Indian Epigraphy c6.s5.34

c6.s5.34

Often illiterate and semi-literate stone-cutters or goldsmiths were entrusted with the task of engraving records on stone or copper plates, and this fact accounts for the numerous errors noticed in a large number of epigraphs, especially those engraved on behalf of private individuals. There are many instances of indifferently drafted and badly engraved records even among royal charters, particularly those issued by minor ruling families. Mistakes committed by the scribes and engravers of inscriptions often lead to difficulties of interpretation and to controversies. Some of the controversies are due to ambiguity of expression from which many epigraphic passages suffer. As we have already noticed, in several cases such ambiguity was purposely resorted to in the description of feudatories aspiring for an independent status.