Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t6.1

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.