Script and Language

In contrast to the paleography of the copper plate charters which is in the box-headed variety of the Central Indian type, that of the stone inscriptions is the early Nagari or the Northern class of alphabets which was popular as ‘Siddamatrka’^[1] in ancient times. It was prevalent in Northern India and Nepal from the sixth to the ninth century A.D. Many of the letters have a close resemblance to the modern counterparts of the Nagari script.

It is rather peculiar that two types of scripts have been used in the same region by the same dynasty one for incising copper plate and the other for engraving stones.

It is explained as:

It seems that the rulers got their official characters incised in box-headed characters as a matter of convention, while stone inscriptions, which were not official documents, were written in the characters in common use during the period. This is indeed a unique example of conventionalism carried to an extrreme^[3].

As a source of the history of Sanskrit literature, the observation of A.M. Shastri^[4] is worth quoting in this regard.

While most of the copper plate inscriptions are in the nature of matter of fact statement in a simple language, lithic records constitute beautiful examples of Sanskrit poetry of no mean order. There is no doubt that their composers were accomplished poets who had mastered poetic and had great command over the language Bhaskarabhatta, Cintatura-Isana, Krsnanandin, son of Devanandin and Sumangala, son of Taradatta who composed the prasatis, deserve a high place in the annals of classical Sanskrit literature. Their names would have remained unknown but for these inscriptions as no other works composed by them have come to light.

Like the copper plate records, the stone records commence with an auspicious beginning (mangalacarana [mangalacaranam]) which constitute the auspicious symbol “Buddham” which, in a majority of cases, is followed by a short salutation to the divinity or personage concerned in prose and in some cases, one or more than one verses. The mangalacarana [mangalacaranam] is often followed by an eulogy (Prasasti) which gives in brief an account of the history of the dynasty and/or the achievements of the monarchs/the contemporary monarch. The third part is specification of the pious act which is the central theme of the record. The last or concluding item is the mention of the names of the composers and the engravers, about whom sometimes a brief description is given interestingly, none of these records is dated in any manner viz., in the regnal year of the contemporary ruler or a known reckoning like the Gupta era or the Saka era etc.

As pointed out above, besides being excellent specimens of classical Sanskrit poetry, the stone records are of inestimable value for reconstruction of the history of the Panduvamsis. These supply us with historical information, in addition to the cultural attainments, not available from any other source.

Names and details of many of the earlier and later members of the dynasty like Udayana, Bhavadeva Ranakesarin, Candragupta and Harsagupta would have remained unknown to us without these records, we agree fully with the opinion of A.M. Shastri which states that^[2].

“It will not be an exaggeration if we state that most of our information about the various aspects of history of the dynasty is derived from stone inscriptions set up during its sovereignty”.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

ISPS, Pt. I, pp. 46-47.

[2]:

Ibid.  

[3]:

ASR, vii, pp. 186-93.

[4]:

ISPS, I, pp. 46-47.