Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c6.12

c6.12

The paucity of historical materials in the usual sense for India is balanced, as it were, by the relative abundance of inscriptions.⁸ According to Sircar, “About 90,000 inscriptions have so far been discovered in different parts of India.”⁹ These estimated 90,000 inscriptions come from virtually every corner of India and from every century from the third (or possibly fourth) century B.C. up to modern times, though their distribution is by no means equal in terms of antiquity and geographical and linguistic distribution. For example, early inscriptions, that is, those from before about the beginning of the Christian era are relatively rare, and inscriptions only become very common in medieval times, from about the eighth century onward. In general, the bulk of inscriptions in the later period are from southern India and the majority of these are in Dravidian languages.¹⁰