Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c12.s5: 7.5 Epigraphy and Linguistics
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c12.s5
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7.5 Epigraphy and Linguistics
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Although its relation to epigraphy is of prime importance, linguistics will not be discussed in detail here since the relevant material has already been covered in chapter 3. Suffice it to say that inscriptions provide a vast body of linguistic data which not only supplements but to some degree even supersedes information on the history and dialectology of the Indo-Aryan languages (as well as of the Dravidian and other South Asian language families) derived from noninscriptional, that is, literary, sources. The principal justification for this statement is that inscriptions provide relatively uncontaminated linguistic data, as opposed to literary texts which are often altered and tampered with in various ways in the course of multiple copyings over the centuries. Moreover, inscriptions often provide specimens of otherwise unattested or poorly attested dialects. This is particularly true in connection with the Middle Indo-Aryan languages, as in the case V. S. Agrawal, inscriptions are “[p]erhaps the richest and most authoritative source of Indian geography.”⁷³ Although a complete compilation of the relevant data remains to be achieved, a large amount of material has already been collected in the sources just cited.
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⁷³ IHQ 28, 1952, 211 (“Ancient Indian Geography,” 205–14).
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Among the most important uses of geographical data from inscriptions is the geographical identification of places known from literary or other nonarchaeological sources. Many important places have been successfully identified from inscriptions found at their sites; for example, Lumbinī, the traditional birthplace of the Buddha, is identified with Rummindeī in the Nepal Terai on the basis of the Aśokan pillar inscription found there which refers to the village Lummini as the Buddha’s birthplace (cf. 4.3.1.1.4). More recently, the nearby site of Piprāwā has been definitively identified by K. M. Srivastava⁷⁴ with the Kapilavastu of Buddhist tradition on the grounds of numerous inscriptions found there on seals and on a pot which contain the name Kapilavastu.⁷⁵
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⁷⁴ JESI 2, 1976, 108; see also Srivastava’s *Kapilavastu in Basti District of U.P. (A Reply to the Challenge to the Identification of Kapilavastu)* (Nagpur: Nagpur Buddhist Centre, 1978).
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⁷⁵ For further examples of such identifications, see D. C. Sircar, *Cosmology and Geography in Early Indian Literature*, Appendix V: “Cosmography and Geography in Inscriptions,” 161–5.
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Inscriptions also provide us in a great many cases with the ancient names of places which are not known from other (i.e., literary) sources. For example, the original Sanskrit name of the modern village of Eraṇ in Sagar District, MP, which was a major city in the Gupta period, is given as Airikiṇa in inscriptions.⁷⁶ In many though by no means all cases, the small towns and villages mentioned in inscriptions (especially in copper plate charters) can be geographically identified with modern places bearing similar names. In such cases, however, particularly in connection with later inscriptions, it should not necessarily be assumed that the Sanskrit name given is actually the original toponym, as such names are sometimes ad hoc Sanskritizations of vernacular names.
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⁷⁶ P. Gupta, *Geography in Ancient Indian Inscriptions*, 59; for other examples, see RIE 141ff. and IESIS 2.
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The geographical data derivable from inscriptions is often sufficiently copious to permit a reasonably detailed reconstruction of the geographical and administrative structure of a given region at a given period. For a summary of such projects undertaken in connection with medieval central and western India, see H. D. Sankalia’s “Historical Geography from Inscriptions.”⁷⁷
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⁷⁷ In P. J. Chinmulgund and V. V. Mirashi, eds., *M. M. Chitraoshastri Felicitation Volume* (see ch. 8 n. 15 for reference), 248–88.