Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t2: 2.5.2 The technical execution of inscriptions

Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t2

Language: English

2.5.2 The technical execution of inscriptions

As with the general quality of the inscriptions, the degree of care in the preparation of the surfaces to be inscribed varies widely. In early records particularly, the inscriptions might be written directly on the intended surface with little or no preparation thereof; such is the case, for example, with many of the Aśokan rock inscriptions.²¹¹ As time went on, however, more sophisticated techniques were developed, culminating in the very skillfully dressed and prepared polished stone slabs, often of large dimensions, used for many inscriptions of the medieval period (cf. SIE 70). Similarly, inscribed copper plates were frequently prepared with considerable skill and artistry, especially in later centuries, though cruder examples are also by no means rare.

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²¹¹ The pillar edicts are written on exquisitely polished stone surfaces, but this preparation was evidently an aspect of the construction of the pillars themselves as monumental works of art, rather than as preparation for the inscriptions themselves.

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2.5.2.2 Execution of the inscription

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After the preparation of the intended surface, the letters of the inscription itself would usually be first written onto it in some temporary medium such as ink or chalk by a writer or scribe, known as *lipikāra*, *lekhaka*, *karaṇa*/*karaṇika*, *kāyastha*, and so on (see BIP 100–2 for further details). This preliminary step is discernible in occasional cases wherein the ink or paint is still visible in the inscription (e.g., at Bāndhogarh, EI 31, 168), or where the final step of carving the inscription was never carried out (e.g., the Giñjā hill inscription, ASIR 21, 1883–85, 119–20 [cf. EI 31, 168], and the Kasiā copper plate, ASIAR 1910–11, 73–7). The actual carving would then be carried out by an engraver (*sūtradhāra*, *śilākūṭa*, *rūpakāra*, etc.; cf. SIE 85). Sometimes, again mostly in the earlier period, the engravers seemed to be illiterate or minimally skilled, but in later times stone engraving became a legitimate art unto itself, and its expert practitioner came to be a person of some status (cf. IESIS 32–5) who would often (especially in later stone *praśastis*) be mentioned by name at the end of the inscription along with the composer and/or scribe.²¹² The verbs typically used to denote the activities of composing, writing, and engraving are, respectively, √(kr) or (*vi-*) √rac; (*ul-* or *vi-*) √likh;²¹³ and *ut*-√(kr) or (*ni-*) √khan.

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²¹² For examples, see Appendix, no. 8, vv. 22–23, and no. 12, v. 13. For cases where all three persons involved in the preparation of the record, viz. the composer, scribe, and engraver, are mentioned, see EI I, 42, ll. 27–8; 48–9, ll. 21–2; and 80–1, ll. 25–6 (cf. BIP 101 n. 12).

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The normal method of writing was by incising or carving lines into the hard surface with a stylus, chisel, or other suitable implement. Some early inscriptions, mostly Kharo\d{s}\d{t}h\={\i} relic dedications on metal plates, are written with a series of dots (e.g., the Taxila silver scroll, CII 2.1, 70--7). In the later medieval 142–8).²¹⁷ This system was largely abandoned in later centuries²¹⁸ (except in Southeast Asia, where it remained in use much longer),²¹⁹ and thereafter all inscriptions, verse and prose, are lineated and marks, sometimes developed into elaborate floral motifs, are used at the end of records, where they function as marks of both decoration and punctuation (see, e.g., EI 31, plate facing page 127, l. 212).

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Many inscriptions, especially in medieval and later times, are accompanied by engraved illustrations of various sorts. These may take the form of auspicious symbols such as Śiva’s bull Nandi, the Śiva-liṅga (e.g., CII 6, pl. XC), the conch shell (*śaṅkha*), lotus, and so on; or they may be representations of dynastic symbols, such as the Garuḍa on the copper plates of the Paramāras (CII 7.2, pl. I, IV, VI, etc.). Other illustrations refer specifically to the content of the record itself, such as the representation of the sun and moon (e.g., CII 6, pl. XC), alluding to the traditional blessing that a gift should last as long as the sun and moon; or of a donkey copulating with a woman or a pig, representing the mother of a violator of the gift according to the traditional “ass-curse” (e.g., IA 48, 1919, 47 and n. 33; EI 40, 1973–74, plate facing page 88), which is also sometimes explicitly spelled out in the text of the inscription.²²² *Satī* and other types of memorial stone inscriptions (see 4.1.4) are usually accompanied by representations, either visual or symbolic (typically in the form of a hand- or footprint), of the person memorialized.

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²²² E.g., CII 7.2, 207, *yo na dadāti tasya mātā* [*sic*] *gardabho jabhāti* [*sic*], and pl. LVIII. See also EI 9, 1907–8, 164, *jo anyathā karoti tasya pitā gardabhaḥ śūkarī mātā*.

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Corrections and omissions are indicated by various means. Sometimes, as in Aśokan rock edict XII at Kālsī, l. 31 (CII 1, 42), an incorrectly written passage was simply crossed out and the correct reading entered above the line. In copper plates, however, the standard practice was to beat the incorrect passage flat and rewrite it, or simply to write over it without erasure (see, e.g., Appendix, no. 10, l. 36). Omitted letters or words could be inserted by simply writing them into, above, or below the appropriate place in the line. Longer omissions would typically be added in the margins; their intended location was usually indicated by placing the beginning of the added passage in the upper or lower margin at the appropriate vertical position, and denoting the line where it belonged by a number indicating the number of lines from the top or bottom. Numerous examples of corrections of these types are pointed out in the editor’s notes to the Asankhali plates of Narasiṁha II, EI 31, 109–28. Alternatively, the placement of a marginal addition could be indicated in the text by the cross-shaped mark known as *kākapāda* or *haṁsapāda* (see, e.g., EI 3, 51 n. 9).