Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c6.75

c6.75

In order to determine what were the test letters during the reign of the second and third sovereigns of the Pāla dynasty of Bengal, it is necessary to turn to the inscriptions of their reigns discovered up to date. Of Dharmmapāla, the second sovereign, we possess two inscriptions; the inscribed basrelief of the 26th year of his reign mentioned above and a copper plate grant issued in the 32nd year of his reign which is now in the Museum of the Varendrra Research Society at Rajshahi.¹ These two inscriptions were most probably incised in the ninth or the last decade of the 8th century A. D. In the Bodh Gaya inscriptions we find three different forms of the palatal sibilant :—(a) The ancient form with the round top as in *Silābhidah* (l. 1), *Keśava* (l. 2), and *Shaḍvinśati* (l. 7); (b) the later form without a cross-bar as in *Mahādēvaś = chaturmukhaḥ* and *Śrēshtha* (l. 2); and (c) the transitional form in which the cross-bar lingers and the loop is not complete as in *śrēyasē* (l. 4). On analysing the characters of the Khalimpur Plate of Dharmmapāla we find that the looped form has been used in all cases and neither the transitional form in which the cross-bar is absent, nor the later form without the cross-bar is to be found even in one case. These two forms of the palatal *śa*, viz., the looped form and the transitional form with the cross-bar, are to be found in the Aphsad inscription of Ādityasena of the seventh century A. D.² In the case of the Bodh Gaya inscription of Dharmmapāla, we find that the usual procedure has been reversed. Ordinarily, later forms of a particular letter are to be found in copper plates only, because the scribes use such forms, with which they are familiar in ordinary correspondence, while stone inscriptions contain a larger number of archaic or monumental forms. Here we find that the stone inscription shows the use of more modern forms while archaic forms are only adhered to in the copper plate inscription. As the later form occurs only in two instances we may reject it as not being a type-specimen of the palatal *śa* in this particular period. Of the next king Devapāla, five inscriptions are known. One is a copper plate grant, which is missing and of which no facsimiles are available. The second is a copper plate grant discovered at Nālandā and issued in the 38th year of this King.¹ The third is an undated inscription on the back of a metal image discovered at Nālandā.² The fourth is a stone inscription discovered at Ghosrawan in the Patna District which is now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta.³ In this inscription we find that the transitional form of *śa* with the cross-bar has been used in the majority of cases. It may, therefore, definitely be stated that the type specimen of the palatal *śa* during the reigns of Dharmmapāla and Devapāla is the transitional form used in *śreyase*, in line 4 of the Bodh Gaya inscription of Dharmmapāla of the 26th year of his reign. With this datum we may turn to the inscribed specimens discovered in Eastern India up to date. The remaining inscription of Devapāla was discovered on an image found at Hilsa.⁴