Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s5.t1.1

c8.s5.t1.1

The epigraphy of the Dravidian languages constitutes an enormous field of study in itself, which can be presented here only in the broadest outlines, although ideally Dravidian epigraphy cannot be completely separated from Indo-Aryan epigraphy, there being a great deal of geographical, historical, linguistic, and stylistic overlapping between the two fields. Although for the most part Dravidian inscriptions are less ancient than the Indo-Aryan ones, their numbers overall, and especially in the medieval period and in the Tamil and Kannada languages, are very great, perhaps greater than those of the Indo-Aryan languages.