116 
Dr. Hoernle— Gauhafi Copper-plate Grant of Indrapctla. [No. 2, 
of place, and where it may have been intended for the special sign of 
the final m which it resembles. 
The grant is not dated ; but an estimate of its age may be made 
from its palaeographic characters. It presents a good example of the 
North-Eastern Nagari, at a time shortly preceding the establishment 
of the modern Bangali. For the determination of the evolution of the 
latter, the y and r are specially serviceable as test letters. In Bangali 
the forms of r and v are practically identical ; and, as above noticed ? 
the ringlet which forms part of y, is there attached to the body of the 
letter. The transition period from North-Eastern Nagari to Bangali may 
be fixed as about 1050-1200 A. D. Two inscriptions of this transitional 
period are the Doopara Stone Inscription of the Bengal king Vijaya 
Sena, about 1180-1190 A. D., and the copper-plate grant of Yaidya 
Deva, king of Kamarupa, about 1142 A. D. Both inscriptions show 
the characteristic form of r ( = m) ; and the Deopara inscription 
is the first to show the nasal y with ringlet attached to the body of the 
letter. 4 * In our grant, the form of r is still the old one ; and the position 
of the ringlet, as a mark of y, is still quite unsettled. Altogether 
the appearance of the writing in it is much older; and it may, 
therefore, with some probability, be referred to about the middle of the 
11th century A. D. (say, 1050 A. D,). This conclusion is confirmed by 
a comparison of the initial forms of the vowel i, In our grant it is 
made by a circumflex surmounting two ringlets placed side by side 
(thus oo ) ; while in the inscriptions of Yaidya Deva and Yijaya Sena 
the circumflex is far more complicated. 
In connexion with this, I may mention, that I have in my hands 
a copper-plate grant of Ratnapala, lately sent to me by Mr. Gait. 6 
Ratnapala, as will be noticed presently, was the grandfather of the 
Indrapala of the Gauhati grant. He appears to have had a rather long 
reign ; he outlived his son Purandarapala, and was succeeded by his 
grandson Indrapala. His plate may be placed about 50 years earlier. 
In conformity herewith, the palaeographic characters of his grant are 
decidedly older than those of the Indrapala grant. Thus the con¬ 
sonant hh which, on the later grant, has practically the same form as in 
the modern Bangali, shows in the Ratnapala grant the older post-gupta 
form. Further the nasal y is formed without any ringlet, according to 
the older fashion. 
The present grant professes to be one of Indrapala, king of Prag- 
jyotisa. His father is said to have been Purandarapala, his grandfather 
4 For further particulars, see Professor Biihler’s “ Indian Palaeography ” in the 
Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Alterthumslcunde. 
6 This will shortly he published by me in this Journal. 
