History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c8.20

v1.c8.20

For Indian history after the 5th century we are consequently left mainly to inscriptions on monuments or on copper-plates, to coins, and to the works of foreigners for the necessary information with which the natives of the country itself have neglected to supply us. Inscriptions fortunately are more abundant in India than, perhaps, in any other country, and nearly all of them contain historical information; and, thanks to the great advances made in epigraphy during the last thirty-five years, we are now able to piece together a tolerably accurate historical outline of the course of events from the 3rd century B.C.¹ This is more especially the case for the Dekhan and the north of India; in the Tamil country so much has not yet been done, but this is more because there have been fewer labourers in the field than from want of materials. There are literally thousands of inscriptions in the south which have not been copied, and of those that have been collected only a portion have yet been translated; but they are such as to give us assurance that, when the requisite amount of labour is bestowed upon them, we shall be able to fix the chronology of the kings of the south with a degree of certainty sufficient for all ordinary purposes.²