Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan LanguagesThis book provides a general survey of all the inscriptional material in the Sanskrit, Prakrit, and modern Indo-Aryan languages, including donative, dedicatory, panegyric, ritual, and literary texts carved on stone, metal, and other materials. This material comprises many thousands of documents dating from a range of more than two millennia, found in India and the neighboring nations of South Asia, as well as in many parts of Southeast, central, and East Asia. The inscriptions are written, for the most part, in the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts and their many varieties and derivatives.Inscriptional materials are of particular importance for the study of the Indian world, constituting the most detailed and accurate historical and chronological data for nearly all aspects of traditional Indian culture in ancient and medieval times. Richard Salomon surveys the entire corpus of Indo-Aryan inscriptions in terms of their contents, languages, scripts, and historical and cultural significance. He presents this material in such a way as to make it useful not only to Indologists but also non-specialists, including persons working in other aspects of Indian or South Asian studies, as well as scholars of epigraphy and ancient history and culture in other regions of the world. |
Contents
1 The Scope and Significance of Epigraphy in Indological Studies | 3 |
2 Writing and Scripts in India | 7 |
3 The Languages of Indic Inscriptions | 72 |
4 Survey of Inscriptions in the IndoAryan Languages | 110 |
5 Methods of Epigraphic Study | 161 |
6 The History of Indian Epigraphic Studies | 199 |
7 Epigraphy as a Source for the Study of Indian Culture | 226 |
Other editions - View all
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit ... Richard Salomon No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
Alphabet Ancient Andhra Pradesh Aramaic Asia Aśokan Aśokan inscriptions Bhattiprolu bilingual Brahmanical Brāhmī Brāhmī script Buddhist Bühler century A.D. characters consonants copper plate inscriptions D. C. Sircar decipherment Delhi derived Devanāgarī diacritic dialect Diskalkar Dist documents Dravidian dynasties earlier earliest early edicts of Aśoka epigraphic especially example Gāndhārī Ganga Gujarat Gupta historical Hultzsch hybrid India Indian Epigraphy Indian inscriptions Indic Indic scripts Indo-Aryan Indo-Aryan languages inss J. F. Fleet Jaina JASB JESI JRAS Karnataka Kharoṣṭhī Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions Kielhorn kings Konow languages later linguistic literary Lüders Majumdar Mathura Mauryan medieval minor rock edicts Mirashi Nālandā Nepal northern India noted origin Pakistan paleographic Pāli period pillar edicts pillar inscription Prakrit prasasti Prinsep Rajasthan records references regions regnal Śaka Samudragupta Sanskrit Sanskrit inscriptions script scriptions Semitic South southern specimens stone inscription Studies Tamil Taxila temple texts tions various verse Vikrama vowel written