 

 directly derived from the North Indian Devanagari of about the eleventh 

 century, but it is from the type that prevailed at Benares and in the 

 west, and not from the Gauri or Bengali.* 



" It occurs to me that the name of this character may be derived from 

 that of the city Nandinagara on the Godaveri, which is mentioned in many 

 of the Sanchi dedicatory inscriptions, and which seems to be the same 

 as the modern JNander, and the Nandigera of the Bombay cave inscrip- 

 tions, f 



" This explanation is admittedly no more than a guess, but it has at 

 least a plausible appearance." 



* Burnell, Elements of S. Indian Palaeography, 2nd edition, p. 52. 

 f Cunningham, Arch. Reports, Vol. X, p. 59, with reference to Journal, Bomb. 

 Br. R. A. S. Vol. V, p. 53. 



