Indian Epigraphy c10.s1.21

c10.s1.21

The Deopada stone inscription¹ of king Vijayasena of Bengal is known to have been engraved by a renowned artist named Śūlapāṇi who was the head of a guild of the artisans of Varendra (North Bengal) and enjoyed the feudatory title of Rāṇaka. The neat and beautiful incision of the inscription excites the readers' admiration. The Talagunda inscription,² which is a praśasti composed by Kubja, the court poet of the Kadamba king Śāntivarman of the Kannaḍa country, was written on the stone slab by the poet himself so that the engraver succeeded in performing his work neatly without committing mistakes. The number of inscriptions carelessly written and engraved is, however, by far larger than those written and engraved carefully.