Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t3.6

c8.s3.t3.6

Also from the third century A.D., we have several Sanskrit inscriptions on *yūpas* from Baḍvā (SI I.91–2) and Barnāla (EI 26, 118–23) in Rajasthan. Their language still shows significant hybrid characteristics, most strikingly in the dating formula *kṛtehi* or *kritehi* for Sanskrit *kṛtaiḥ*, i.e., “in [lit. ‘by’] Kṛta [= Vikrama] years.” This follows the familiar pattern of inscriptions from the early centuries of the Christian era (e.g., the Morā well inscription discussed earlier), with the portions concerning the date and other mundane information in more Prakritic language. This suggests that everyday documents were still being written in MIA or mixed dialects at this time, so that people would habitually employ set phrases like *kṛtehi* in recording dates, even at the head of documents which were to be composed in Sanskrit.⁵⁰