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Indian Epigraphy c8.s2: Section II. Dravidian Languages

Indian Epigraphy c8.s2

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Section II. Dravidian Languages

1. Tamil (Tamil)

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The earliest use of a regional language in Indian inscriptions is noticed in certain small records discovered in the Tamil country. Their language is believed to be Tamil and they belong to the early centuries of the Christian era probably to the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.¹ From the 6th century A.D., Tamil began to be used along with Sanskrit in the copper-plate grants of the Pallava kings and from that time its use in inscriptions increased gradually. The charters of the Imperial Pallavas discovered in the Telugu-speaking area are written in Sanskrit, while those of their grants which were meant for the Tamil-speaking region are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Tamil. To the first group belong the Vunnaguruvayapalem plates² of Parameśvaravarman I (c. 669-700 A. D.) and the Reyuru plates³ of Narasiṁhavarman II (c. 700-25 A.D.). Both these records are written in early Telugu-Kannaḍa script. The Kuram plates⁴ of Parameśvaravarman I, the Kasakudi and Taṇḍantoṭṭam plates⁵ of Nandivarman II Pallavamalla (c. 730-96 A.D.) and the Bahur plates⁶ of Nṛpatuṅgavarman (9th century A.D.) are written in the Sanskrit and Tamil languages in Grantha and Tamil characters respectively. The Udayendiram plates⁷ of Nandivarman II Pallavamalla are, however, written in Sanskrit.⁸

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¹ See *Proc. Trans. A.-I. Or. Conf.*, 1920, pp. 327-48; ibid., 1924, pp. 275-300; *Ancient India*, No. 2, pp. 109 ff.; etc. Cf. *A. R. Ep.*, 1911-12, Plate facing p. 50; 1917-18, Plate I facing p. 7.

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² *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXII, pp. 91 ff.

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³ Ibid., Vol. XXIX, pp. 89 ff.

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⁴ *SII*, Vol. I, pp. 144 ff.

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⁵ Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 346 ff.; pp. 520 ff.; see also pp. 507 ff.

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⁶ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVIII, pp. 5 ff.

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⁷ *SII*, pp. 365 ff.

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⁸ The recently published Pallavankoyil plates of Pallava Siṁhavarman (third quarter of the 6th century) are written in Sanskrit and Tamil. See *Trans. Arch. Soc. S. Ind.*, 1958-59, pp. 41 ff.

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The copper-plate charters of the early Coḷa kings are generally written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Tamil like the second group of Pallava grants referred to above. Mention may be made in this connection of the larger Leiden plates¹ of Rājarāja I (985-1016 A.D.), the Tiruvalangadu plates² of Rajendra-coḷa I (1012-43 A.D.) and the Anbil plates³ (c. 960 A.D.) of Sundara-coḷa. But the Tirukkalar copper-plate grant⁴ of Rājendra-coḷa I is written in Tamil and so are the Tirukkalar plates of Rājadhirāja I, Kulottuṅga I, Rājarāja II and Kulottuṅga III written in Tamil only.⁵ The Tirunelveli plate⁶ (1021 A.D.) of Bhāskara Ravivarman of Kerala is written in the Tamil language and the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script excepting the passage Oṃ namo Nārāyaṇāya namaḥ at the end, which is in the Sanskrit language and in the triangle-headed North Indian alphabet. The smaller Leiden plates⁷ of Kulottuṅga I (1070-1120 A.D.) are also written completely in Tamil. Thus Tamil was more frequently used alone in Coḷa official charters from the 11th century A. D. Early Pāṇḍya charters are written in Sanskrit and Tamil; but, unlike the Pallava and Coḷa grants, the Tamil part is written in the Vaṭṭeḻuttu alphabet instead of the Tamil script.⁸ Later Pāṇḍya documents, such as the copper-plate grant⁹ of Vira-pāṇḍya, dated Śaka 1392 (1470 A.D.), are, however, written in Tamil.

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¹ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXII, pp. 213 ff.

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² Ibid., Vol. III, pp. 383ff.

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³ Ibid., Vol. XV, pp. 44 ff.

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⁴ SII, Vol. III, pp. 465 ff.

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⁵ Ibid., pp. 469 ff.

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⁶ Ep. Ind., Vol. XVI, pp. 339 ff. and Plate...

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⁷ Ibid., Vol. XXII, pp. 267 ff. See also SII, Vol. III, pp. 465 ff.

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⁸ See the two Pāṇḍya grants from Sinnamanur (SII, Vol. III, pp. 441 ff.).

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⁹ A. R. Ep., 1946-47, No. A 30.

