Indian Epigraphy c18.2

c18.2

We have referred to this subject in Chapter I of the present work.¹ In his recently published *Indian Archaeology Today*, 1962, p. 109, H. D. Sankalia says, “There are very few scholars who can read the ancient Brāhmī script.........Possibly epigraphy is a difficult subject and so people are not interested in it.” This appears to be correct though it is unintelligible why ‘the ancient Brāhmī script’ has been singled out. Moreover, at the same time, Sankalia also observes, “Scholars as well as students do not get an opportunity to decipher inscriptions. The one reason is that, unlike the earlier volumes of the *Epigraphia Indica*, the recent volumes of this journal published by the Government of India are dominated by one person, viz. the Editor. It was formerly the practice of the Department of Epigraphy to send out inscriptions to other scholars in different parts of India and even outside. This has now been stopped and the result is that interest in the subject is fast decreasing, and I am afraid that, if this policy persist, then within 10 years there will be no scholars in India...... who will know anything of epigraphy.”