Indian inscriptions

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An example of the Vatteluttu script from an inscription by Rajaraja Chola I at the Brihadisvara temple in Thanjavur.

Brahmi script from Kanheri Caves

Indian inscriptions are an important source of information about India's ancient history. Inscriptions are found 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, copper plates, 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 dynasties that flourished long ago.^[1]

1 History and Research
2 Notable inscriptions
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History and Research

Since 1886 there have been systematic attempts to collect and catalogue these inscriptions, along with the translation and publication of documents.^[2] Inscriptions may be in Brāhmī script or Kannada script or even the still elusive Indus script. Royal inscriptions were also engraved on copper-plates as were the Copper-plate grant. Tamil-Brahmi was an early script used in the inscriptions on Edicts of Ashoka and later evolved into the Vatteluttu script.^[3]

[edit] Notable inscriptions

Important inscriptions include the Hathigumpha inscription, the Rabatak inscription, the Kannada Halmidi inscription, and the Tamil copper-plate inscriptions. The oldest known inscription in the Kannada language, referred to as the Halmidi inscription for the tiny village of Halmidi near where it was found, consists of sixteen lines carved on a sandstone pillar and dates to 450 AD.^[4]

[edit] Hathigumpha inscription

The Hathigumpha inscription ("Elephant Cave" inscription) from Udayagiri near Bhubaneshwar in Orissa was written by Kharavela, the king of Kalinga in India during the 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription consists of seventeen lines incised in deep cut Brahmi letters on the overhanging brow of a natural cavern called Hathigumpha on the southern side of the Udayagiri hill near Bhubaneswar in Orissa. It faces straight toward the rock Edicts of Asoka at Dhauli located about six miles away.

[edit] Rabatak inscription

The Rabatak inscription is written on a rock in the Bactrian language and Greek script and found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kanishka and gives remarkable clues to the genealogy of the Kushan dynasty.

Badami Chalukya inscription in Old Kannada, Virupaksha Temple, 745 C.E, Pattadakal

[edit] Halmidi inscription

The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known inscription in the Kannada script. The inscription is carved on a pillar, that was discovered in the village of Halmidi, a few miles from the famous temple town of Belur in the Hassan district of Karnataka, and is dated 450 AD. The original inscription has now been deposited in an archaeological museum in Bangalore while a fibreglass replica has been installed in Halmidi.

[edit] Tamil copper-plate inscriptions

Tamil copper-plate inscriptions are mostly records of grants of villages or plots of cultivable lands to private individuals or public institutions by the members of the various South Indian royal dynasties. The grants range in date from the 10th century C.E. to the mid 19th century C.E. A large number of them belong to the Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Vijayanagar kings. These plates are valuable epigraphically as they give us an insight into the social conditions of medieval South India and help fill chronological gaps to connect the history of the ruling dynasties.