Early Indian epigraphy
The earliest undisputed deciphered epigraphy found in the Indian subcontinent are the Edicts of Ashoka of the 3rd century BCE, in the Brahmi script.
If epigraphy of proto-writing is included, undeciphered markings with symbol systems that may or may not contain linguistic information, there is substantially older epigraphy in the
Writing in Sanskrit (Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit, EHS) appears in the 1st to 4th centuries CE.[4] Indian epigraphy becomes more widespread over the 1st millennium, engraved on the faces of cliffs, on pillars, on tablets of stone, drawn in caves and on rocks, some gouged into the bedrock. Later they were also inscribed on palm leaves, coins, Indian copper plate inscriptions, and on temple walls.
Many of the inscriptions are couched in extravagant language, but when the information gained from inscriptions can be corroborated with information from other sources such as still existing monuments or ruins, inscriptions provide insight into India's dynastic history that otherwise lacks contemporary historical records.[5]
Of the c. 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India, about 60,000 were in Tamil Nadu;.[6] Over 25,000 Kannada inscriptions were unearthed in Karnataka, though an in depth study of many of these is yet to be conducted according to Hampi Kannada University Sociology department Head and Researcher Devara Kondareddy.[7] Over 14,000 inscriptions belonging to the Telugu language were excavated in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This makes Tamil and the two South Indian languages( Kannada and Telugu) the most densely inscribed languages in the country.
First appearance of writing in the Indian Subcontinent
The Bronze Age
Until the 1990s, it was generally accepted that the Brahmi script used by Ashoka spread to South India during the second half of the 3rd century BCE, assuming a local form now known as Tamil-Brahmi. Beginning in the late 1990s, archaeological excavations have produced a small number of candidates for Brahmi epigraphy predating Ashoka. Preliminary press reports of such pre-Ashokan inscriptions have appeared over the years, such as Palani,[10][11] Erode,[12] and Adichanallur,[13] dated to c. 500 BCE, but so far only the claimed pre-Ashokan inscriptions at Anuradhapura have been published in an internationally recognised academic journal.[14]
History and research
Since 1886 there have been systematic attempts to collect and catalogue these inscriptions, along with the translation and publication of documents.
Notable inscriptions
Important inscriptions include the
Hathigumpha inscription
The Hathigumpha inscription ("Elephant Cave" inscription) from
Rabatak inscription
The Rabatak inscription is written on a rock in the
Halmidi inscription
The
Tamil copper-plate inscriptions
-
Plate 1 and Back
-
Plate 2[20]
Unlike the neighbouring states where early inscriptions were written in Sanskrit and Prakrit, the early inscriptions in Tamil Nadu used Tamil
Shankarpur copper-plate of Budhagupta
The plate is a record documenting a donation in the reign of king
The inscription was published by B. C. Jain in 1977.[28] It was subsequently listed by Madan Mohan Upadhyaya in his book Inscriptions of Mahakoshal.[29]
The inscription is of considerable importance for the history of the
siddham [||] samvatsara-ṣa(śa)te=ṣṭsa=ṣaṣṭyuta (yutta)re mahāmāgha-samvatsara(re) Śrāvaṇa ...
myāṃ paramadeva-Budhagupte rājani asyāṃ divasa-pūrvāyāṃ śrī-mahārāja-Sāṭana Sāla (or rya) na kul-odbhūtena śrī-mahārāja [Gī]tavarman-pautreṇa śrīmahārāja-Vijayavarmma-sute[na] mahādevyā[ṃ] Śarv asvāminyām utpanneana śri mahārāja Harivarmmaṇā asya brāhmaṇa-Kautsa- sagotra-gosvāmina [e]tac=Citrapalya tāmu(mra)paṭṭen=āgrahāro-tisṛṣṭaḥ akaraḥ acaṭa-bhaṭṭa-pra- veśyaḥ [|*] candra-tār-ārkka-samakālīyaḥ uktañca bhagavatā vyāsena [|*] svadattām= paradattāṃ=vā yo hareta vasundharā(rāṃ) [|*] s(ś)va vis(ṣ)ṭhāyā(yāṃ) kṛmir=bhūtvā pitṛbhis=saha majyate [||*] bahubhirv=vasudhā bhuktā rājabhiḥ=sagar-ādibhi (bhiḥ) [|*] yasya yasya yadā bhūmis=tasya tasya tadā phalaṃ [||*] kumārāmatya-bhagavad-rudrachadi-bhogika-mahāpratīhāra-lavaṇaḥ bapidra-bhogika (ke) [na]
dūtaka(ke)na likhitaṃ Śrī Yaṣṭarājena Nāga(sa)śarma-su[tena] [||*][32]
See also
- Related topics
- Ancient inscriptions Of Raju Rulers
- Ancient iron production
- Ashokan Edicts in Delhi
- Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts
- Dhar iron pillar
- History of metallurgy in South Asia
- Iron pillar of Delhi
- Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman
- List of Edicts of Ashoka
- Pillars of Ashoka
- Stambha
- Tosham rock inscription
- Tamil inscriptions
- Other similar topics
- Early Indians
- Brāhmī script
- Heliodorus pillar
- Indus script
- List of Indus Valley Civilization sites
- Hindu temple architecture
- History of India
- Indian copper plate inscriptions
- Indian rock-cut architecture
- List of rock-cut temples in India
- Outline of ancient India
- South Indian Inscriptions
- Tagundaing
Notes
- ISBN 978-3-11-042330-3.
