Indian Epigraphy (Bramhi, Nagari, Persian and Old Kannada)

According to the 2001 Census there are ca. 33 million native speakers of the Oḍiā (Oriya) language in India. This language belongs to the eastern group of Indo-Aryan family. As for the script used to write the Oḍiā language, it is one of the descendants directly from Brāhmī (ca. 3rd BCE), which is at the basis, through several intermediary stages of development, of all current forms of Indian writing. The current article briefly traces this development and gives an overview of the special characteristics of the Oḍiā script.

In a recent research trip to the Early Historic Period Buddhist site of Sanchi in modern Madhya Pradesh, I re-read, photographed, and catalogued the hundreds of donative inscriptions found on the vedika architectural fragments on all three major stūpa-s. When I began comparing and contrasting what was found in Marshall, Foucher, and Majumdar’s The Monuments of Sanchi (1982) volumes with my records I noticed a small discrepancy in the list of inscriptions from stūpa II. Curiously, five pavement slab inscriptions could not be found in Marshall’s list, Lüders’ old list (1912), or in Tsukamoto’s (1996) more recent catalogue. After carefully searching all known publications of the Sanchi inscriptions, I determined that these five donative inscriptions were unnoticed by previously scholars who all undoubtedly relied heavily upon Marshall or Lüders’ list without ever revisiting the source material. In this brief article, I present the five previously unnoticed donative inscriptions and attempt to provide new insights into dating stūpa II. Additionally, to flush out what is known and unknown about the stūpa II inscriptions, I compare some recurring donor names to those found at stūpa I and Bharhut. I assemble evidence to augment the relative chronology of stūpa II and its approximate date compared to the other stūpa-s.

This essay examines the mechanisms by which Brahmanical tradition reproduced itself, especially the regimens of discipline(vratas) undertaken in tandem with text-study, and their role in establishing the knowledge of Sanskrit religious texts (and the use of Sanskrit more broadly) as an important criterion of piety and high social status. I argue that such regimens functioned as markers of belonging to the Brahmanical religion and ‘pure’ Årya society, while also offering the ordinary householder a form of personal piety that promised all the rewards of the old priestly ‘high cult. At the same time, disciplinary regimens provided a traditionally recognized framework for mendicant movements and new deity cults, which helped carry Brahmanical texts, ideals, and practices, via royal patronage, into new regions in India beyond the Ganges Valley and on into Southeast Asia. The second part of this essay will consider what early inscriptions can show us about how Brahmanical doctrine and practice were projected in the public sphere, noting instances in which particular subjects, texts, and especially disciplinary practices are cited, and observing that the grants and foundations recorded in these inscriptions helped spread the tradition and enhance its prestige. My remarks, intended only as a point of departure, will focus mainly on early grants from Orissa.

In Schaik, Sam van, Daniela de Simone, Gergely Hidas, and Michael Willis, eds. Precious Treasures from the Diamond Throne: Finds from the Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment.

The book as a whole is available for download at https://britishmuseum.iro.bl.uk/concern/books/2713ed8e-15a2-45b7-ba2b-2f35897766f5?locale=en&search_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbritishmuseum.iro.bl.uk%2Fcatalog%3Futf8%3D%25E2%259C%2593%26search_field%3Dall_fields%26q%3Ddiamond%2Bthrone

The archaeological chronology of Assam, particularly of those cultures in and around the Brahmaputra river valley, is very obscure. Although one can find a large number of petroglyphs, stone carvings, statues, pottery shards, inscriptions, etc., all along the 3848 km long Brahmaputra valley, neither of these finds can be assorted together within an archaeologically coherent framework. The present paper intends to delineate and discern the epigraphical and palaeographical postulates of one of the many inscriptions that were discovered in the course of painstaking archaeological explorations conducted by the Directorate of Archaeology, Government of Assam during the season 2016-2017

This article deals with the discovery of four new ‘gadhegals (Ass-curse Stones), three from Diveagar and one from Deokhol, that were found during the explorations done in conjunction with and ancillary to the archaeological excavations being carried out at Chandore in May 2012.

