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Eternal India
encyclopedia
ART
EPIGRAPHY
Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions, and 'inscription' literally
means any writing engraved on some object. In India, rocks as well
as lithic, metallic, earthen or wooden pillars, tablets, plates, pots,
bricks and other objects were generally used for incising inscrip-
tions. Often, writing in relief such as we find in the legends on the
coins and seals which are usually produced out of moulds or dies,
and also records painted on cave walls are regarded as inscriptions,
although these writings are not actually engraved. Inscriptions in
the Perso-Arabic script are generally not engraved but are formed
by scooping out the space around the letters.
Inscriptions vary in length. The shortest ones are those men-
tioning individual names, as at the holy places, engraved by pil-
grims to commemorate their visit. Label inscriptions naming the
sculptured scenes from the epics or the Jatakas also consist of a
single word or expression. Somewhat longer inscriptions may rec-
ord the dedication of the images of deities or commemorate such
events as the fall of the hero in battle (hero-stone), self-immola-
tion of a widow (sati-stone), etc. In certain cases, however, an in-
scription may embody a literary composition in many cantos or a
drama in several acts. Such lengthy inscriptions are reported from
Rajasthan. The Kudimiyamalai (Pudukottai, Tamil Nadu) inscrip-
tion contains a unique seventh century work on musical notations.
Inscriptions may be broadly classified under two groups: (1)
those engraved by or on behalf of the ruling authority and (2) those
incised on behalf of private individuals or organisations.
Records incised by or on behalf of the ruling authority which are
considered very important for the historical information they contain
may be further classified under such heads as : (1) royal edicts (e.g.
the rock and pillar edicts of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka), (2)
epigraphs commemorating particular achievements of a king in an
eulogy (e.g. Allahabad inscription of Samudragupta and Aihole in-
scription of Pulakesin II), (3) grants in favour of learned Brah-
manas, religious institutes etc. and (4) miscellaneous.
The largest number of epigraphs of the second category record
donations made in favour of religious establishments or installation
of images for worship. They are normally engraved on the objects
that were donated or installed, and are small. At times they mention
the king during whose reign the grant was made or the installation
took place. Innumerable dedicatory inscriptions are found engraved
on the walls and other architectural mementos of renowned relig-
ious establishments and pilgrim centres such as the great stupa at
Sanchi,
temples
at
Bodhgaya,
Bhubaneswar,
Draksharama,
Srirangam and other places. Eulogistic compositions called
prasas-
tis,
were at times composed and engraved on stone tablets or
pillars to commemorate public works like excavation of a tank or the
construction of a temple by a royal or ordinary personage or a group
of individuals (e.g. Mandsor inscription recording the construction
of and repairs to a Sun-temple by a guild of silk-weavers). The ruler
of the country is usually mentioned in such works composed on
behalf of private persons or guilds. Even private records, therefore,
often offer valuable information for the reconstruction of political
and cultural history. The Utthiramerur (Chingleput District, Tamil
Nadu) inscriptions throw very valuable light on the village admini-
stration in southern India during the tenth century.
Inscriptions are the main sources for reconstructing the history
of our country. Considering the actually available evidences, antiq-
uity of writing in India can be traced back to the times of the Indus
Civilization which flourished between 2400 B.C. to 1700 B.C. Hun-
dreds of seals and Sealings belonging to this civilization have been
discovered and they contain pictorial writing. Efforts of both Indian
and Western scholars to decipher this enigmatic script consisting of
more than 300 symbols have not yet yielded satisfactory results.
Nothing is known about the writing that was in vogue during the
period of about 15 centuries after the disappearance of the Indus
Civilization. After this long gap of time we come across writing only
in the third century B.C. in the form of the 'edicts' of the great
Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. Since they are the earliest deciphered
Indian inscriptions, our historical period begins with this great ruler.
In Ashoka's inscriptions Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic languages and
Brahmi Kharoshthi (written from right to left), Aramaic and Greek
scripts have been employed. His Aramaic and Prakrit inscriptions in
Pakistan, Greek and Aramaic inscriptions in Afghanistan and
Prakrit inscriptions in Nepal attest to the direct influence India had
on these regions. Of the scripts employed by Ashoka, Kharoshthi
was developed from Aramaic and it disappeared from India after
the 5th century and from Central Asia after the 7th century. Ara-
maic does not figure in the post-Ashokan inscriptions of India.
Greek language and script were used in the coins of the Indo-Greek
Kings who ruled for some time in the north-western parts of India.
All the Hindu scripts of India and the scripts used even to this
day in Nepal, Tibet, Eastern Turkey, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Cambodia etc., or the scripts used in these countries till
the Islamic influence became effective, were derived from Ashokan
Brahmi script. How and whence this Brahmi script, which with its
ramifications gave birth to the scripts of several countries, was bom
is a controversial subject. Scholars have variously traced the origin
of the Brahmi script to the Greek, Phoenician, northern Semetic and
southern Semetic scripts. Yet others hold that the Brahmi script
was derived from some kind of pictorial writing, especially the Indus
script, that was used by the Dravidians who occupied the entire
land before the invasion of the Aryans. This problem cannot be
solved until we discover decipherable inscriptions of pre-Ashokan
period.
It has already been stated that Ashokan inscriptions in India
are in Prakrit. From the later half of the first century onwards
influence of Sanskrit on the Prakrit language used in the North
Indian inscriptions is clearly noticed. Prakrit flourishing as the main
language of inscriptions was replaced by Sanskrit during the third
and fourth century A.D. in North India and during the later half of
the fourth century A.D. in South India. In due course regional lan-
guages came to be employed in the inscriptions of India and the
Central and South East Asian countries directly influenced by India.
Different regional languages appearing as the languages of inscrip-
tions in North India are Marathi from the tenth century, Hindi and its
dialects from the eleventh century, Oriya from the thirteenth cen-
tury, Kashmiri and its dialects from the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, Ahom of Assam from the sixteenth century and Maithili
from the seventeenth century. In South India, the early inscriptions
engraved in the caves of Tamil Nadu are in Brahmi script and Tamil
language. They are datable to third century B.C. on palaeographical
grounds. It is only during the 6th century A.D. that Tamil appears as
the main language of inscriptions. Kannada figures as the main
language of inscriptions by the 5th century A.D. The earliest in-
scription in Telugu language belongs to the 6th century. Malayalam
and Tulu appear as the main languages of inscriptions by the 13th-
14th centuries.