Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c11.s2.12

c11.s2.12

Another turning point in the history of epigraphic studies was reached in 1872 with the issue of the first volume of *The Indian Antiquary* (IA), subtitled *A Journal of Oriental Research in Archaeology, History, Literature, Languages, Folklore, &c, &c*, under the editorship of James Burgess. This was the first Indological journal to be explicitly dedicated to, among other subjects, archaeological research; and this field, by the standards of the era, implied a prominent role for epigraphy. IA thus immediately became the leading vehicle for the publication of inscriptions (although others, notably JBBRAS, continued to play an important role), and in the volumes published in the remainder of the nineteenth century the most frequent contributors of epigraphic articles include such great names as G. Bühler, J. F. Fleet, E. Hultzsch, Bhagvānāl Indrajī, F. Kielhorn, and B. Lewis Rice.¹¹⁵ The editions and translations of inscriptions in IA were consistently of high quality from the very beginning, so that many of the articles published in the early volumes remain definitive today.