Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t4: 3.3.4 Early Sanskrit inscriptions from the Deccan and southern India
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t4
- Language
- English
3.3.4 Early Sanskrit inscriptions from the Deccan and southern India
c8.s3.t4.1
In general, Sanskrit began to appear in southern Indian inscriptions somewhat later than in the north, and also lagged behind in its gradual adoption there as the primary epigraphic language. The first significant body⁵¹ of southern Sanskrit inscriptions is from Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, where, in addition to many Prakrit inscriptions, a few in Sanskrit have also been found. Most of these date from the reign of the later Ikṣvāku king Ehavala Cāntamūla, who probably reigned in the late third and/or early fourth centuries A.D. The earliest dated Sanskrit inscription from Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, of the year 11 of king Ehavalaśrī (= Ehavala Cāntamūla; EI 33, 147–9), records a Brahmanical (Śaiva) donation in good classical verse (*anuṣṭubh* and *sragdharā* meters). A pillar inscription of the sixteenth regnal year of the same king (EI 34, 17–20), also of Śaiva Finally, after this transitional period in the fourth and early fifth centuries A.D., Prakrit fell out of use completely in southern Indian inscriptions. For the next few centuries Sanskrit was the sole epigraphic language, until the regional Dravidian languages began to come into use around the seventh century (see 3.5.1).
c8.s3.t4.2
⁵¹ An anomalously early inscription in what appears to be hybrid Sanskrit (cf. EHS 144) is the fragmentary Amarāvatī slab inscription of the Sātavāhana ruler Gautamīputra Śrī-Yajña Sātakarṇi, of about the late second century A.D. (JAIH 4, 7–8). But here (as also in the case of the Kaṇherī Sātavāhana inscription discussed earlier) the unusually early Sanskritization is probably due to Sātavāhana contacts with the Western Kṣatrapas.