Inscriptions –

A major source of Early Indian History

Agnik Bhattacharya
Inscriptions compared to manuscript of texts, have advantage of durability. Hence Inscriptions are one of
the most important sources of Indian history especially of ancient times. The inscriptions throw a sudden
light and provide magnificent information about the time, place and situation connected with the
inscriptions. In the absence of contemporary historical writings, the inscription stands out as a reliable
source for the knowledge of political history as well as socio –economic history of ancient times. But the
question arises that what are inscriptions? For a common man any writing related to ancient Indian
history found on stone objects, pillars and plates are known as inscriptions. But for people who are
engaged in the field for knowing the past, for them inscriptions are not only any writing found on
different subjects, forms and materials. For any Ancient historian inscriptions are those which help
ancient historians and archeologists to obtain correct and scientific knowledge of history in a number of
ways. According to J. J. Fleet , the inscriptions clears the myth related to ancient history of India as it is
regarded authentic than other sources .

Most of the inscriptions in ancient India were issued by kings or royal patrons and the inscriptions were
mainly written by court poets in praise of the ruling elite (e.g. -: the Allahabad Pillar Inscription, written
by Harisena, court poet of Samudragupta). Similarly the history and dynastic history of one of the most
valiant sources of the first major dynasty of pan – India. Asoka (the most influential ruler of early India),
and the history of the Mauryan was constructed rather reconstructed with the help of the inscriptions
mostly issued by him during his reign. The inscriptions mainly speak about the regime or life , political
achievements , religious beliefs , territorial conquest , his grants made towards different religious groups
etc . The geographical spread of kings‟ inscriptions is often taken as indicating the area under his political
control. Bu the discovery of inscriptions depends on chance and not all the inscriptions inscribed during a
king‟s reign need necessarily be found. Furthermore, moveable inscriptions are not always found in situ
i.e. , in their original place .

The inscriptions provide important information about the genealogy of the ruling dynasty, like the
Rabatak inscription of the Kushanas Empire. However the earliest inscriptions do not contain much
genealogical matter. Sometimes, confusion is raised when the inscription mention kings of the same
name, or when different inscriptions contradict each other on particular details, for example different
inscriptions or prasastis supply different opinion regarding the origin and homeland of the Sena dynasty
of early medieval Bengal. Sometimes genealogies skip names, this kind of skipping occurs, for instance,
in the case of Skandagupta and Ramagupta, who are ignored in Gupta genealogies because they did not
come within the direct line of succession of later rulers. It has been estimated that something like 80
percent of our knowledge of the history of India before AD 1000 is derived from inscriptional sources.
Without inscriptions, for example, we would have only the vaguest notion of the history of the Gupta
dynasty. But the importance of epigraphy goes beyond historically study in the narrowest sense of the
term, that is , political history .
Inscriptions, especially those of the early medieval period, have been used as a major source of
information on administrative and revenue systems. They can also shed light on the history of settlement
patterns, agrarian relations, forms of labor, and class and caste structures. There are very few ancient
records of secular lands transactions and records of land disputes, but these take us straight to the heart of
social and economic issues. For instance, an inscription of the time of the Cholas king Raja raja III
states the farmers of a certain village found the burden arbitrary levies in money and paddy and the
demand of compulsory labor made on various protests by several agencies so unbearable that they could
no longer carry on cultivation. A meeting of the Brahmana assembly and the leading men of the locality
was held in the village temple. These dates and even the relative chronologies of major cultural
developments are often uncertain or totally unknown, but here again inscriptional materials with its vast
volumes and diversity of contents, frequently comes to the savior.

Till date, the usual or prime materials used for Indian inscriptions are stone surfaces of various types. In
general, softer varieties of fine – grained stones are preferred, frequently used types include sandstone,
basalt, slate, trap, and steatite. Some inscriptions particularly from the earlier periods are inscribed
directly on to rough stones with little or no preparation of the surface. Such is the case, for instance, with
the Asokan rock inscriptions. More commonly, however, the rock surface is subjected to varying degrees
of preparation of involving smoothing and polishing of the area to be inscribed. Later and more elaborate
stone inscription, especially those of the prasastis class, are typically inscribed on rectangular slabs,
sometimes very large, which were previously cut to seize and carefully polished. Long inscriptions,
especially those of literary content could be inscribed on a series of slabs. Stone slabs inscriptions may
also serve devotional purposes , as in the inscribed and sculpted slabs of Buddhists and Jains , or the
inscribed footprint slabs of gods or revered personages .

