Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s21.t2: B. — The Nepalese hooked characters; Plate VI
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c7.s21.t2
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B. — The Nepalese hooked characters; Plate VI
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According to Bendall's careful examination of the MSS. from Nepāl,¹ the hooked characters first occur in the 12th century and disappear towards the end of the 15th. The facts, stated above, which prove the occurrence of the "Nepalese hooks" in Bengal inscriptions of the 12th century and explain their origin, leave no doubt that the introduction of this modification of the top-strokes is due to the influence of Bengal, which, as Bendall has recognised,² makes itself felt also in other points.
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¹ Bendall, Cat. Sankr. Buddhist MSS. from Nepāl, XXII ff.
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² Op. cit. XXXV, XXXVII.
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The first of the two specimens of this character in plate VI, col. XI, which is derived from the Cambridge MS. No. 1691, of A. D. 1179,³ shows in the majority of the letters the forms of the Horiuzi palm-leaves and of the Cambridge MS. No. 1049 (cols. V—VII), with a few small modifications, such as might be expected in a much later document. Irrespective of the hooks, special Bengālī peculiarities are observable only in *I*, *Ī*, *E* and *AI*. Generally speaking, these remarks hold good also for the second specimen in plate VI, col. XII, from the British Museum MS., Oriental No. 1439, of A. D. 1286.⁴ But in this script the Bengālī influence is visible in *E*, *ṇa*, *dha* and *śa* (compare the transitional forms of V, 39, XVIII, XIX), while its *I* is very archaic.⁵
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³ Op. cit. pl. 3, 4; Berlin Oriental Congress, Indian Section, pl. 2, 1.
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⁴ Pal. Soc., Or. Ser., pl. 32; Berlin Oriental Congress, Indian Section, pl. 2, 2, 3.
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⁵ For facsimiles of MSS. with Nepalese "hooked characters," see Bendall, Cat. Sanskr. Buddhist MSS. from Nepāl, pl. 3; Pal. Soc., Or. Series, pl. 43, 57; Cowell and Eggeling, Cat. Buddhist MSS. of the Royal Asiatic Society, J.RAS. 1876, 1, ff.; for the alphabet, see Bendall, op. cit. pl. 4; J. Klatt, de CCC Cāṇakyae sententiis, pl.
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Nepāl and Tibet seem to have preserved a number of other, mostly ornamental, alphabets of Eastern India,⁶ hand-drawn tables of which have been given by B. Hodgson (Asiatic Researches, Vol. 16) and by Sarat Candradās (J.ASB., Vol. 57, plates 1 to 7). But up to the present time no reliable materials are available, on which a paleographical examination of these scripts could be based.
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⁶ Compare also Fleet's remarks on ornamental characters, IA. 15, 334.