Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s5.t3: 3.5.3 Other non-Indic languages

Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s5.t3

Language: English

3.5.3 Other non-Indic languages

c8.s5.t3.1

D. B. Diskalkar, "Inscriptions of Foreign Settlers in India," JIH 34, 1956, 39–52.

c8.s5.t3.2

3.5.3.1 (Non-Islamic) Semitic, Iranian, and other Near Eastern languages

Aramaic and a mixed "Aramaeo-Iranian" are represented in six inscriptions of the Mauryan era from Pakistan (Taxila) and Afghanistan (see 4.3.7.3). Several hundred brief inscriptions in Sogdian have been found in the Shatial region on the upper Indus,⁹¹ as well as a few others from Ladakh.⁹² Some inscriptions in Parthian and Bactrian were also found on the upper Indus.⁹³ Inscriptions in Pahlavi have been found in western and southern India; the most important examples are the Pahlavi pilgrims' records in the Kāṇheri caves (IA 9, 265–8 = ICTWI 62–6) dating from the early eleventh century, and the Christian inscriptions in the churches at Madras and Koṭṭayam (IA 3, 308–16; West, EI 4, 1896–97, 174–6), some of which may be as early as the seventh or eighth century. A few Christian inscriptions in Syriac have also been found at Koṭṭayam and other places in South India (e.g., IA 3, 314).

c8.s5.t3.4

⁹¹ Helmut Humbach, "The Sogdian Inscriptions of Thor-Shatial," *Journal of Central Asia* 8, 1985, 51–7; Nicholas Sims-Williams, "The Sogdian Inscriptions of the Upper Indus: A Preliminary Report," in K. Jettmar, ed., *Antiquities of Northern Pakistan*, I.131–7; Sims-Williams, *Sogdian and Other Iranian Inscriptions of the Upper Indus*.

c8.s5.t3.5

⁹² N. Sims-Williams, "The Sogdian Inscriptions of Ladakh," in K. Jettmar, *Antiquities of Northern Pakistan*, II.151–63.

c8.s5.t3.6

⁹³ Humbach, op. cit., 57. Some other inscriptions of the Kuṣāṇa period in Bactrian, notably the Surkh-Kotal (Afghanistan) inscription of Kaniṣka (JA 246, 345–440), are found outside of India proper.

c8.s5.t3.7

Some medieval inscriptions in Hebrew have been found in southern India, for example, a tombstone of a.d. 1269 from Chennamangalam (IA 59, 134–5).⁹⁴ A similar Hebrew inscription of a.d. 1251, together with two others in Himyaritic, were found in Bhuj (EI 19, 300–2), but these are thought to have been brought to India from South Arabia (301). There are also a few Hebrew graffiti from near Chilas among the newly discovered inscriptions on the upper Indus (K. Jettmar, *Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata* [for reference see Index of Inscriptions Cited], II.667–70). Armenian tombstone inscriptions, mostly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, are found in fair numbers in various parts of India, especially in Bengal, Madras, and the west coast, for example, the epitaph at the Little Mount, Madras (EI 6, 89).⁹⁵

c8.s5.t3.8

⁹⁴ For other examples and references, see Diskalkar, 43–4.

c8.s5.t3.9

⁹⁵ For other examples, see Diskalkar, 45–6, and ARIE 1962–63, nos. D.98–9, and 1966–67, no. B.192.

c8.s5.t3.10

3.5.3.2 European languages

c8.s5.t3.11

Although Greek was extensively used in coin legends in northern India in the “foreign period,” and although from the neighboring region of Afghanistan we have Aśokan and other Greek inscriptions (see 4.3.7.3), in India proper only a very few minor epigraphic specimens of it have been discovered in the form of inscribed potsherds from the Swat region (e.g., Birkoṭ-Ghundai; *Journal of Central Asia* 7, 49–53). There are also a few tombstone inscriptions from the colonial period in modern Greek (ARSIE 1912, 86).

c8.s5.t3.12

Several other European languages are represented in inscriptions of the modern period, that is, from the sixteenth century onward. The earliest of these are the numerous Portuguese inscriptions from Goa, Daman and Diu, Bassein, and other Portuguese settlements.⁹⁶ Some of the inscriptions of the Portuguese and other European settlers are composed in Latin. Tombstones and other inscriptions in Dutch dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are found in the Dutch settlements in western and southern India (e.g., Chingleput; EI 24, 123–6).⁹⁷ There are similar though less numerous records in French, mostly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Finally, inscriptions in English are very common all over India from the seventeenth century on; these include inscriptions on tombs and other memorial records, administrative orders, foundations, and the like.

c8.s5.t3.13

⁹⁶ See J. H. da Cunha Rivara, *Inscripções Lapidares da India Portugeuza* (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional, 1894). For other references see Diskalkar, 48–9.

c8.s5.t3.14

⁹⁷ See also ARSIE 1909, 121–4; 1911, 90–1; and 1912, 85–6.

c8.s5.t3.15

3.5.3.3 Sino-Tibetan languages and Chinese

c8.s5.t3.16

Only a few late inscriptions in Sino-Tibetan languages of the border regions of India have been published. Inscriptions in Manipuri have been compiled by M. Bahadur and P. G. Singh in *Epigraphical Records of Manipur*. A few late copper plate inscriptions in Ahom are noted in SIE 60. Stone and copper plate inscriptions in Newari of the Malla period, usually bilingual with Sanskrit, are regularly found in Nepal from the late fourteenth century A.D. and become very common in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries (see 4.3.7.2 for references). Also quite common are ritual and historical inscriptions in Tibetan found in many parts of the Himalayan regions of India; see, for example, IA 35, 1906, 237–41, 325–33 (A. H. Francke).

c8.s5.t3.17

Inscriptions in Sino-Tibetan languages of East and Southeast Asia are also occasionally found in India, generally in the form of pilgrims’ records or Buddhist donations. At Bodh-Gayā, for example, inscriptions have been found in Burmese (EI 11, 118–20) and Chinese (JRAS, n.s. 13, 552–72). Some Chinese inscriptions have also been discovered in other parts of India, for example, several recently found at Chilas, Hunza-Haldeikish, and other sites in northern Pakistan.⁹⁸

c8.s5.t3.18

⁹⁸ Ma Yong in Jettmar, *Antiquities of Northern Pakistan*, I.139–57; Thomas O. Höllman in ibid., II.61–75.