Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t6: 3.3.6 The emergence of Sanskrit in the Gupta period
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t6
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3.3.6 The emergence of Sanskrit in the Gupta period
c8.s3.t6.1
It was during the reign of the early Gupta emperors in the fourth century A.D. that Sanskrit was finally established as the epigraphic language par excellence of the Indian world. The turning point appears in the inscriptions of Samudragupta (middle to late fourth century), especially the Allahabad pillar inscription (SI I.262–8), which, despite a few trivial orthographic irregularities, is often held up as a model of high classical literary style of the mixed prose and verse (*campū*) class. From this point on, all the inscriptions of the Guptas and their neighbors and feudatories in northern India were written in correct classical Sanskrit; and, as we have already seen (3.3.4), similar developments followed soon after in southern India and elsewhere.
c8.s3.t6.2
Thus by about the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth centuries A.D., Sanskrit had at last established itself as virtually the sole language for epigraphic use throughout India. Prakrit, from this time onward, virtually fell out of epigraphic use, with occasional exceptions for literary effect or sectarian considerations (see 3.1.5). Sanskrit continued to enjoy its privileged position in the north for many centuries, until regional NIA and "Islamic" languages (3.4 and 3.5.2) began to appear in inscriptions of the medieval period; even then Sanskrit was never completely supplanted, and has continued to be used sporadically up to modern times. In the south, the regional (i.e., Dravidian) languages made their appearance earlier and more prominently (3.5.1), but there too not entirely at the cost of Sanskrit, which continued to be used as an alternative to or in bilingual combination with the Dravidian languages throughout the ancient and medieval periods.