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The early copper-plate grants of the subordinate families, e.g., the Udayendiram plates¹⁰ of the Gaṅga-Bāṇa chief Pṛthvīpati II Hastimalla who was a feudatory of Coḷa Parāntaka I (907-53 A.D.), are similarly written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Tamil. But late medieval rulers like the Nāyakas of Tanjavur and Madurai issued their charters either in Telugu (sometimes Telugu and Sanskrit) or in Tamil while the grants of the Setupatis of Ramanathapuram are generally only in Tamil.¹

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¹⁰ SII, Vol. II, pp. 375 ff.

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¹ For the Tamil records of the Nāyakas of Tanjavur, see *A.R. Ep.*, 1946-47, Nos. A 13-14; for their Telugu grants, cf. ibid., 1949-50, Nos. A 29-30. For the Tamil charters of the Nāyakas of Madurai, see ibid., 1946-47, Nos. A 41, 43; 1948-49, No. A 1; and for their Telugu grants, ibid., 1950-51, No. A 10. For the Tamil copper-plate grants of the Setupatis, see ibid., 1946-47, Nos. A 25-27, 29-31,39, 42, 46, 48; etc.

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There are also some Tamil charters of the Vijayanagara kings, one of them being issued by Mallikārjuna in Śaka 1340 (1418 A.D.) and two others by Sadāśiva in Śaka 1468 (1546 A.D.).² The majority of the private records of the Coḷa-Pāṇḍya age and later epochs are written in Tamil.

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² See ibid., 1949-50, No. A 46, and 1956-57, Nos. A 51-52. For certain Tamil grants of the later rulers of Vijayanagara extraction, see ibid., 1946-47, No. A 19; 1949-50, Nos. A 18-25, 27-28; 1956-57, Nos. A 50, 53; etc. For certain miscellaneous copper-plate grants written in the Tamil language and belonging to the late medieval period, see ibid., 1952-53, Nos. A 8-10; 1953-54, No. A 19; 1957-58, Nos. A 7, 30; etc.

2. Kannaḍa (Kanarese)

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Among the other languages of the Dravidian group, Kannaḍa appears in inscriptions from the 6th century A.D. An inscription of Cālukya Maṅgaleśa (598-610 A.D.) outside the Vaiṣṇava cave at Badami is one of the earliest records in the Kannaḍa language.³ The Halmidi inscription⁴ of about the end of the 6th century is also written in Kannaḍa while there is a Kannaḍa endorsement at the end of the Aihole inscription⁵ (634 A. D.) which may be slightly later than the main record. The copper-plate grants issued by the Cālukyas of Badami are written in Sanskrit, though most of the stone inscriptions of their age, both official and private, are in Kannaḍa. The introductory part of an inscription⁶ (699 A.D.) of Cālukya Vinayāditya is written in Sanskrit. But its latter part containing the details of the grant is in Kannaḍa which is called Prākṛta-bhāṣā in the epigraph.

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³ *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. X, p. 59.

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⁴ *A. R. Mys. Arch. Dept.*, 1936, pp. 72-81.; *IHQ*, Vol. XVII, p. 134.

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⁵ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. VI, pp. 1 ff.

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⁶ Cf. *Karnatak Inscriptions*, p. 3.

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Similar is the case with most of the official records of later imperial dynasties of the Kannaḍa-speaking area, such as the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, the Later Cālukyas, the Kalacuris and the kings of Vijayanagara. Among the copper-plate grants of the time of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, a few like the British Museum plates¹ (804 A.D.) of Govinda III are written in the Kannaḍa language. The Haldipur plates² of the Pallava chief Gopāla, who seems to have flourished in the 8th century A.D., are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Kannaḍa. The Kalas inscription³ (930 A.D.) of the time of Govinda IV contains good specimens of Kannaḍa poetry in various metres.

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¹ Ind. Ant., Vol. XI, p. 125. For the Rāṣṭrakūṭa charters in Sanskrit, see, e.g., Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, pp. 235 ff.

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² Ep. Ind., Vol. XXI, pp. 173 ff.

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³ Ibid., Vol. XIII, pp. 329-33.

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A few copper-plate grants of the Vijayanagara kings, who generally used the Sanskrit language and Nandināgarī characters for their charters, are written either in Sanskrit and Kannaḍa or in Kannaḍa only.⁴ Late rulers like the chiefs of Keladi and Mysore generally used Kannaḍa for their official charters.⁵

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⁴ A few grants of Harihara (A. R. Ep., 1956-57, No. A 63, dated 1414 A.D.), Virūpākṣa (ibid., No. A 8 dated 1465 A.D.) and Vijayabhūpati (ibid., 1952-53, No. A 12, dated 1714 A.D.) are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Kannaḍa.

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⁵ For the charters of the Keladi chiefs, see ibid., 1951-52, No. A 8; 1954-55, Nos. A 7-8; etc., and for those of the Mysore chiefs, cf. ibid., 1947-48, Nos. A 1-2; 1952-53, No. A 11; etc. For miscellaneous late copper-plate grants in Kannaḍa, see ibid., 1953-54, Nos. A 20-21; etc.

