Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c9.s2.t5.21

c9.s2.t5.21

In the period corresponding to the Scytho-Parthian era in northern India, a large number of stone inscriptions, mostly Buddhist dedications, were being recorded in southern India at major *stūpa* sites such as Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, Amarāvatī, and Jaggayyapeta (all in Andhra Pradesh). These inscriptions are generally written in Brāhmī of the early southern variety and in Prakrit language. From Nāgārjunakoṇḍa we have several dozen inscriptions on columns and other stone surfaces, mostly recording the donations of the Ikṣvāku royal family who ruled around the second and third centuries A.D. (EI 20, 1–37; 21, 61–71; 35, 1–36, etc.).⁸⁵ Other inscriptions at Nāgārjunakoṇḍa as well as Amarāvatī and Jaggayyapeta record donations associated with the Sātavāhana and other dynasties (see Jas. Burgess, *The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta*).