Monolithic pillars are those which comprises of two components - the shaft, which is made of a single block of stone, hence the name monolithic and the crowning capital part in the form of a deity or royal insignia or any other animal figure made of another block of stone. The earliest example of erecting a pillar like structure is from the Vedic Age. Multifarious are the purposes behind the creation and erection of a free standing monolithic pillar. Often the intended purpose of its erection can be more than one. In such cases stringent categorization of pillars is not feasible and several reasons can be attributed to its erection. The present paper examines the various causes for the installation of a pillar, analyses the inscriptional evidence and archaeological context with suitable examples. The scope of this paper is confined from 3rd century B.C.E. to 6th century C.E.

All over the Kalanjara Hill we find carved into the rocks an image of a figure carrying two buckets on a
yoke (vihamgika or `bangy'), but none of whose iconographic details are exactly the same.

Two of these images are connected with an inscription, chisseled into the rock, reading:
samadhigata-pancamahasabdasamanta-sri-vasantah,
`The illustrious Minister Vasanta, who has obtained the five great titles.'

It is not clear who this minister Vasanta is and what his connection is with the carrier or with Kalanjara.  It may be questioned whether this
Vasanta is a historical person.  The paper will present the evidence and will give some suggestions to solve the riddle.

A pair of copper plates found in Jamkhed and written in cursive box-headed characters witness a donation of land by an anonymous prince or king who says he is the son of Devarāja and grandson of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Bhavanmāna. This paper identifies Bhavanmāna as the king known as Mānāṅka in two previously published inscriptions: the Pāṇḍaraṅgapallī plates of Avidheya and the Uṇḍikavāṭikā plates of Abhimanyu. Altogether four generations of this royal house, sometimes referred to as the Rāṣṭrakūṭas of Mānapura, are known to have ruled successively. The new discovery furnishes no date or previously unknown dynastic information, but confirms that these rulers did indeed call themselves Rāṣṭrakūṭa, and hints that their domain may have extended to the area around Vatsagulma.

Sohagpur, the findspot of the inscription is the tahsil headquarters, situated in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh. It lies on the bank of Palakmati river, a tributary of Narmada.
The inscription, dated Samvat 1244 (1186 A. D.), is one of the largest and well preserved of the stone inscriptions so far discovered belonging to the Paramaras of Malwa. The importance of the inscription is that it gives for the first time a sheet anchor to date Ajayavarma, a successor of Yasovarman and its Jaina affiliation, which is a rarity among the inscriptions of Paramara period.

The Buddhist saints, that are the subject of this article, are known from a series of inscribed reliquaries collected by Alexander Cunningham and F. C. Maisey at Sanchi and neighbouring sites in central India. The inscriptions, dating to the circa early first century BC, have been known since readings of them were first published the mid-nineteenth century. The detailed re-examination of the records presented in this article shows that the reliquary inscriptions give special prominence to five Buddhist saints. The names given correspond to the five missionaries who, according to Pali sources, were sent to the Himalayan region at the time of the Third Council in the mid-third century BC. This indicates that (a) the Hemavata school was responsible for the re-vitalization of Sanchi in the post-Mauryan period and (b) that there was a well-established tradition about the nature of the Third Council in the first century BC.

The three Bhaikshuki inscriptions was brought to the notice of the Epigraphy Branch, ASI, Mysore by Excavation Branch III, Patna.  Two are  from Uren in Lakhisari district, Bihar and one is from the adjoining village of Manjhiyavan. They are in Bhaikshuki script, datable variously between 9th-10th century A.D.  and Pali language. So far only twelve inscriptions, engraved in this script are found and thus the present discovery forms a valuable addition to the corpus of Bhaikshuki inscriptions, making a total of 15.

A land grant issued by Raṇasiṃhadeva of the Candrāvatī branch of the Paramāra dynasty in North-West India has recently come to my attention. It contains a genealogy of the Candrāvatī line from Utpalarāja to Raṇasiṃha. This ruler is hitherto known only from one published inscription (the Roheḍā plates), and has been thought to be a usurper who briefly snatched the throne from the legitimate ruler Dhārāvarṣa. The grant, dated 1 November 1161 CE, makes no mention of Dhārāvarṣa, calling for a reinterpretation of some ambiguous lines of the Roheḍā inscription. It is a possibility that Raṇasiṃha was not a usurper, but ruled as a regent during Dhārāvarṣa’s minority and then willingly handed the throne over to him.

