development of the modern Bengali script with exceptions of a few letters such as:
In this century, it will not be necessary to consider these alphabets used in the different inscriptions, as our narrative of the development of the Bengali alphabet is almost complete. We shall, simply, note the changes in the forms of the letters as they pass through this period. Again, with the extension of the Gāhaḍavāla Empire towards the East the eastern limit of the use of the western variety of the North-Eastern alphabet also extended eastwards in the century. In the Śaka year 1059-1137 A.D. we find the western variety in the Govindpur (near Nawada in the Gayā District) stone inscription of the poet Gangādhara[1] which is now in the Indian Museum at Calcutta. Again in the 4th decade of the thirteenth century of the Vikrama era we find the western variety in the Bodh-Gayā inscription of Jayacchandra.[2] The alphabet of these inscriptions is altogether different from that used in the Deopārā praṣasti and other eastern variety inscriptions of the North-Eastern alphabet, so that it is unnecessary to enter into an analysis of it. The further development of the alphabet will be shown from the specimens used in the following inscriptions:—
(1) The Manda inscription of the time of Gopala III.[3]
(2) The Kamauli grant of Vaidyadeva.[4]
