Three Inscriptions, Two Languages
A museum worksheet asks you to label three inscriptions for a school group: (A) the Girnar rock edict of Ashoka near Junagadh; (B) the Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman, carved on the same rock; (C) the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela at Udayagiri. A colleague has written 'all three are Prakrit' on the draft label. You have ten minutes before the worksheet is printed. You know that one of the three is in Sanskrit and that the other two are Prakrit but from different regions and periods. You must correct the label, justify the language classification with at least one diagnostic feature for each inscription, and explain why the distinction matters for cultural heritage. The exam tests whether you can separate script from language and edict from eulogy.
1. Classify A, B and C as Prakrit or Sanskrit and give one diagnostic feature for each.
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A, the Girnar Ashoka edict, is Prakrit in Brahmi; diagnostic features include Prakrit phonological forms and the absence of classical Sanskrit case endings, with words such as dhaṃma for dharma. B, the Junagadh Rudradaman inscription, is Sanskrit in Brahmi; it uses Sanskrit case endings and long nominal compounds characteristic of Sanskrit praśasti. C, the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, is Prakrit in Brahmi; its verbal and nominal forms are Prakrit, and it is a eulogistic record of Kalinga. The key is to classify by language, not by script: all three use Brahmi, but Brahmi writes both Prakrit and Sanskrit.
2. Why does the shared Brahmi script not make the Rudradaman inscription Prakrit?
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Script and language are independent. Brahmi is an alphabet used for Prakrit, Sanskrit and later vernaculars; the language is identified by morphology, lexicon and syntax. The Rudradaman inscription has Sanskrit nominal endings, Sanskrit compounds and a Sanskrit praśasti style, even though its letters are Brahmi. A candidate who labels it Prakrit because of the script has confused the writing system with the language. The correct procedure is to parse a few forms and note the case endings before naming the language.
3. Write a corrected museum label sentence and explain the cultural-heritage value of keeping the three distinct.
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Corrected label: 'This rock carries Ashoka's Prakrit edict in Brahmi, Rudradaman's Sanskrit inscription in Brahmi, and nearby at Udayagiri Kharavela's Prakrit Hathigumpha inscription.' The value is that the three record different moments: Ashoka's moral-political edict, the later Sanskrit turn in royal eulogy, and Jain patronage and Kalinga history. Flattening them into 'all Prakrit' erases the linguistic history and misleads learners about script. The exam answer should separate edict from eulogy, region from language, and script from language.