Shaw, J.,2011. Monasteries, monasticism, and patronage in ancient India: Mawasa, a recently documented hilltop Buddhist complex in the Sanchi area of Madhya Pradesh, South Asian Studies 27(2);111-130. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02666030.2011.614409

ABSTRACT:
This paper presents data from a recently documented hilltop Buddhist complex called Mawasa, in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, central India, about 15 km to the east of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Sanchi. It was documented during the Sanchi Survey Project, a multi-phase exercise aimed at relating the histories of Buddhist monasticism and urbanism as represented by the sequences at Sanchi and nearby Vidisha respectively to archaeological patterns within their hinterland. The dataset at Mawasa offers a well-preserved and representative sample of many of the main architectural types found at Phase II (c. 2nd - 1st century BC) Buddhist sites in the study area. It includes a well-preserved stūpa, a carved slab with an early and unusual Brahmi donative inscription (attesting to an individual donation in the causative form), and a group of interesting platformed monasteries with well-preserved internal details. All of these provide important new insights into the nature of patronage and the history and chronology of Buddhist monasticism and monastery architecture during this early period of Buddhist propagation. Further, an enigmatic structure, the precise function of which remains unclear is located within the site. It may be a very early shrine of a hitherto unstudied form, and thus has potential relevance for the wider history of early temple architecture.

The paper aims to highlight the religious interaction between the Buddhists in Srilanka and India in 9th century A.D. as gleaned from an inscription found from Ghuriyavan, Gaya district, Bihar. The inscription is written in Sanskrit language and Siddhamatrika characters.

A land grant issued by Raṇasiṃhadeva of the Candrāvatī branch of the Paramāra dynasty in North-West India has recently come to my attention. It contains a genealogy of the Candrāvatī line from Utpalarāja to Raṇasiṃha. This ruler is barely known and has been thought to be a usurper who briefly snatched the throne from the legitimate ruler Dhārāvarṣa. The grant, dated 1 November 1161 CE, makes no mention of Dhārāvarṣa, calling for a reinterpretation of this theory. The paper proposes that Raṇasiṃha was not a usurper, but ruled as a regent during Dhārāvarṣa’s minority and then willingly handed the throne over to him.

This is a reworked and extended version of my 2010 paper on the same topic.

The development and, eventually, wide-spread use of grantha script in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent form a constitutive part of the extensive manuscript culture in the Indian world and in Asia, especially South and South-East Asia. The beginnings of grantha script around one and a half millennium ago are no more directly accessible but impressive fragments of its material basis and traces of its vibrant life history are still visible. Although the available material, in the form of inscriptions and even more in the form of manuscripts,
is abundant, its detailed examination has hardly begun. Early works on Indian scripts such as the one by Burnell (1878) provide the basics only on grantha next to several other scripts of South India. Recent publications specifically devoted to grantha do not intend to be more than introductions and study aids for beginners.
In this article I have clarified, in the framework of a synthetic overview, distinctive characteristics of varieties and stages of development of the grantha script that have so far not been noted or that have remained vague and ambiguous. For this I have not relied on tables of hand-drawn characters but on characters directly taken from manuscripts from different periods.

This article examines a bronze sculpture of the Buddha in the British Museum and offers a revised reading of its dedicatory inscription. A close examination of the paleography, combined with a study of the sculpture’s style, shows the image belongs in the early years of the sixth century. This provides a date for the ruler Harirāja named in the record and allows us to disassociate him from the Harigupta known from early Gupta coins. In addition, the re-dating of Harirāja provides new material for understanding the historical and cultural complexities of the late Gupta kingdom.

Numerous pilgrim inscriptions are available at different parts of India attesting names of certain Jogis. Earlier several efforts were made for documentation and interpretations regarding the identity of these Jogis.  The present paper is a small effort to study the time frame of these inscriptions and adding sectarian affiliation with the help of Literary, Epigraphical studies and Oral traditions.