From the earliest times inscriptions, usually of a dedicatory character, were commonly engraved on the
walls , facades, columns, pillars , pilasters , railings, gates, doorways, and other parts of stone structures
such as excavated stupas, caves, temples, palaces, and well. The cave temples of western India and the
stupas of central India such as Sanchi and Bharut, for example bear hundreds of dedicatory and
explicatory inscriptions. Inscriptions are smaller, portable stone objects are also common, particularly
among the Buddhists. Inscribed stone reliquaries for bodily relics of the Buddha and other venerable are
common in earlier centuries. Copper by far the most common metal used for inscriptions in India is
second only to stone in overall frequency. The great majority of inscriptions on, copper or copper plate
land grant charter, which number in thousands. Though for less common, other types of inscriptions on
copper are also known, especially Buddhist records on such copper objects as dedicatory tablets, relic
caskets, ladles, seals, and bells. Inscriptions on bronze are also fairly common, though much less so than
on copper. The most common types of bronze inscriptions are those on religious images, recording
dedicatory and /or devotional messages on the pedestals bronzes, and on seals .The Sohagpura plaques
though often referred to as “copper”, is actually of bronze and is hence the earliest specimen of an
inscription in that metal

Inscriptions on brass and similar alloys are found most commonly on sculptural images .A few inscribed
Brahmanical brass images of about the eighth century has been found . Occasionally inscriptions are
found on brass objects, such as seal or trident .Inscriptions on iron are rare, the only important specimen
being the inscription of king Candra(Chandragupta II) on the iron pillar of Meharauli. An iron object,
believed to be a trading iron, with the Brahmi letters ( jaya) in reverse was found at Nalanda.
After analyzing the materials or the objects on which the inscriptions are made, let‟s now concentrate on
some particular inscriptions which are considered as a head turning source in early historic, early
medieval and medieval history of India. The first inscription that comes to our mind while analyzing the
importance of inscriptions are the Asokan inscriptions , which is the most important source in redefining
the dynastic, social and economic history of the first dynasty and the first prominent ruler in the pan-
Indian context. But Atul Chandra Chakravarti goes further and tries to prove a direct relation between the
Bhagavad-Gita and the Asokan inscription. According to A. C. Chakravarti, the philosophical believes of
Bhagavad-Gita and the Asokan inscriptions were similar. The RE III, RE XIII, RE I of Asoka and even
the RE X contain similar writings and thinking‟s that were included in the Gita. It may be concluded from
the manifold similarities that the proclamation of Asoka might be consciously influenced by the thoughts
of Vasudeva Krsna contained in the Gita.

Now the second important inscription which can be considered as an important source of early medieval
India is the Sanchi Inscription of Chandragupta II (an important ruler of the Gupta Empire). It records
the grant of a locality named Isvaravasaka and an amount of twenty five dinaras to the Arya –sangha at
the Maha – vihara of Kakanadabota (Sanchi) by Amrakardava, the son of Udana, and an officer under
Chandragupta II, also known as Devaraja, for the purpose of feeding five monks and maintaining a lamp
in the Ratnagrha, in the Gupta year 93, corresponding to 412 A.D. In this inscription some interesting
terms came in front which were not found before in the context of early medieval history of India. The
gift land viz, Isvaravasaka, is called “Maja – Sara- bhang- Amraratta- rajakula-mulya-krita”. Fleet
regards „mulya‟, literally meaning „an original slum‟, as equivalent to aksaya-nivi, literally „a capital slum
that is not to be wasted‟. R.G. Basak takes „mulya‟ in the sense of „price‟ and appears to treat „rajakula‟
as and office as would follow from his statement that the grant – land was purchased „by a payment of the
usual price as fixed in the rajakula. D.C. Sircar equates „Rajakula‟ with modern Raval and thinks that „the
loyality called Isvaravasaka was purchased by Amrakardava from the Rajakulas Maja, Sarbhanga and
Amrarata. While there is no doubt about the use of the word „mulya‟ in the sense of „ price‟ , the same
cannot be said definitely about the word „rajakula‟ being used as an official designation . However, in an
interesting note in the JAIH (Journal of Ancient Indian History), Vol. IV, Parts 1-2, pp. 214- 17,
Samaresh Bandyopadhyay has suggested that like „Rajakula‟, „Sarabhanga‟, may also have been
employed as official designation and the locality actually purchased by Amrakardava from Sarabhanga
Maja and Rajakula Amrarata. As rightly pointed out by Bandyopadhyay, we have instances of official
designations being used after the personal names and thus there is no inherent difficulty involved in this
view .In view of the above, we would prefer to translate the relevant expression in the Sanchi inscription
as „purchased at the usual price from Maja, Sarabhanga, and Amrarata of the royal household.

