Indian Epigraphy A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages

by Salomon, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780195099843
• ISBN10: 0195099842
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-12-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book provides a general survey of all the inscriptional material in the Sanskrit, Prakrit, and modern Indo-Aryan languages, including donative, dedicatory, panegyric, ritual, and literary texts carved on stone, metal, and other materials. This material comprises many thousands of documents dating from a range of more than two millennia, found in India and the neighboring nations of South Asia, as well as in many parts of Southeast, central, and East Asia. The inscriptions are written, for the most part, in the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts and their many varieties and derivatives. Inscriptional materials are of particular importance for the study of the Indian world, constituting the most detailed and accurate historical and chronological data for nearly all aspects of traditional Indian culture in ancient and medieval times. Richard Salomon surveys the entire corpus of Indo-Aryan inscriptions in terms of their contents, languages, scripts, and historical and cultural significance. He presents this material in such a way as to make it useful not only to Indologists but also non-specialists, including persons working in other aspects of Indian or South Asian studies, as well as scholars of epigraphy and ancient history and culture in other regions of the world.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xvii	(4)
Note on Citation and Bibliographic Form	xxi
1 The Scope and Significance of Epigraphy in Indological Studies	3	(4)
2 Writing and Scripts in India	7	(65)
2.1 General Introduction	7	(10)
2.1.1 Writing in traditional India	7	(3)
2.1.2 The antiquity of writing in India of the historical period	10	(4)
2.1.3 Characteristics of Indic writing	14	(3)
2.2 The Brahmi Script and Its Derivatives	17	(25)
2.2.1 Geographical and chronological range	17	(1)
2.2.2 The name of the script	17	(2)
2.2.3 The origin of Brahmi	19	(11)
2.2.4 Characteristics of Brahmi in the Mauryan period (third century B.C.)	30	(1)
2.2.5 The historical development and derivatives of Brahmi	31	(11)
2.3 The Kharosthi Script	42	(14)
2.3.1 Geographical range	42	(4)
2.3.2 Chronological range	46	(1)
2.3.3 Uses of Kharosthi	47	(1)
2.3.4 Paleographic features of Kharosthi	48	(2)
2.3.5 The name of the script	50	(1)
2.3.6 The origin of Kharosthi	51	(3)
2.3.7 Connections between Kharosthi and Brahmi	54	(1)
2.3.8 The paleographic development of Kharosthi	55	(1)
2.4 Numbers and Numerical Notation	56	(8)
2.4.1 Numerical notation in Brahmi and the derived scripts	56	(7)
2.4.2 Numerical notation in Kharosthi	63	(1)
2.5 Techniques of Epigraphic Writing	64	(7)
2.5.1 General comments	64	(1)
2.5.2 The technical execution of inscriptions	65	(3)
2.5.3 Calligraphic writing	68	(2)
2.5.4 Biscript inscriptions	70	(1)
2.6 Undeciphered Scripts	71	(1)
3 The Languages of Indic Inscriptions	72	(38)
3.1 Middle Indo-Aryan ("Prakrit")	72	(9)
3.1.1 General remarks	72	(1)
3.1.2 The Prakrits of the Asokan inscriptions	73	(3)
3.1.3 Other inscriptions of the Mauryan era	76	(1)
3.1.4 Later inscriptional Prakrits	76	(4)
3.1.5 Literary Middle Indo-Aryan in inscriptions	80	(1)
3.2 Mixed or "Hybrid" Dialects	81	(5)
3.2.1 The character of "Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit" (EHS)	81	(1)
3.2.2 Geographical and chronological distribution of EHS	82	(1)
3.2.3 The linguistic nature of EHS	83	(3)
3.3 Sanskrit	86	(13)
3.3.1 The earliest Sanskrit inscriptions	86	(1)
3.3.2 Early Sanskrit inscriptions from Mathura	87	(1)
3.3.3 Sanskrit inscriptions from western India in the Ksatrapa period	88	(2)
3.3.4 Early Sanskrit inscriptions from the Deccan and southern India	90	(2)
3.3.5 Early Sanskrit inscriptions from other regions	92	(1)
3.3.6 The emergence of Sanskrit in the Gupta period	92	(1)
3.3.7 Summary: Historical and cultural factors in the development of Sanskrit as an epigraphic language	93	(1)
3.3.8 Linguistic characteristics of inscriptional Sanskrit	94	(5)
3.4 The New Indo-Aryan (NIA) Languages	99	(6)
3.4.1 Marathi	100	(1)
3.4.2 Oriya	101	(1)
3.4.3 Gujarati	101	(1)
3.4.4 Hindi and related languages and dialects	102	(2)
3.4.5 Bengali and other eastern NIA languages	104	(1)
3.4.6 Nepali	104	(1)
3.4.7 Sinhalese	104	(1)
3.5 Other (Non-Indo-Aryan) Languages in Indian Inscriptions	105	(4)
3.5.1 Dravidian languages	105	(1)
3.5.2 Islamic languages (Arabic, Persian, Urdu)	106	(1)
3.5.3 Other non-Indic languages	107	(2)
3.6 Bilingual and Multilingual Inscriptions	109	(1)
