102 
Dr. Hoernle— Two Copper-plate Grants of Batnapala. [No. 1, 
also facsimile of Badal inscription in Epigraphia Indica , 
Vol. II, p. 160. 
(b) Asam kings : Balavarman, c. 975 A.D., facsimile of his grant 
in this Journal , Vol. LXVI, Plates XXXV and XXXVI. 
Ratnapala, c. 1010, facsimile of his grant in this volume, 
Plates VIII-X, XII and XIII. Indrapala, c. 1050, facsimile 
of his grant, in this Journal, LXVI, Plates III and IV. 
Vaidyadeva, c. 1142, facsimile of his grant in the Epigraphia 
Indica , Vol. II, Plates I—III, p. 351.. 
(c) Sena kings of Bengal (Bihar) ; Vijaya Sena, c. 1080 A.D., 
facsimile of his grant in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I, 
p. 308. Laksmana Sena, c. 1126, facsimile of his grant in 
this Journal , Vol. XLIV, Plates I and II. 
The table sufficiently explains itself ; but I may point out that the 
special final forms of t and n have arisen from the practice of attach¬ 
ing the virama to the top of the full or truncated forms, instead of 
appending it, in the usual fashion, to their foot; and that the special final 
form of m owes its origin to the contraction of the original square m 
into a small circle, to which the virama was appended as a tail. Later 
on, this tail was separated, and thus the forms of m and the anusvara 
become identical (No. 8 in columns 5 and 15), because in the mean¬ 
time the anusvara had assumed a tendency of standing below instead of 
above the head-line (No. 5, col. 5). At one time the forms of the 
truncated n and special final m approached so nearly as to lead to a 
confusion of them (compare No. 1, col. 12 with col. 15). Thus final 
n is used for final m twice in the Nowgong grant, see I amalan for 
amalam, II a 7 yauvanan for yauvanam. An earlier instance occurs in 
the Dharmapala grant, line 57, vasundharan for vasundharam*; other 
instances are in the Laksmana Sena grant, Plate I, obverse, line 21, 
lay an for lay am ; Plate II, reverse, line 21, mantavyan for mantavyam t 
line 22 pdlanlyan for palaniyam. 
On palasographical grounds, therefore, I am disposed to place the 
two Ratnapala grants in the earlier half of the 11th century A.D. 
(c. 1010-1050). The Nowgong grant I would place a little earlier, 
about 990 A.D., and the Indrapala grant, a little later, about 1060 A.D. 
The Bargaon grant is not dated in any era ; neither is the SualkucI 
grant; but the former professes to have been issued in the 25th, and 
the latter in the 26th year of the reign of Ratnapala. 
Putting together the information given by the Bargaon grant 
with that afforded by the Tejpur, Nowgong, and Gauhati grants, it now 
8 See Epigraphia Indica, Vol. Ill, p. 250. 