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Private stone inscriptions of the age of the medieval dynasties are, in the majority of cases, written in Kannaḍa, although some of them have a portion written in Sanskrit.

3. Telugu (Telugu, Teṉugu)

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The official charters of the early ruling families of the Telugu-speaking area belonging to the 5th and the following centuries are written in Sanskrit, grants written in Telugu appearing only from about the 9th century A.D. A number of stone inscriptions dating from the close of the 6th century A.D. are, however, written in Telugu.

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The earliest Telugu inscriptions are those belonging to the Telugu-Coḍas of Reṇāṇḍu, which have been discovered in the Anantapur and Cuddapah Districts and assigned to the period between the 6th and 8th centuries A.D. Some of the earliest amongst them, written completely in Telugu, are the Kalamalla and Erragudipadu inscriptions¹ of Erikal Muturāju Dhanañjaya who flourished about the close of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century A.D. The Pottadurti-Malepadu inscription² is another early epigraph in Telugu belonging to the Telugu-Coḍa family. Records like the Bhairavakonda inscription³ of the time of Vikramāditya, probably belonging to the same royal house and flourishing about the middle of the 8th century, are written in Telugu, with an admixture of Sanskrit. Most of the private records of the following centuries are in Telugu.

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¹ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVII, pp. 221 ff.

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² Vyāsasaṁgrahamu, pp. 301 ff.

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³ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXIII, pp. 79ff.; cf. Vol. XXVII, p. 269, note 1.

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Of the copper-plate grants of the Telugu-Coḍa family, the Malepadu plates⁴ of Puṇyakumāra and the Madras Museum plates⁵ of Śrīkaṇṭha-coḍa are written in Sanskrit; but the Madras Museum plates⁶ of Balliya-coḍa, who seems to have flourished about the middle of the 9th century, are written in Telugu. This is the earliest copper-plate grant in Telugu so far discovered.

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⁴ Ibid., Vol. XI, pp. 337 ff.

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⁵ Journ. Ind. Hist., Vol. XV, pp. 255 ff.

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⁶ Ibid., p. 257.

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The copper-plate grants of the early Cālukya kings of Veṅgī are written in Sanskrit; but a few charters like the Ahada-nakaram plates⁷ of Viṣṇuvardhana IV or V are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Telugu. The stone inscriptions of the Cālukya age are generally written in Telugu. Thus the Vipparla inscription of the time of Jayasiṁha I and the Lakshmipuram inscription of the reign of Maṅgi-yuvarāja, both of the 7th century A.D., are in Telugu.⁸ There are also some Telugu inscriptions of the 7th and 8th centuries quoting regnal years of the Cālukya kings of Badami,⁹ whose copper-plate grants found in the Teluguspeaking area, however, are all written in Sanskrit. Among the 10th century copper-plate grants in Telugu, mention may be made of the Madras Museum plates¹ (Śaka 893 for 891) of Bhuvanatriṇetra.

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⁷ Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII, pp. 185 ff.

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⁸ A. R. Ep., 1900, para. 35.

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⁹ See, e.g., the Dimmagudi inscription (A. R. Ep., 1920, No. 864) of the time of Vikramāditya and the Kondupalli inscription (ibid., No. 359) of the reign of Vijayāditya.

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, p. 69.

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The stone inscriptions of the medieval rulers of the Telugu-speaking area, e.g. the Eastern Gaṅgas, Cālukyas, Chindas, Telugu-Coḍas, Kākatīyas, Reḍḍis, Gajapatis, the Vijayanagara kings, the Quṭub Shāhīs of Golkonda and others, are generally written in Telugu, while the copper-plate grants of some of these rulers so far known are written in Sanskrit although often they contain a section in Telugu especially in the description of the boundaries of the gift lands.

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Some of the copper-plate grants of the Reḍḍis, e.g., the charters of Komaragiri dated 1385 and 1403 A.D., are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Telugu.² The Vijayanagara kings generally used Sanskrit in their charters; but there are a few of their copper-plate grants in Telugu; e.g., some of Kṛṣṇadevarāya and Acyutarāya.³ Among late medieval rulers, the Nāyakas of Madurai and Tanjavur sometimes used Telugu in their charters, in some cases along with Sanskrit.⁴

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² *A. R. Ep.*, 1946-47, No. A 4.

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³ See ibid., Nos. A 9-10 (of Kṛṣṇadevarāya); 1953-54, No. A 17. No. A 5 of 1852-53 and No. A 34 of 1957-58 referring themselves to Bukka and Harihara respectively, though in Telugu, were apparently forged at a much later date. For Telugu charters of later rulers of the family, see ibid., 1948-49, No. A 26. A few such records are written in both Sanskrit and Telugu (cf. ibid., 1956-57, No. A 61; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVI, pp. 88 ff.).

