Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t7: 3.3.7 Summary: Historical and cultural factors in the development of Sanskrit as an epigraphic language
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s3.t7
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3.3.7 Summary: Historical and cultural factors in the development of Sanskrit as an epigraphic language
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Near the end of the pre-Christian era, we find a smattering of inscriptions of Brahmanical content recording religious donations and foundations in standard or nearly standard Sanskrit, and we may assume that these are isolated survivals of what must have been an increasingly common practice in this period. About the beginning of the Christian era, we begin to find more examples of epigraphic Sanskrit among the abundant inscriptions from Mathurā and surrounding regions, and it appears to be more than coincidence that this development appeared at precisely the time when this area of northern India came under the domination of the Scythian "Kṣatrapa" rulers (see 3.2.3.2). This suspicion is confirmed by the appearance, in the next century, of Sanskrit inscriptions in the domains of the early Western Kṣatrapas in Maharashtra and Gujarat, culminating in Rudradāman's Junāgaḍh rock inscription, the first long epigraphic text in virtually classical language and style.
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Thus it appears that the use of Sanskrit for inscriptions was promoted, though not originated, by the Scythian rulers of northern and western India in the first two centuries of the Christian era. Their motivation in promoting Sanskrit was presumably a desire to establish themselves as legitimate Indian or at least Indianized rulers and to curry the favor of the educated Brahmanical elite. In other words, the forces and motivations behind epigraphic Sanskritization were evidently the same as those which promoted the development and spread of the hybrid language at the cost of MIA, and indeed these two developments must have taken place more or less simultaneously. As discussed earlier, for several centuries there was available to the composers and scribes of inscriptions a range of linguistic choices comprising MIA, hybrid, and Sanskrit, from which the appropriate dialect could be chosen according to such factors as the purpose and contents of the record, its sectarian affiliations, or simply personal preferences and abilities. But the direction of movement along this spectrum was consistently toward Sanskrit, promoted by the previously mentioned legitimizing motivations of the non-Indian rulers, as well as by the inherent status of this elite language. Thus eventually, and inevitably, Sanskrit completely supplanted Prakrit and the mixed dialects.
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The spread of epigraphic Sanskrit to the south in subsequent centuries can also be attributed to the influence, direct or indirect, of the Western Kṣatrapas. In this connection it is significant that the earliest southern Indian Sanskrit inscriptions come from Nāgārjunakoṇḍa (see 3.3.4), since other inscriptions from the same site attest to the connections of the Kṣatrapas and other western Indian rulers with it; for instance, a Nāgārjunakoṇḍa memorial pillar inscription of the time of King Rudrapuruṣadatta (EI 34, 20–2) attests to a marital alliance between the Western Kṣatrapas and the Ikṣvāku rulers of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa.
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The movement toward Sanskrit was thus already well entrenched by the early years of the Gupta empire, when Sanskrit was adopted as the sole administrative language for epigraphic and (presumably) other purposes, and when the high classical style became the standard mode. The Guptas thus merely brought to its logical conclusion a gradual process which had been going on for the previous four centuries or so. The adoption of Sanskrit by the Guptas is sometimes thought to represent a Brahmanical revival under their auspices; and while there may be something to this, it would be a serious oversimplification to picture the triumph of Sanskrit merely as a victory of the Brahmanical language over the MIA and hybrid dialects associated with the Buddhists and Jains. It is certainly true that, on the whole, Sanskrit was first and most frequently employed epigraphically in Brahmanical circles (as in Ayodhyā, Hāthībādā/Ghosuṇḍī, etc.), and that many of the earliest and best specimens of Sanskrit from subsequent sites such as Mathurā and Nāgārjunakoṇḍa are in Brahmanical records. But several other early Sanskrit inscriptions from these sites are Buddhist, and possibly also Jaina (Kaṅkālī Ṭīlā). Particularly interesting is the situation at Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, where the Sanskrit inscriptions seem to be distributed equally, in terms of number and style, between Buddhist and Brahmanical records. Thus while the Brahmans and their clients may have led the way in the Sanskritization of epigraphic language, the Buddhists did not lag far behind and were no doubt also influential in the process.
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These patterns should not, however, be uncritically extrapolated to nonepigraphic contexts. It should be kept in mind that, in the words of Burrow, “[T]he inscriptional evidence gives a very one-sided picture of the contemporary linguistic conditions. . . . Sanskrit was always, even when the use of Prakrit was most flourishing, the primary literary language of India.”⁵⁵ In other words, the limited and sporadic use of Sanskrit in inscriptions prior to the Gupta era does not mean that Sanskrit as a language of literature, culture, and ritual was in abeyance but simply that inscriptions were not yet felt to be literary documents worthy of its use. The gradual Sanskritization of inscriptions reflects, on the one hand, the formalization of inscriptions into a mode of literary expression, and on the other, the spread of Sanskrit into the administrative realm, which was fully accomplished under the Guptas and their contemporaries.
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⁵⁵ *The Sanskrit Language* (see n. 36 for reference), 59.