Indian Epigraphy c8.s1.22

c8.s1.22

Of the 2nd century epigraphs of Eastern India, the Kailvan (Patna District, Bihar) inscription¹ (186 A.D.) of Ārya-Viśākhamitra is written in a mixture of Prakrit and Sanskrit, while the language of the epigraphs² of the kings of Kauśāmbī flourishing in the second and third centuries A.D. are written in Sanskrit slightly influenced by Prakrit. But the Jagatpur (Dehradun District, U.P.) brick inscriptions³ of Śīlavarman, who seems to have flourished about the end of the 3rd century A.D., are written in Sanskrit verse. By the time of the rise of the Guptas of Pāṭaliputra (near Patna in Bihar) in the 4th century A.D., Sanskrit is found to be holding the field of North Indian (excluding West Indian) epigraphy. The Guptas were great patrons of Sanskrit literature. The celebrated dramatists Bhāsa and Kālidāsa flourished in their age and the great epics and some sections of the Purāṇas appear to have reached their final form in the first half of the 4th century.