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⁴ See *A. R. Ep.*, 1949-50, Nos. A 29-30 (Telugu and Sanskrit); 1950-51, No. A 10 (Telugu); 1952-53, No. A 13 (Telugu). For some other Telugu copper-plate grants issued by late chiefs, see ibid., 1953-54, No. A 7; 1956-57, No A 4; etc. For a Telugu grant issued by an officer of the Mughals, see ibid., 1952-53, No. A 15 (dated 1714 A.D. during the reign of Farrukhsiyar).

4. Malayāḷam and Tulu

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Tamil was exclusively the epigraphic language of the Malayāḷam-speaking area till the 14th century A.D. and inscriptions in Tamil were engraved in that region in the Vaṭṭeḻuttu alphabet. But Malayāḷam influence is noticed in a few records of the 13th century such as the Suchindram inscription of the Kollam year 403 (1228-29 A.D.).¹ One of the earliest epigraphs in the Malayāḷam language is the Attingal inscription² of 1452 A.D. written in Vaṭṭeḻuttu characters. Another 15th century epigraph in that language is the Tonnal inscription³ of 1474 A.D., only the first two lines of which are in Sanskrit written in Grantha. Of the 16th century epigraphs in the Malayāḷam language, mention may be made of the Tripunitura inscription⁴ of 1584 A.D. Out of later records, we may refer to the Parur inscriptions⁵ of 1624 A. D., Manambur inscription⁶ of 1635 A. D., Vettikkavila inscription⁶ of 1648 A. D. and Verapoli copper-plate grants⁷ of 1718, 1760 and 1780 A.D.

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¹ A. R. Ep., 1958-59, No. B. 464.

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² Trav. Arch. Ser., Vol. VI, p. 80, No. 64.

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³ Ibid., pp. 34-35, No. 23.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 196, No. 146.

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⁵ Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 299 ff.

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⁶ Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 82, No. 67.

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⁶ Ibid., pp. 196 ff., Nos. 148-50.

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⁷ See A. R. Ep., 1929, No. B 462; 1931, No. B 371; 1935-36, No. B 111.

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The Tulu language, spoken in the South Kanara District of Mysore State and written in the Malayāḷam alphabet, has no literature and alphabet of its own. A few late medieval inscriptions written in the Tulu language and Malayāḷam characters, have been discovered.⁸ The palaeography of these epigraphs is comparable to that of an inscription⁹ of Kulaśekhara Aḷvar who may possibly be identified with the Āḷupa ruler Kulaśekhara Āḷupendra IV flourishing in the first half of the 15th century.

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⁹ Ibid., 1929, No. B 506.

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NEO-INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES

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In the tracts where the Neo-Indo-Aryan languages are spoken, Sanskrit was in general use in the early medieval period in preference to the regional languages. Independent Hindu rule was ousted by the Muhammadans from wide areas of the region in question. But, wherever in this area independent or semi-independent Hindu rulers flourished during the late medieval period, we notice occasional use of the regional languages in their official charters. Private records of the said period were often written in the regional languages in many parts of the country.

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There are many bilingual epigraphs in Sanskrit and one of the regional languages. Some records are written in more than one regional language.¹ There are also inscriptions written in more than two languages.²

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¹ See, e.g., A.R. Ep., 1949-50, No. B 397 in Hindi and Oriya; 1955-56, No. B 117 in Tamil and Oriya (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXII, pp. 229 ff.).

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² Cf. an inscription in Persian, Sanskrit and Gujarātī in Bull. Baroda Mus., 1953-55, pp. 73 ff., and another in Sanskrit, Telugu and Oriya in Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXIII, pp. 275 ff.

1. Marāṭhī

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Among the Neo-Indo-Aryan languages, Marāṭhī appears first in epigraphic records.³ One of the earliest specimens of the Marāṭhī language is found in the Marmuri copper-plate grant⁴ (974 A.D.) of the Cālukya prince Iriva-beḍaṅga Satyāśraya. Certain private records of the 11th century, such as the Dive Agar plate⁵ of 1060 A.D. and the Sravana-Belgola epigraph⁶ of c. 1118 A.D., are written in Marāṭhī. In this connection, reference may also be made to the Ambe-Jogai (1144 A.D.), Ranjali (1148 A.D.), Chiplun (1156 A.D.), Tera (1163 A.D.), Savargaon (1164 A.D.), Parel (1186 A.D.), Patan (1206 A.D.), Navasem (1239 A.D.) and Ranebennur (1252 A.D.) stone inscriptions.¹ The earliest Marāṭhī literary work is the *Jñāneśvarī* (the popular name of the *Bhāvārthadīpikā* by Jñānadeva), a commentary on the *Gītā*, which was composed much later than some of the above records in 1296 A.D.² The Velapur stone inscriptions³ of 1300 A.D. are slightly later than the date of the composition of the said work.

