Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t2.5

c7.s5.t2.5

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.