Indian Epigraphy c6.s4.2

c6.s4.2

Among the merits of epigraphic records as a source of Indian history, the foremost is the fact that their authors in most cases described contemporary events. In describing the ancestors of his royal patron, the court poet had sometimes to deal with past events and personages. But the material for the description of events of the near past was easily available to him. As regards the distant past, sometimes he depended on recorded or unrecorded tradition. There are also instances (e. g. in the Kumbhalgadh inscription) to show that the author of an epigraphic record tried to ascertain the correct facts with the help of old documents either in his patron’s archives or elsewhere. The author of the Junagadh inscription of 150 A. D., while recounting the early history of the Sudarśana lake, says that it was created by Rāṣṭriya Puṣyagupta during the reign of Candragupta Maurya (c. 322-298 B. C.), and that Yavanarāja Tuṣāspha endowed it with irrigation canals on behalf of Aśoka Maurya (c. 272-232 B.C.). It appears that some genuine records about the lake, belonging to the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., were available for consultation to the author of the Junagadh inscription in 150 A.D.