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³ See A. Master, ‘Some Marathi Inscriptions, A.D. 1060-1300’ in BSOAS, Vol. XX, pp. 418 ff.; cf. S. G. Talpule, An Old Marāṭhī Reader, Poona, 1960, pp. 83 ff.

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⁴ Journ. Bomb. Hist. Soc., Vol. II, p. 214.

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⁵ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 121 ff.

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⁶ Ep. Carn., Vol. II, Sorab No. 974. Cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. VII, p. 109.

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¹ Cf. BSOAS, Vol. XX, 1957, pp. 417 ff.; A. R. Ep., 1933-34, No. B 117.

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² Talpule speaks of the *Jyotiṣaratnamālā* of 1050 A. D. and the *Līlācaritra* of 1278 A.D.

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³ See BSOAS, op. cit., pp. 433-34. The date of a Bhandak inscription in old Marāṭhī has been tentatively read as Śaka 1308 (1386 A.D.). See Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVI, p. 183.

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The popularity of Marāṭhī in the epigraphic field increased with the rise of the Yādavas who patronised the language and used it in some of their charters. Yādava grants like the Tasgaon⁴ (1250 A.D.) and Nandgaon⁵ (1254-55 A.D.) plates of Kṛṣṇa are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Marāṭhī. The same is the case with certain Śilāhāra grants, e.g., the Kaseli plate⁶ of 1279 A.D.

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⁴ Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, pp. 208 ff. See also Sāmanta Jaitra’s grant of 1202 A.D. (BSOAS, Vol. XX, pp. 428 ff.).

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⁵ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVII, pp. 9 ff.

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⁶ Cf. BSOAS, Vol. XX, pp. 432-33.

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A number of epigraphs of the time of the ’Adil Shāhī Sulṭāns are written in Marāṭhī.⁷ Among bilingual inscriptions written in Marāṭhī and another language, mention may be made of the Kandarpur plate⁸ of the Yādava king Jaitugi (1191-1210 A.D.) and the Lepakshi (Anantapur District) temple inscription⁹ of the 16th century, both in Kannaḍa and Marāṭhī, the Cuddapah Telugu-Marāṭhī inscription¹⁰ of 1689 A.D. and several Persian and Marāṭhī inscriptions.¹¹ The Dabhoi inscription¹² of 1652 A.D. records the purport of a *farmān* of Muḥammad ’Adil Shāh of Bijapur. Two of the three Marāṭhī inscriptions,¹³ discovered in the Bidar District and containing dates in the Shāhūr years 979 (1579 A.D.), 1001 (1601 A.D.) and 1010 (1609 A.D.), have their Persian counter-parts. The first of them mentions 'Alī Barīd (1542-79 A.D.).

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⁷ See A. R. Ep., 1952-53, No. B 60 (Śaka 1520); 1954-55, No. B 106 (Śaka 1515).

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⁸ Journal of the Oriental Institute, Vol. VI, p. 134.

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⁹ A. R. Ep., 1937-38, No. 15.

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¹⁰ Journal of the Oriental Institute, Vol. VI, p. 136.

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¹¹ See, e.g., Ep. Indo-Mosl., 1939-1940, p. 30, No. 2.

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¹² Ibid., 1933-1934, p. 9.

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¹³ Ibid., 1937-1938, pp. 1 ff.

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There are several copper-plate grants in Marāṭhī issued by Marāṭhā rulers such as the chiefs of Tanjavur.¹

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¹ A. R. Ep., 1930-31, p. 4, Nos. A 3-4. Some grants of the Marāṭhās of Tanjavur are written in Sanskrit and Tamil (cf. A. R. Ep., 1945-46, No. A 15; 1946-47, Nos. A 20-23) and some in Tamil only (ibid., 1946-47, Nos. A 17-18). For a Marāṭhī copper-plate of Amṛtarāva Raghunātha, see JBORS, Vol. V, pp. 216 f.

2. Hindī and its Dialects and Allied Languages

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A number of Hindī inscriptions, mostly on images and hero or satī stones, were discovered in the former Gwalior State now merged in Madhya Pradesh.² The earliest of these records is on a Jain image from the Shyopur region and the date in it has been tentatively read as V. S. 1078 (1022 A.D.).³ The Bhonrasa (old Gwalior State) inscription of 1483 A. D. referring to Sulṭān Ghiyāṣuddīn of Malwa is written in Persian and Hindī.⁴ Among Hindī records of the time of the Gond rulers of Madhya Pradesh, reference may be made to a grant (1550 A.D.) of Dalpat Shāh, son of Saṃgrām Shāh⁵. The Damoh inscription⁶ of the time of Muḥammad Shāh II of Malwa is dated in 1512 A.D.

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² H. N. Dvivedi, Gvāliyar Rājyake Abhilekh, Nos. 36, 44, 50, 52, 62, etc.

