Indian Epigraphy c11.t1.43

c11.t1.43

The above Kṣaharāta and Śātavāhana records and others of the same type in the caves of Western India are thus *rāja-śāsanas* originally engraved on copper plate. The system of engraving royal charters on copper plates is therefore not later than the beginning of the second century A.D. It is possible to think that it was the ascetic donees, and not the donors, who were responsible for copying the charters on the walls of the caves in which they lived either for a considerable period of time or only for the rainy season. The aim was evidently to have a charter which, unlike copper-plate grants, could not be lost. The copying therefore may not have been done exactly when a charter was issued and the records may have been engraved on the walls several at a time without special regard to their chronological order. Their nature thus seems to resemble that of the medieval votive inscriptions engraved on the walls of temples of renown.¹