4 Survey of Inscriptions in the Indo-Aryan Languages	110	(51)
4.1 Typological Survey	110	(16)
4.1.1 Royal donative and panegyric inscriptions (prasasti)	110	(3)
4.1.2 Land grant (copper plate) charters	113	(5)
4.1.3 Private donations	118	(1)
4.1.4 Memorial inscriptions	119	(1)
4.1.5 Label inscriptions	120	(1)
4.1.6 Pilgrims' and travelers' records	121	(1)
4.1.7 Cultic inscriptions	122	(1)
4.1.8 Literary inscriptions	123	(1)
4.1.9 Seal inscriptions	123	(1)
4.1.10 Miscellaneous inscriptions	124	(2)
4.2 Survey by Form and Material	126	(6)
4.2.1 Stone	126	(3)
4.2.2 Metals	129	(1)
4.2.3 Earthen materials	130	(1)
4.2.4 Wood	131	(1)
4.2.5 Miscellaneous materials	131	(1)
4.3 General Survey of Inscriptions	132	(29)
4.3.1 Inscriptions of the Mauryan period (third century B.C.)	133	(8)
4.3.2 Inscriptions of the Sunga period (ca. second to first centuries B.C.)	141	(1)
4.3.3 Inscriptions of the Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian era (ca. second century B.C. to third century A.D.)	142	(3)
4.3.4 Inscriptions of the Gupta era (fourth to mid-sixth centuries A.D.)	145	(1)
4.3.5 Inscriptions of the post-Gupta or "Medieval" era (mid-seventh to tenth centuries A.D.)	146	(2)
4.3.6 Inscriptions of the "Islamic period" (eleventh to eighteenth centuries A.D.)	148	(2)
4.3.7 Extra-Indian inscriptions	150	(11)
5 Methods of Epigraphic Study	161	(38)
5.1 The Presentation of Inscriptional Texts	161	(3)
5.1.1 Reproduction of the original inscription	161	(1)
5.1.2 Presentation of the edited text	162	(2)
5.2 Translation and Interpretation of Inscriptions	164	(1)
5.3 Authentication of Inscriptions	165	(3)
5.4 Dating of Inscriptions	168	(12)
5.4.1 Undated or inadequately dated inscriptions; paleographic dating and problems thereof	168	(2)
5.4.2 Dated inscriptions	170	(6)
5.4.3 Conversion and verification of inscriptional dates	176	(4)
5.5 Appendix: Eras Used in Indo-Aryan Inscriptions	180	(19)
5.5.1 Continuous (historical or pseudohistorical) eras	180	(16)
5.5.2 Cyclical (astronomical) eras	196	(3)
6 The History of Indian Epigraphic Studies	199	(27)
6.1 The Pioneering Era: Early Readings of Indian Inscriptions (1781-1834)	199	(4)
6.2 The Era of Decipherment (1835-1860)	203	(14)
6.2.1 Decipherment of the early Brahmi script	204	(5)
6.2.2 Decipherment of the Kharosthi script	209	(6)
6.2.3 Other developments during the era of decipherment	215	(2)
6.3 The Period of Maturity (1861-1900)	217	(4)
6.4 The Modern Period (1901-1947)	221	(2)
6.5 Indian Epigraphy Since Independence (1947 to the present)	223	(1)
6.6 Future Prospects and Desiderata	224	(2)
7 Epigraphy as a Source for the Study of Indian Culture	226	(26)
7.1 Epigraphy and History	226	(6)
7.1.1 Political and dynastic history	226	(5)
7.1.2 Administrative, economic, and social history	231	(1)
7.2 Epigraphy and the Study of Indian Literature	232	(6)
7.2.1 Inscriptions as a source for the history of Indian literature	233	(2)
7.2.2 Inscriptional texts as literature	235	(3)
7.3 Epigraphy and the Study of Religion	238	(6)
7.3.1 The Brahmanical/Hindu tradition	239	(2)
7.3.2 Buddhism	241	(2)
7.3.3 Jainism and other sects	243	(1)
7.4 Epigraphy and the Study of the Arts	244	(4)
7.4.1 The visual arts	244	(4)
7.4.2 The performing arts	248	(1)
7.5 Epigraphy and Linguistics	248	(1)
7.6 Epigraphy and Geography	249	(1)
7.7 Other Fields	250	(2)
8 Bibliographic Survey	252	(10)
8.1 Primary Sources: Notices and Editions of Inscriptions	252	(5)
8.1.1 Periodicals	252	(2)
8.1.2 Epigraphic serial publications	254	(1)
8.1.3 Anthologies of inscriptions	255	(2)
8.1.4 Separate monographs	257	(1)
8.2 Secondary Sources: Handbooks and References Works	257	(5)
8.2.1 Handbooks of epigraphy and paleography	257	(2)
8.2.2 Reference works, bibliographies, and lists	259	(1)
8.2.3 Miscellaneous studies and collections	260	(2)
Appendix: Selection of Typical Inscriptions	262	(49)
1. Rummindei minor pillar edict of Asoka	262	(3)
2. Besnagar pillar inscription of Heliodoros	265	(2)
3. Bharhut label inscriptions	267	(1)
4. Kalawan copper plate inscription	267	(3)
5. Sarnath umbrella shaft inscription of the time of Kaniska	270	(2)
6. Niya (central Asian) Kharosthi document	272	(1)
7. Kahaum pillar inscription of the time of Skandagupta	273	(2)
8. Lakkha Mandal prasasti	275	(5)
9. Vat Ph'u stone inscription of Jayavarman [I]	280	(3)
10. Baroda copper plate inscription of Rastrakuta Karkkaraja [II]	283	(12)
11. Tiruvenkadu temple inscription	295	(2)
12. Nalanda inscription of Vipulasrimitra	297	(5)
13. Pilgrim inscription on the Kosam pillar	302	(2)
14. Burhanpur inscription of Edala-Saha (Adil Shah)	304	(3)
15. Pabhosa Jaina inscription	307	(4)
Bibliography	311	(17)
Index of Inscriptions Cited	328	(23)
Index	351