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³ See also An. Rep. Arch. Dept., Gwalior State, V. S. 1992, No. 39.

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⁴ Ep. Indo-Mosl., 1937-1938, p. 25.

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⁵ Journ. Bhār. Iti. Saṃs. Maṇḍ., Vol. XXVI, pp. 51 ff. See also the Dantewara (old Bastar State) inscription of 1702 A.D. in Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, pp. 245 ff.

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⁶ Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, pp. 291 ff.

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There are many official and private records of the late medieval period, which are written in Hindī or one of its dialects.⁷ Among the dialects of Hindī, some late medieval copper-plate grants issued by the Hindu rulers of the Kumaun-Garhwal region in the Himalayas are written in the local dialect.⁸

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⁷ Cf. ibid., Vol. IX, p. 166; IHQ, Vol. VII, pp. 410 ff.; etc. See also A. R. Ep., 1952-53, No. A 30.

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⁸ A. R. Ep., 1948-49, Nos. A 7-10. Muslim writers ascribe a poem in Hindī to Candella Vidyādhara (first quarter of the 11th century). See Ray, DHNI, Vol. II, p. 692.

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Rājasthānī was used by the rulers of the various states in Rajasthan in writing their official charters.¹ An early charter in this dialect is the copper-plate grant of Guhila Mokalasimha of Mewar, which is dated in V. S. 1431 (1375 A.D.).² Numerous private records in Rājasthānī belonging to the late medieval period are found in different parts of Rajasthan.³

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¹ A. R. Ep., 1954-55, No. A 71; 1957-58 Nos. A 40-52.

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² See ibid., 1957-58, No. A 51.

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³ Ibid., 1952-53, Nos. B 157, 296-405; 1954-55, Nos. B 450-51, 473-75, 477-81, 484, etc. See also Ep. Ind., Vol. XXX, pp. 191 ff.; etc.

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There are a few copper-plate grants⁴ of the rulers of Sambalpur, which are written in a dialect of Hindī. Late medieval private records in the various dialects of this language have been discovered in large numbers.⁵

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⁴ A. R. Ep., 1953-54, Nos. A 15-16 (dated V. S. 1747 and 1838).

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⁵ Ibid., 1952-53, Nos. B 157, etc.; 1953-54, Nos. B 105, 108, 132-36, etc.; 1954-55, Nos. B 185, 187, 191-92, 195, 202, 228-39, 241-42, 244-48, etc.

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Very few inscriptions in the Nepālī language have so far been published. A few short Punjabī and Hindī epigraphs were found near Baku, U. S. S. R.

3. Gujarātī

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The language of a number of inscriptions, discovered in Kathiawar and belonging to the second half of the 14th century, is an admixture of Sanskrit and Gujarātī while, from about the middle of the 15th century, we have inscriptions in the Gujarātī language written in the Nāgarī alphabet slightly modified by the later Gujarātī or Poḍiyā script.⁶ Some of the earliest private records entirely written in the Gujarātī language, so far discovered in Kathiawar, are the Khambhad and Kutiyana inscriptions⁷ of 1474 A.D., the Gosa inscription⁸ of 1480 A.D., and the Khodu inscription⁹ of 1488 A.D.

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⁶ See D. B. Diskalkar, ‘Inscriptions of Kathiawad’ in N. Ind. Ant., Vols. I-III (December 1938-March 1941); cf. op. cit., December 1938, pp. 587 and 588. For inscriptions in the mixed language, see loc. cit.: the Than inscription (No. 36) of 1376 A.D., the Nagichana inscription (No. 37) of 1377 A.D., the Phulka inscription (No. 50) of 1391 A.D., etc.

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⁷ Diskalkar, op. cit. (N. Ind. Ant., June 1940), p. 122.

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⁸ Ibid., pp. 123-24.

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⁹ Ibid., p. 125.

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There is a large number of similar late medieval private inscriptions in Gujarātī,¹ while many of them are bilingual being written partly in Sanskrit² or Persian³ and partly in Gujarātī. Records like the Sathod (Baroda District) inscription⁴ of 1369 A.D. are trilingual being written in Persian, Gujarātī and Sanskrit. Most of the private Gujarātī inscriptions are found engraved on hero or satī stones called pāliyā in Gujarātī.

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¹ See Diskalkar, op. cit. ; A. R. Ep., 1949-50, Nos. B 50-51; etc.

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² Cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIV, p. 225 (cf. text lines 21-22). For some inscriptions in a mixture of Gujarātī and Sanskrit, see ibid., Vol IX, pp. 24 ff.

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³ See A. R. Ep., 1952-53, No. B 433-A; etc.

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⁴ Bull. Baroda Mus., 1953-55, pp. 73 ff.