The third important inscription which comes to mind after the two important inscription above , is the
Khalimpur copper plate inscription of Dharmapala ( c. 770-810 A. D.) . This particular is considered
as the esteem source for reconstructing the origin, nature and the rise of the Pala (one of the major
imperial powers of early medieval and medieval Bengal). It traces the rise of Gopala ,the founder of the
Pala empire and at the same time focuses on the socio –economic and political conditions post the rule of
Sasanka and it is in this inscription we first find the term „Matysyanyaya’ ( a dark period which eclipsed
the life of the Bengal people ) . The term is generally applied to the period, extending from the death of
Sasanka (middle of 7th century AD), to the rise of the Palas (c. A.D. 750) though there are different
opinions regarding its durations. The Khalimpur copper plate was engraved by Tata ta, son of Subhata
and grandson of Bhagata, it was engraved in 32nd regnal year of Dharmapala. It was issued from the
jayaskandhavara at Pataliputra which record grant of land in Vyaghratati mandala located in Baghdi to the
west of the Bhagirathi in the Musidabad district. The Khalimpur copper plate inscription gives us
important information about Dayitavishnu (the progenitor of a line of kings) and his son Vapyata. It also
provides information about the coronation of Dharmapala and the states won successfully by Dharmapala.
Overall the Khalimpur copper plate is considered as the first major archaeological source for
reconstructing one of the biggest ruling elites of the East.

Like the Khalimpur copper plate inscription, the Deopada Stone Inscription turns out to be an unparallel
source in reconstructing the political, social and religious life of the Senas (the second most important
dynasty after the Palas in Bengal). So the Deopada Stone Inscription turns out to be the fourth most
important inscription which helps in knowing the dynastic history of Bengal and the Senas. The
inscription speaks about the origin of the Senas and indicates clearly that Virasena and others were rulers
of Dakshinatysa. It tells about Samantasena and clearly states that he was ruler of the Karnataka and after
defeating many rulers down south he in his later years retired to a hermitage on the banks of the Ganges.
The inscription states that Vijayasena was the greatest ruler in the Sena dynasty and it gives a detail list of
the states conquered successfully by the Sena ruler and it also gives an important knowledge about the
religious activity of Vijaysena. It says that Vijaysena built a temple and installed therein the image of the
god Pradyumsvara and excavated a tank in its vicinity. The composer of the prasastis was the poet
Umapatidhara and the engraver was Ranaka Sulapani who was the crest – jewel of the guild of artisans of
Varendra, and the son of Brihaspati, grandson of Manadasa and great grandson of Dharma.

So after analyzing these inscriptions we can say that inscriptions of a particular time frame provide
immense data for an archaeologists or a ancient historian to reorganize the structure of a particular society
in front of the world and it therefore helps the students and the common people to revisit the lost places of
the gone glorious years. However by judging the materials or objects on which the inscriptions were often
engraved we can easily say that always the inscription do not provide prominent information as the
materials used for the engraving of the inscriptions are often perishable in nature, but it definitely
provides a narrow or slightest glimpse to the viewer of the data that he or she is looking into it. Hence in
spite of all the controversies hidden in the inscriptions and after a lot debates and criticism by several
historians, archaeologists around the globe the inscriptions or prasastis still stands unquestionably as one
of the prime, major, superior source for reconstructing the history of early India which we all know is just
equal to any treasure in the mortal world.

References-:

1.) Solomon, Richard 1998. Indian Epigraphy, Munshiram Monoharlal

Publishers Pvt.Ltd, New Delhi.
2.) Sircar, D.C. Select Inscriptions, Vol- 1& 2, Munshiram Monoharlal
Publishers Pvt.Ltd.
3.) Majumdar, R.C. January, 2005.History of Ancient Bengal, Tulshi
Prakashani.
4.) Chakravarti, R.C.2010. Exploring Early India (up to c.AD1300),
Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, and New Delhi.
5.) Thapar, Romila 2002. The Penguin History of Early India (From the
origins to AD1300), Penguin Books Ltd, New Delhi
6.) Dr. Tripathi, Ratikanta, 1987.Social and Religious Aspects in Bengal
Inscriptions, Firma KLM Private Ltd, Kolkata.
7.) Singh, Upinder, 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India
(From the Stone Age to 12th century), Pearson Longman , New Delhi , pp.46-
50
8.) Chakravarti, A.C., 1972. “ The Bhagavad-Gita and Asokan Inscriptions”
Journal of Ancient Indian History , Vol V , Parts 1-2 , 1971-72, ed. Prof.
Sircar , D. C. , University Of Calcutta, Calcutta, p. 192-98.
9.) Shastri, A.M., 1972. “ Sanchi Inscriptions of Candragupta II” Journal of
Ancient Indian History, Vol V , Parts 1-2 , 1971- 72, ed. Prof. Sircar, D.C. ,
University Of Calcutta , Calcutta, p . 199- 203.