Indian Epigraphy c8.s1.26

c8.s1.26

The earliest Sanskrit inscriptions in South India are a few records of the time of the Ikṣvāku king Ehuvula Śāntamūla (close of the 3rd and first half of the 4th century A.D.), which have been discovered at Nagarjunikonda.⁴ But that Prakrit continued to enjoy popularity at the courts of South Indian kings till the latter half of the 4th century A.D. is clearly indicated by numerous inscriptions. As we have seen above, the earliest form of inscriptional Prakrit indicated reduplicated consonants by single letters. This characteristic is noticed in the Śātavāhana inscriptions⁵ of the 2nd century A.D. and in the records⁶ of the time of the Ikṣvāku king Vīrapuruṣadatta who flourished about the third quarter of the 3rd century A.D. But many of the records⁷ of the age of Vīrapuruṣadatta's son Ehuvula Śāntamūla, which may be assigned to the close of the 3rd century and the first half of the 4th, are written either in the old inscriptional Prakrit or in a language which may be regarded as literary Prakrit in so far as they use reduplicated consonants. The language of the latter group of records is nearer Sanskrit than that of the former group. The Basim plates¹ of Vākāṭaka Vindhyaśakti II (middle of the 4th century A.D.) are written partially in this language, a portion of the record being couched in Sanskrit.