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Among later inscriptions in the Gujarātī language mention may be made of the Borsad (1496 A.D.), Lasundra (1522 A.D.), Junraj (1620 A.D.), Sojitra (1627 and 1781 A.D.), Lal Darwaja (1782 A.D.) and Juna (1782 and 1794 A.D.) inscriptions.⁵

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⁵ See A. V. Pandya's 'Some Newly Discovered Inscriptions from Gujarāt' in Vallabh Vidyanagar Research Bulletin, No.2, Inscriptions Nos. 21-24, 26, 28-30.

4. Kashmiri (Kaśmīrī) and Allied Dialects

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We have few epigraphic records in Kashmiri so far discovered and published. There are some written in an admixture of Sanskrit and Kashmiri.⁶

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⁶ Cf. Vogel, Antiquities of Chamba State, Part I, p. 251 (No. 48).

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The charters issued by the early rulers of Chamba are written in Sanskrit⁷ while those of the later rulers are mostly in the local dialect. There are also numerous private records in this dialect.

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⁷ See, e.g., ibid., pp. 159 ff., pp. 182 ff., for the Sanskrit grants. For a private record in the local dialect, see op. cit., p. 251 (No. 49).

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A large number of the official and unofficial records published recently by Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra in the Antiquities of Chamba State, Part II, are bilingual being written in Chambyālī (called Bhāṣā in the records) and Sanskrit. The bilingual charters of the Chamba rulers generally begin and end in Sanskrit while their middle portion constituting the deed proper is written in the local dialect.⁸

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⁸ B. Ch. Chhabra, op. cit., p. 13.

5. Oriya (Oḍiyā)

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In Orissa, the influence of the Oriya language in inscriptions written in Sanskrit appears as early as the 10th century.¹ Records, both private and royal, written entirely in Oriya appear in the 13th century.² A few official charters of the later members of the Eastern Gaṅga dynasty such as the Puri plates³ of Narasimha IV (c. 1378-1402 A.D.) are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Oriya. Similar is the case with Gajapati charters like the Veligalani grant of Kapileśvara (c. 1435-66 A.D.),⁴ which has a section in Oriya, its other sections being written in Sanskrit and Telugu. But we have the same king’s stone inscriptions, together with a number of records of his successors, in the Jaga-nnātha temple at Puri, which are all written wholly in Oriya.⁵ Some official charters of the Gajapati kings and many issued by the later rulers of Orissa are written entirely in Oriya.⁶ Private inscriptions in Oriya belonging to the late medieval period are numerous.⁷

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¹ See the Madras Museum plates of the time of Narendradhavala (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 44 ff.).

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² See, e.g., the Puri inscriptions of the time of Anangabhima III (ibid., Vol. XXX, pp. 197 ff.). For the Kapilas inscriptions of Narasimha I, one in Sanskrit and another in Oriya and the Sonepur inscription (1268 A.D.) of Bhānu I, see ibid., Vol. XXXII, pp. 325 ff.; Vol. XXXIII, pp. 41 ff.

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³ Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 302 ff. For a private record of the same king’s reign written completely in Oriya, see ibid., Vol. XXIX, pp. 105 ff. For another private record of the reign of Narasimha IV in Oriya and Tamil, cf. ibid., Vol. XXXII, pp. 229 ff.

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⁴ Ibid., Vol. XXXIII, pp. 275 ff.; JAS, Letters, Vol. XXIII, pp. 13ff. For private records of his time written in Oriya, see Or. Hist. Res. Journ., Vol. I, No. 2, p. 9.; A. R. Ep., 1953-54, No. B 92; etc.

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⁵ See JASB., Vol. LXII, Part i, 1893, pp. 90 ff.; LXIV, Part i, 1895, pp. 149 ff. See also A. R. Ep., 1955-56, No. B 353.

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⁶ For a Gajapati charter completely written in Oriya, see the Balasore copper axe-head inscription of Puruṣottama (Ind. Ant., Vol. I, p. 355; JBORS, Vol. IV, p. 363). For later copper-plate grants and stone inscriptions, see, e.g., JAHRS, Vol. III, pp. 1 ff.; A. R. Ep., 1951-52, No. A 20; 1952-53, Nos. A 23-26; 1953-54, Nos. A 3-4 and B 422 ff.; etc., and 1957-58, Nos. A 40-41; etc. The Warangal inscription (1460 A.D.) of Raghudeva, the Gajapati viceroy of Rajahmundry, is written in the Oriya language, but in Telugu characters (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXIII, pp. 125 ff.).

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⁷ For various official and private Oriya records of the medieval period, mostly of the age of the Gaṅgas and Gajapatis, see SII, Vol. V, Nos. 1006, 1119, 1152, 1161; Vol. VI, Nos. 697, 700-03, 720, 748-49, 778, 793, 895, 903, 908-09, 927, 940, 1078, 1089, 1110; etc.

