Archaeological Sources To Reconstruct Indian History

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES TO
RECONSTRUCT INDIAN HISTORY

EPIGRAPHY:
An epigraph or inscription refers to any writing engraved on hard or durable surfaces like seals,
rocks, wood, metal, pillars, temple walls, copper plates, etc. and the study of inscriptions is
called epigraphy.
The field of Indian epigraphy was born in the late eighteenth century. Indian epigraphy owes
greatly to the contributions of Europeans like Charles Wilkins, James Prinsep, Alexander
Cunningham and later Indians like R. G. Bhandarkar, R. D. Banerji, N. G. Majumdar and D. C.
Sircar among other leading epigraphists.
THE ANTIQUITY OF WRITING IN INDIA:

The earliest inscriptions are in the pictographic Harappan script that awaits decipherment. The
Ashokan inscriptions of 4th century BCE are the earliest deciphered inscriptions. These were
written mostly in the Prakrit language and Brahmi script. The Buddhist Pali texts, the Jatakas
and the Vinaya Pitaka give us the first definite references to writing. Panini’s Ashtadhyayi
mentions the word lipi/libi (script).
Scripts and languages of ancient and early medieval

inscriptions:
A language consists of spoken symbols of communication. A script, on the other hand, is a
system of visual communication that uses signs or symbols having specific meanings or sounds.
A script can be logographic, syllabic or alphabetic. In a logographic script, written symbols stand
for a word, in a syllabic script for a syllable and in an alphabetic script for a single phonetic
sound. In this sense, Brahmi and Kharoshthi fall midway between alphabetic and syllabic scripts
and are described as semi-syllabic and semi-alphabetic.
The evolution of Brahmi, a script written from left to right and deciphered by James Prinsep in
1837, has been traced in three stages: early Brahmi (3rd-1st centuries BCE), middle Brahmi (1st
century BCE- 3rd century CE) and late Brahmi (4th – 6th centuries CE). The use of Brahmi was
far more widespread than that of Kharoshthi, a regional script largely confined to the north-
western parts of the country and written from right to left. The homeland of the latter primarily
included the territory along and around the Indus, Swat and Kabul river valleys, which
comprised the land known as Gandhara in ancient times. While Kharoshthi declined by the 3rd
century CE, Brahmi lived on to become the parent of all the indigenous scripts of South Asia and
parts of central and Southeast Asia.
In southern India, the earliest inscriptions are in a variant of Brahmi called Tamil- Brahmi. The Tamil
script appeared under the Pallavas in the 7th century CE while scripts similar to the modern Telugu and
Kannada scripts emerged in the 14th-15th centuries. The same time also witnessed the development of
Malayalam script out of Grantha.
The first long Sanskrit inscription is the Junagadh rock inscription of the western Kshatrapa king
Rudradaman. By the end of the 3rd century CE, Sanskrit had nearly ousted Prakrit from northern India.
Between the 4th and the 6th centuries, Sanskrit emerged as the language of the elite and politically
powerful and hence the language of royal inscriptions all over India. Another important development of
the time was the evolution of regional languages and scripts.
Types of inscriptions:
Broadly speaking, inscriptions can be classified as donative, dedicative and commemorative.
Donative inscriptions record donations made in favour of religious establishments or the
installation of religious images and were inscribed on shrine walls, images, railings and
gateways. Royal land grants, inscribed on stone but mostly on copper plates are an important
constituent of this category. Commemorative inscriptions record a specific event or
commemorate the dead in the form of memorial stones, not always connected with burials. For
instance the Lumbini pillar inscription of Ashoka records the visit of the king to the Buddha’s
birth-place. We also come across inscriptions recording charitable services by private
individuals like the building of waterworks, wells and feeding houses. Other types of
inscriptions include labels, graffiti left by pilgrims and travelers and writing on seals.
What inscriptions tell us?

Inscriptions having the advantage of durability, serve as reliable primary rather than secondary
sources for history writing. Compared to literary sources, they are less likely to be tampered
with, as additions and modifications can be easily detected. Inscriptional evidence is also of
particular importance as it consists of the most detailed and chronological foundation for nearly
all aspects of ancient and medieval Indian culture. According to D. C. Sircar, “there is no aspect
of the life, culture and activities of the Indians that is not reflected in inscriptions”.
Inscriptions need to be used carefully while dealing with different aspects of the past. The main
problem, according to Salomon is that most inscriptions are not essentially historical
documents but rather donative or panegyric records which incidentally record some amount of
historical information. Inscriptions are not always found in their original place and not all
inscriptions of a king’s reign can be discovered. Moreover, court poets who were eager to
glorify their royal patrons may well have exaggerated these claims. the genealogical
information provided by inscriptions also needs to be examined carefully. Here again in this
respect, later inscriptions are richer than earlier ones.
Inscriptional records help us in tracing the growth and relative popularity of various devotional
cults at different times and places. They also reveal patterns of royal patronage to different
religions and sects and at the same time enlighten us about sects and cults that flourished but
did not leave any literature of their own like the Ajivika sect and the yaksha and naga cults.
Epigraphic records also contain information that can be used to study the history of languages
and literature as also the performing arts.

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES TO

RECONSTRUCT INDIAN HISTORY

THE ANTIQUITY OF WRITING IN INDIA:

Scripts and languages of ancient and early medieval

What inscriptions tell us?

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