Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s4.t2: 3.4.2 Oriya
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s4.t2
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3.4.2 Oriya
c8.s4.t2.1
K. Tripathi, *The Evolution of Oriya Language and Script*; idem, *Prācīna Oṛiā Abhilekha*; R. Subrahmanyam, *Inscriptions of the Sūryavaṃśī Gajapatis of Orissa*.
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After Marathi, Oriya is the most abundantly attested and important among the inscriptional NIA languages; Diskalkar (JOI 6, 129) estimates the number of Oriya inscriptions at 150, and Tripathi presents a selection of 71 Oriya inscriptions from A.D. 1051 to 1568 in *The Evolution of Oriya Language and Script* (222ff.).⁷⁰ These records are found in various districts of Orissa as well as in neighboring districts of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal. The early manifestations of Oriya in inscriptions follow a pattern similar to that of Marathi. Characteristics of the Oriya language can first be discerned in inscriptional Sanskrit of the tenth century A.D., for instance, in the Madras Museum Plates (EI 28, 44–50).⁷¹ Oriya proper began to appear sporadically in inscriptions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the earliest specimen being dated A.D. 1051 (Tripathi, *The Evolution*, 222–4), and became common in the thirteenth and following centuries. Oriya was used frequently in the records of the Eastern Gaṅga kings and of their successors, the Sūryavaṃśī Gajapatis. Many later inscriptions of local dynasties as well as private records continued to be written in Oriya into the eighteenth, nineteenth, and even the early twentieth centuries (e.g., ARIE 1951–2, no. A.20).
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⁷⁰ Several Oriya inscriptions are also transcribed (in Devanāgarī) in SII 5 (nos. 1006, 1119, 1121, 1132–3, 1152, 1161) and 6 (nos. 654, 697, 700–3, 748–9, 778, 895, 903, 908–9, 927, 1089, 1145–65).
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⁷¹ See 3.3.8.3 and SIE 58.
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Most Oriya inscriptions are the usual donative stone records and copper plate charters. The early ones were written in “Gauḍī” or “Proto-Bengali” script, which gradually developed into a distinct Oriya script from the fourteenth century onward. Oriya inscriptions were also sometimes written in the Devanāgarī (e.g., Tripathi, *Evolution*, 248–9) or Telugu (ibid., 229–31) scripts. Like the Marathi inscriptions, many of them are bilingual (or trilingual), but the proportion of inscriptions in Oriya alone is larger than for Marathi. The multilingual records include inscriptions in Oriya together with Sanskrit and/or Telugu, Tamil (e.g., Bhubaneswar stone ins., EI 32, 229–38), and Hindi (e.g., Baripadā Museum stone ins., OHRJ 2, 94–8).