Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t2: 3.3.2 Early Sanskrit inscriptions from Mathurā
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t2
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3.3.2 Early Sanskrit inscriptions from Mathurā
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Except for these very few examples from the last century before the Christian era, the earliest Sanskrit inscriptions are found in Mathurā, which has yielded several records of the first and second centuries A.D., that is, the time of the Śaka Kṣatrapas and the early Kuṣāṇas, which are written in Sanskrit or a dialect very closely approaching it.⁴⁷ The earliest of the Sanskrit inscriptions from Mathurā are probably those of the time of the Kṣatrapa Śoḍāsa, who is dated with reasonable certainty to the early years of the first century A.D. The most important of these is the Morā well inscription discussed earlier (3.2.3.2; MI §113), which seems to record the dedication of a shrine to five epic heroes. The opening portion of this fragmentary inscription, recording its date, was written in the hybrid dialect (*mahakṣatrapasa rājūvulasa putrasa svāmi* . . . ), while the remaining three lines are in Sanskrit, evidently including a verse in the *Bhujaṅgavijṛmbhita* meter (EI 24, 198). But for minor orthographic liberties of a type often seen in Sanskrit inscriptions (cf. 3.3.8.1), such as *ārcādeśāṃ śailāṃ* instead of *arcādeśān śailān* (accusative plural), the latter part of the inscription is virtually standard Sanskrit.
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⁴⁷ Here, as in the case of the hybrid dialects discussed earlier, it is not always absolutely clear whether or not a given text should be labeled "Sanskrit."
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A similar linguistic situation is observed in another fragmentary Mathurā stone slab inscription of Śoḍāsa's time (MI §178) whose first two lines appear to be in hybrid dialect ("not quite correct Sanskrit," in Lüders' words) as indicated by the nonstandard sandhi in *pārvato prāsādo*, l. 2, but whose third and fourth lines seem to contain an *upajāti* verse in standard Sanskrit. A third inscription of Śoḍāsa's time (MI §115) on a doorjamb from Morā is in standard Sanskrit except for the typical hybrid form *svāmi(sya)* (l. 10). Other undated Sanskrit inscriptions attributable to the same general period include a fragment of a stone inscription from Kaṅkālī Ṭīlā (possibly a Jaina inscription) with text in *śārdūlavikrīḍita* meter (MI §21) and a fragmentary Mathurā coping-stone inscription in "pre-Kuṣān characters and composed in pure Sanskrit" (MI §162), which is probably a Brahmanical dedication.
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The Sanskrit inscriptions from the earliest phase at Mathurā show certain interesting patterns. First, they are mostly Brahmanical in affiliation. While the Kaṅkālī Ṭīlā inscription may be Jaina (it is too fragmentary to be identified), in any case there are no Buddhist inscriptions among them. Second, some of them comprise two dialects, with the practical portion (containing the date, etc.) in the hybrid language and a eulogistic portion in standard Sanskrit verse. Others, such as the Morā doorjamb inscription, are in standard Sanskrit but show occasional hybrid tinges in morphology or orthography.
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Moving on to the period of the Great Kuṣāṇas (i.e., Kaniṣka and his successors, provisionally assumed here for purposes of discussion to have begun ruling in A.D. 78; cf. 5.5.1.4), we now find more Mathurā inscriptions in reasonably standard Sanskrit, including for the first time some of Buddhistic content. For instance, several of the pillar base donations from the Jamālpur mound (e.g., MI §47–9 and 53) are in standard Sanskrit or very close to it; for instance, §48, *aya[ṃ kum]bh[ako dā]naṃ saṅghaprakṛtān[ā]ṃ Bh[ad]raghoṣa-pramukhā(nāṃ)*. A longer inscription is the Īsāpur *yūpa* (MI §94) of the year 24 (= ca. A.D. 102?) of Vāsiṣka, commemorating the performance of a *dvādaśarātra* sacrifice in proper Sanskrit but for some minor orthographic variations (gṛṣma- for grīṣma- [l. 3]; hiatus in -cchandogena iṣṭvā [l. 6]). A few decades younger is a pedestal inscription from Tokri Ṭīlā (MI §99) recording donations, apparently Brahmanical, during the reign of Huviṣka (the date is lost) in more or less correct Sanskrit but with some peculiarities such as the apparent gerund *dṛśya* (l. 3) and the unclear word *nanayat* (l. 1).
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Overall, a fair number (but still only a fraction of the total corpus) of the inscriptions of Mathurā from the early first to about the middle of the second century A.D. are written in fairly standard Sanskrit. Most of the Sanskrit inscriptions are Brahmanical in affiliation, and the Sanskrit of Buddhist inscriptions is more prone to hybridisms, though these are also not totally absent from the Brahmanical ones. In conclusion, although the hybrid dialect is still predominant, Sanskrit is beginning to establish itself as an epigraphic language in this era, especially in Brahmanical circles, continuing the trend which began in the first century B.C.