- ISBN 978-90-272-3252-6.
- ISBN 978-81-322-3756-3.
- ^ Salomon (1998), p. 81.
- ISBN 0-8021-3797-0.
- ^ Staff Reporter (22 November 2005). "Students get glimpse of heritage". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 18 May 2006. Retrieved 26 April 2007.
- ^ "Take up study on unearthed inscriptions". 6 July 2011.
- ^ Colin P. Masica, The Indo-Aryan Languages (Cambridge Language Surveys), Cambridge University Press, 1993.
- ISBN 978-0-19-908814-0.
- ^ Kishore, Kavitha (15 October 2011). "Porunthal excavations prove existence of Indian scripts in 5th century BCE: expert". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
- ^ Porunthal excavations prove existence of Indian scripts in 5th century BCE: expert
- ^ Subramaniam, T.S. (20 May 2013). "Kodumanal excavations prove existence of Indian scripts in 5th century BCE: expert". The Hindu. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
- ^ "Rudimentary Tamil-Brahmi script' unearthed at Adichanallur". The Hindu. 17 February 2005. Archived from the original on 12 October 2009.
- S2CID 161465267
- ^ "Indian inscriptions". Retrieved 10 March 2007.
- ^ "Orality to literacy: Transition in Early Tamil Society". Frontline. Retrieved 10 March 2007.
- ISBN 0-521-37695-5, p.212
- ^ "Halmidi village finally on the road to recognition". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 3 November 2003. Archived from the original on 24 November 2003. Retrieved 10 March 2007.
- ^ "Mysore scholar deciphers Chandragiri inscription". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 20 September 2008. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
- ^ Rice, Benjamin Lewis (1894). Epigraphia Carnatica: Volume IX: Inscriptions in the Bangalore District. Mysore State, British India: Mysore Department of Archaeology. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
- ^ Caldwell, Robert (1875). A comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages. Trübner & co. p. 88.
In southern states, every inscription of an early date and majority even of modern day inscriptions were written in Sanskrit...In the Tamil country, on the contrary, all the inscriptions belonging to an early period are written in Tamil with some Prakrit
- ^ Dating of Indian literature is largely based on relative dating relying on internal evidences with a few anchors. I. Mahadevan’s dating of Pukalur inscription proves some of the Sangam verses. See George L. Hart, "Poems of Ancient Tamil, University of Berkeley Press, 1975, p.7-8
- ^ George Hart, "Some Related Literary Conventions in Tamil and Indo-Aryan and Their Significance" Journal of the American Oriental Society, 94:2 (Apr – Jun 1974), pp. 157-167.
- ^ Kamil Veith Zvelebil, Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature, pp12
- ^ Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (1955). A History of South India, OUP, New Delhi (Reprinted 2002)
- UCLA. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
- ^ Iravatham Mahadevan (2003). Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
- ^ B. C. Jain, Journal of the Epigraphic Society of India 4 (1977): pp. 62-66 and plate facing p. 64.
- ISBN 81-7646496-1. Online table of contents: http://indologica.blogg.de/2005/05/14/upadhyay-inscriptions-of-mahakoshal/ Archived 10 February 2013 at archive.today
- ^ Michael D. Willis, "Later Gupta History: Inscriptions, Coins and Historical Ideology," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 15.2 (2005), p. 142. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/2057745/Later_Gupta_History_Inscriptions_Coins_and_Historical_Ideology.
- ^ Michael D. Willis, "Later Gupta History: Inscriptions, Coins and Historical Ideology," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 15.2 (2005), p. 148. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/2057745/Later_Gupta_History_Inscriptions_Coins_and_Historical_Ideology.
- ^ Shankarpur copper-plate of the time of Buddhagupta GE 168
References
- Salomon, Richard, Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages, Oxford University Press, 1998,ISBN 978-0-19-509984-3
- Murugaiyan, Appasamy & Parlier-Renault, Édith (2021) (Eds) Whispering of Inscriptions: South Indian Epigraphy and Art History: Papers from an International Symposium in memory of Professor Noboru Karashima (Paris, 12–13 October 2017). Oxford: Indica et Buddhica. (2 vols) v. 1, ISBN 978-0-473-56774-3. v. 2, ISBN 978-0-473-56777-4. (Open access PDFs)
- Various (1988) [1988]. Amaresh Datta (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Indian literature – vol 2. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 81-260-1194-7.