Indian Epigraphy c6.s5.17

c6.s5.17

Gross exaggerations are, however, less conspicuous in the description of kings found in records of the earlier period. For this reason, in spite of the fact that there is always an amount of exaggeration in the royal praśastis composed by the court poets of Indian monarchs, the earlier the king is the greater is our reliance on his claims. Vague claims are generally less reliable than definite statements involving the mention of the personal names of adversaries. Whatever be the nature and amount of exaggeration, there is undoubtedly a very considerable amount of truth in the claims put forward in records like the Allahabad pillar inscription¹ of Samudragupta and the Tirumalai rock inscription² of Rājendra-coḷa. The manner in which the personal names of adversaries are mentioned in epigraphs like the Deopada inscription³ of Vijayasena (c. 1095-1158 A.D.) of Bengal appears, however, to be too poetic and artificial and therefore suspicious. But there is no doubt that the kings so named were contemporaries of the Sena monarch.