Indian Epigraphy c8.s1.32

c8.s1.32

The same story is told by other records of the Deccan such as those of the Śālaṅkāyanas of Veṅgī in the Telugu-speaking area. The earliest inscriptions of the Śālaṅkāyana dynasty are in Prakrit of the literary type.² They may be assigned to the 4th century. The 5th century records of the family are, however, written in Sanskrit.³ It is also interesting to note that the Mattepad plates⁴ of Dāmodaravarman, who probably ruled over the Guntur region about the close of the 4th century A.D., are written partly in Sanskrit. The latest inscription written in literary Prakrit and discovered in the Kannaḍa-speaking region is the Chandravalli epigraph⁵ of the Kadamba king Mayūraśarman who flourished about the middle of the 4th century A.D. But the Halsi plates⁶ of his great-grandson Kākusthavarman, who flourished in the first half of the 5th century, are written in Sanskrit. Thus the suppression of Prakrit by Sanskrit in South Indian epigraphy may be assigned to the second half of the 4th century A.D.