J 835.] Copper- plate grants from Gujerdt. 479 



such a supposition, copies of as many of the various cave characters, on 

 this side of India, as could he easily procured, were collected and 

 arranged in the order of what appeared to be their relative anti- 

 quity. 



Selections from these, and also from grants of subsequent date to 

 those which are here principally treated of, have been made to °-ive 

 an idea of the manner in which the ancient writing has gradually 

 been changed to its present form : these are all taken from copper- 

 plate and other inscriptions (which are deposited in the Museum of 

 the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society). From one of these 

 it appears, that up to Saca 730, or A. D. 808, no very material dif- 

 ference in the character had taken place. The accompanying lithogra- 

 phic plate (No. 3), contains specimens of varieties of writing from the 

 most ancient times to the present*. 



The hope of meeting with a key to the alphabet now decyphered 

 led to references to those of Tibet and other countries j and a stron°* 

 similarity was remarked between it, the Kawi (Kdvya Bhdsha) cha- 

 racter of Java, used in that country when under the government 

 of its Hindu conquerors, the Pali of Siam, and the alphabet of Ti- 

 bet ; from each of these, a few lines have been copied, by reference 

 to which, the close resemblance of many of the letters to those of the 

 inscription (No. 2), will he apparent. 



Several of the provincial alphabets also have been evidently taken 

 from this source, long before the remodeling of the present deva- 

 ncigari : a few of the most striking coincidences are also °-iven in the 

 same plate with the above (No. 4). 



The resemblance of this character to those of Tibet, and the sacred 

 alphabets of Siam and Java, may perhaps tend to throw some light 

 upon the sera of the conquest of Java, Sumatra, and several of the 

 eastern islands by the Hindus, and also on that of the introduction 

 of the Buddhist religion into Tibet, and the countries eastward of 

 the Brahmaputra. 



The contents of these inscriptions, as tending to elucidate th 

 ancient history of Western India, at the commencement of the fourth 

 century of the Christian aera, are of some interest, as will be pre- 



* We defer the publication of these comparative alphabets, because we th' 

 they may be rendered more complete by the addition of those to which we h 

 access on this side of India. Such a palseographical table has been lo 

 desideratum, and Mr. Wathen's contribution will furnish a considerable no H 

 of the list. Our recent inscriptions from ShekaVat, and Benares must ho 

 be added to complete it, and the various Pdli offsets from the Magadhi reau" 

 be more fully developed. — Ed. 



