types of inscription ll Important inscription of Ancient India

·         Type of Inscriptions

There are different categories of Inscriptions such as Commercial, Commemorative, Administrative, Didactic, Donative, Dedicative, Eulogistic, and Religious.

 Commercial Inscription

Commercial Inscription is shorter than other categories. They are found in mostly form of seals which were possibly used for stamping the bales of the commercial goods. They were used widely by the sea-faring traders engaged in foreign traders. A lot of such seals have been discovered from the Indus Valley.

Commemorative Inscription

Commemorative Inscription meant to record many important events including birth and death of important personalities. The Rummindei (Nepal),Sarnath (U.P.), Dhauli(Odisha), Jaugada(Odisha) Inscription of Ashoka, for example describe how king Ashoka constructed a big stone wall and created a stone pillar at the birth place of Lord Buddha many years after his coronation. The other examples of Commemorative inscriptions are the Banskhera (U.P.) and Madhubana (U.P.) orders of Harshavardhana of Vardhana dynasty.

Administrative Inscription

There are many other Inscriptions which deal with political and administrative aspects of the ancient rulers. Ashoka, in one of his Inscription has described vividly about the work and responsibility of his administrative officers like pradeshika, rajuka, yukta are the Mauryan officers at district level.There are few other examples of administrative Inscription like the Sohgaura copper plate Inscription of the 3^rd century B.C. (writing in Brahmi script), The Junnagarh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman I of 150 C.E and the Banskhera copper plate Inscription of harshavardhan of vardhana dynasty.

Didactic and Religious Inscription

Didactic and Religious Inscription both are deal with matters relating to Religion and Morality. Some of the Inscription of Ashoka belongs to this category. They are engraved onrocks, pillars and are found all over India. His Religious instructions were widely engraved on rocks and pillars. The edicts of Ashoka, popularly known as Dhamma lipi, were inscribed on the pillars called Dhamma stambhas. They deal with the virtues of Buddhism such as kindness, pardon, non-violence. In his pillars edicts II and VII, for example, Ashoka specified the fundamental moral principle for the betterment of family life. These moral principles include mercy, charity, truthfulness and purity, etc.

Donative Inscription

The Donative Inscription generally refers to the Donations of caves or building for the residence of monks and asutics, the donations of money to create a permanent fund to feed the Brahmins and others needy people and to light lamps in the temples. They also refer to the donation of land and villages to the monasteries, educational institutions and sometimes to the Brahmins. The copper plates issued by the Bhaumakara, Ganga, Gajapati rulers of Odisha refer mainly to land donations. The copper plates Inscription were named in various ways, such as Tamrapattra, Tamrapata, Tamrasasana and Danapatra. All land grants were invariably inscribed on copper plates. They were handed over to the dance as title deeds. Many such copper plates were discovered from Buddhist monasteries which refer to the grants of land.

Dedicative Inscription

The Dedicative Inscription mainly deals with the installations of images and the construction of temples. Some Inscription like,

 Mandasaur inscription (in M.P.), of the time of Kumaragupta I, and Bandhuvarman (contemporary of Kumargupta I and Samudragupta)

  Bhitari pillar Inscription (U.P.), of Skandagupta

 Besnagar garuda pillars inscription (in Vidisha, M.P.) of Heliodorusan (Indo-Greek ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas in Taxila to the court of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra)

The Pirahwa Vase Inscription (U.P) also records the dedication of the relic caskets of Lord Buddha.

Eulogistic Inscription

The Eulogistic inscriptions are mostly official and are mainly meant to praise the activities of a ruler. These inscription contain the names and genealogy and military, political and administrative achievements of contemporary or past rulers.

The Allahabad pillars inscription (U.P.), popularly known as Allahabad prasati of Samudragupta is a glaring example of Eulogistic inscription. It was composed by court poet Harisena in a particular style and tells us about the military exploits of Samudragupta. It also confirms the date of Samudragupta.

Other examples of Eulogistic inscription are the Gwalior prasati of King Bhoja (Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty),

The iron pillar inscription of King Chandra (Gupta dynasty),

Nasik cave inscription of Usavadata (Maharahtra) (Usavadata, a viceroy of the Western Satraps ruler Nahapana)

Nashik inscription of which is describe of Gautamiputra Satakarni

The Mandasaur stone pillars inscription of Yasodharman(M.P.) (belonged to the Aulikara dynasty)

The Aihole stone inscription (Karnataka) of the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II. The inscription written in Sanskrit and it is in Kannada script.  There is a mention about the defeat of Harshavardhana by Pulikeshi II. .And there is a mention about the victory of Chalukyas on Pallavas, also mentioned about the shifting of the capital from Aihole to Badami by Pulikeshi. There is mention about the poet Kalidasa. The Aihole inscription was written by Ravikirti was a court poet of Chalukya King, Pulakeshi II who in the throne from 610 to 642 CE.

The Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman, also known as the Girnar Rock inscription of Rudradaman, is a Sanskrit prose inscribed on a rock by the Western Satraps ruler Rudradaman I. It is located near Girnar hill near Junagadh, Gujarat, India.

Deopara inscription (now in Bangaladesh) of vijay sena (Sena dynasty of Bengal)  It was composed by Umapati Dhara, a minister in the court of Lakshmana Sena (c. 1178-1206), who was also one of several court poets. The inscription particularly praises Lakshmana Sena's grandfather Vijaya Sena (c. 1095–1158). The alphabet is a precursor of the modern Bengali alphabet, with 22 letters approximating the modern forms.

            Thus Inscription is become very authentic and reliable source of Ancient Indian History. They are authentic because they are engraved on rocks, stones, iron-pillars, bronze, copper and Terracotta seals which are scarcely subject to decay or tempering. Inscriptions have played a dominant role mostly in South India to reconstruct the Ancient Indian history of the southern rulers like Satavahana, Pallavas, Chalukya, Cholas and Rashtrakutas, Pandya, Chera etc. The number of Inscriptions found in South India so far is much greater than that of the North. South India is rich in almost all kinds of inscriptions which number several thousands. But they are considered less important than the few northern inscriptions because of their recent origin. Although the number of the northern inscription discovered so far, is very small yet, they are more important than the southern ones because they belongs to the remote past. The number of inscriptions prior to the Christian era is much more considerable in the north than in the south. Most inscription dealing with the history of Maurya, post-Maurya and Gupta time have been published in a series of collections called Corpus Inscriptionum Indicanum. There are still more than fifty thousand inscription which yet to be published.