Indian Palaeography c12.s1: Material of Writing
Indian Palaeography c12.s1
- Language
- English
Material of Writing
c12.s1.1
The inscriptions are engraved on stone pillars (*silāthaṁbha*) and stone slabs (*silāphalaka*). The pillars are monolithic, made of Chunar sandstone, chiselled to a round shape, rubbed, and highly polished. The places where the pillars are found lie in the Ganges Valley, except Rummindei and Nigali Sagar, which are in the Nepalese Terai but not far from the river Gandak—a tributary of the Ganges—and Sanchi in Central India, on the main route from Delhi and Kanauj to Gujarat and the south. Probably these pillars were transported by river, and short distances overland were covered by bullock-carts, as was done later in the time of Sulṭān Fīroz Shāh Tughlaq, who transported some of the pillars. The huge expenditure on transport suggests that the stone-cutter’s art was not then widespread, and, combined with this fact, the difficulties in carrying the pillars to distant places by road explain very well their absence outside the Gangetic region.
c12.s1.2
The term *silāphalaka* (stone slab), used by Aśoka, must refer to the blocks of rock on which the edicts are engraved, as only one stone slab (the Calcutta Bairat slab) has so far been discovered. The rocks are of different types—granite, quartzite, trap, and others, whichever was available on the spot, but the outstanding block in the locality was always chosen for the inscriptions. No attempt was made to prepare the surface, except in the case of the pillars, where engraving was done after polishing. In the case of rocks a naturally flat surface was selected. As a result the pillar inscriptions are better written, while the rock inscriptions are comparatively rough.