6. Bengali (Vaṅgālī) and Maithilī

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In the Bengali-speaking area, Sanskrit was more popular than the regional language for official purposes. It has been suggested that lines 29-51 of the Bhatera copper-plate grant¹ are written in the Sylhet dialect of the Bengali language. But the language is really Sanskrit influenced by the local dialect as in the case of 13th century inscriptions of Bengal and also of various other localities. The date of the epigraph has been read as Pāṇḍava 4328 (1245 A.D.) or Kali 4151 (1049 A.D.), the first of which is more probable.

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XIX, pp. 277 ff.

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Official and private records of the medieval period such as the Tripura plate² (1488 A.D.) and Maharani inscriptions³ of the reign Vijayamāṇikya, the Dhurail inscription⁴ (1533 A.D.) of the time of Maḥmūd Shāh, the Muhammadpur stone inscription⁵ (1703 A.D.) of Sītārāma-rāya, etc., are written in Sanskrit. The coins of the Tripura kings and other ruling families of the Bengali-speaking area and its neighbourhood, also have legends in the Sanskrit language.⁶

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² *JAS*, Letters, Vol. XVII, pp. 73 ff.

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³ IHQ, Vol. XXXII, pp.99ff., where another Sanskrit epigraph of the same area and age has been noticed.

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⁴ *A. R. Ep.*, 1953-54, No. B 436.

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⁵ Ibid., No. B 433.

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⁶ See Smith's Catalogue, pp. 307 ff.

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Epigraphic records were written during the late medieval period in this area mostly in Sanskrit and only rarely in Bengali.⁷ Thus a few copper-plate grants, such as those issued by king Govindamāṇikya (15th century) of Tripura,⁸ are principally written in Bengali, although many of the charters issued by the Tripura kings including the successors of Govindamāṇikya, e.g. Kṛṣṇamāṇikya (17th century), are written mainly in Sanskrit.⁹

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⁷ *A. R. Ep.*, 1949-50, Nos. B 3-4.

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⁸ See ibid., 1951-52, Nos. A 13 ff.

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⁹ See ibid., Nos. A 18-19. For a copper-plate grant and a stone inscription of the time of Vijayamāṇikya (16th century), both in Sanskrit, see *JAS*, Letters, Vol. XVII, pp. 73 ff.; IHQ, Vol. XXXII, pp. 99 ff. For another copper-plate grant belonging to the Tripura kings, Rāmamāṇikya and Ratnamāṇikya, both of the 18th century, see *A. R. Ep.*, 1952-53, No. A 28.

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Similar was the condition in Mithila or North Bihar. Very few epigraphs in the Maithili language have so far been published, one such being an inscription dated 1665 A.D.¹

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¹ See R. K. Choudhary, *Select Inscriptions of Bihar*, p. 138. For a paper document in Sanskrit and Maithilī, see *Proc. Hist. Rec. Comm.*, Mysore, 1942, pp. 87 ff. For the Sanskrit legend on the coins of a late medieval ruler of Mithilā, see *JNSI*, Vol. XX, pp. 192 ff.

7. Assamese (Asamiyā)

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The Ahom kings of Assam originally issued copper-plate charters in the Ahom language.² But, when their Hinduization was more or less complete, they adopted Sanskrit and Assamese as their official languages. The charters of the later Ahom rulers are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Assamese. They are dated in the Śaka era. The coins of the early rulers have legends in the Ahom language and alphabet while the legends on the coins of the later kings are in Sanskrit in Assamese-Bengali characters exactly as their epigraphic records are.³

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² I saw one such record with the Pāṇḍās of the Kāmākhyā temple near Gauhati. For an Ahom pillar inscription of the 16th century, see *ASIR*, Vol. XXIV, pp. 157-58; *A. R. Ep.*, 1957-58, No. B 75.

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³ See Smith's *Catalogue*, pp. 298 ff., for the coins of Śukleṃmun (1539-52 A. D.), Śupātphā alias Gadādharasiṃha (1681-95 A. D.) and Śuneṃphā alias Pramathasiṃha (1744-51 A.D.) with legends in Ahom and those of Śuseṃphā (Cuceṃphā) alias Svarganārāyaṇa Pratāpasiṃha (1611-49 A.D.), Rudrasiṃha (1696-1714 A.D.) and others with legends in Sanskrit.

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Among the Sanskrit-Assamese copper-plate grants known to us, mention may be made of those (1) of Śivasimha and his queen Ambikā granted in 1732 A.D. and renewed by Rājeśvarasimha in 1760 A.D., (2) of Lakṣmīsimha issued in 1775 A.D., and (3) of Gaurīnāthasimha issued in 1892 A.D.⁴ The stone inscriptions of the time of the later Ahom kings are generally in Sanskrit.⁵

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⁴ Cf. *A. R. Ep.*, 1957-58, Nos. A 3-5.

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⁵ See ibid., Nos. B 62 ff.

Linked texts (4)