392 On the Epoch of the Gupta Dynasty. [No. 5, 



Prinsep's own impression, above quoted, will display how little 

 reliance could be placed on a judgment, which did not take tins 

 element into consideration, for he assigns, on the mere ground of 

 forms of letters, a higher antiquity to the Guzrat copper-plates, 

 than he does to the Gupta inscriptions ; whereas, we now know, 

 that the Guptas preceded the Vallabhis ! 



Had he confined himself to tracing the alphabetical advances 

 made by these different sections of Indian races, instead of compar- 

 ing two series of literal signs that had been thus far matured by 

 different hands, he would have worked upon surer ground. To 

 support my assertion, I would beg attention to the varieties of types 

 of letters to be found on the nearly contemporaneous Gupta inscrip- 

 tions. If we examine the Allahabad writing* and contrast it with 

 that on the Bhitari lat,t we discover considerable difference between 

 the general configurations of the majority of the characters in each 

 — varying from scarcely perceptible modifications, to an absolute 

 difference of form in others ; for instance, the ^, JT, "Sf, -q and ^ are 

 virtually the same characters in both inscriptions, but their outlines 

 are by no means identical, while the signs tq, tt, ^ and ^r are, so to 

 speak, different letters. To carry out the contrast, let us refer to 

 the BhilsaJ inscription. Here again we find a general change in 

 the aspect of the letters and most distinct modification or absolute 

 divergence from the Allahabad type in the following characters — * 

 % Wj "% ^, V, *?, ^T, X, % W> ^ and ^. I need not, I imagine, pursue 



arddha-nagary (l£JJ*&^')> c'est-a-dire a moitie nagari, et qui participe des deux 

 premieres, est usitee dans le Bhatia (^Mfc?) et dans une partie du Sind. Parmi 

 les autres ecritures, on peut citer le malcary \iSJ ^^^> usite dans Malcascheva 

 (lj.XuSU/0), au xnidi du Sind, pres de la cote ; le besandiba (k-jtXWJ), employe a 

 Bahmanava, ville appelee aussi Mansoura ; le karnata (<^ J '-^j> "site dans le Kar- 

 nate, pays qui donne naissance aux personnes appelee, dans les armees, da 

 nom de Kannara Qjj^) ', l'andri, employe dans l'Andra-Deca ou pays d'Andra 

 (u* 1- ^ ^/^l) j le dravidi, usite dans le Dravida ou Dravira ; le lari, dans le Lar- 

 Deca ou pays de Lar ; le gaura \{£)3r}) dans le Purab-Dega ((jkj-i ^i)J^.) ou 

 region orientale (le Bengale) ; et le bikchaka (cJ^^jj) dans le Oudan-Pouraha- 

 naka {^^^Jj^^jl) • La derniere ecriture est celle dont se servent les bouddhistes 

 (*>^J|)." M. Rienaud, Memoire sur V Inde p. 298. 



* J. A. S. B. VI. 969. f VI. 1. % VI. 455. 



