Prakrit Inscriptions, Edicts and Cultural Heritage
What this domain tests
Dated Prakrit inscriptions, their scripts, dialects, patrons, and what they show about the public use of Prakrit.
Key records
- Aśoka’s edicts (mid-3rd century BCE): Prakrit in Brāhmī over most of the subcontinent and in Kharoṣṭhī in the north-west; the eastern recension shows Māgadhī features such as r > l (lājā for rājā). Key terms: dhaṁma, dhaṁma-mahāmātā.
- Hāthigumphā inscription, Udayagiri, Odisha, attributed to Khāravela (1st century BCE): Prakrit in Brāhmī; records his reign, canal repair at Kalinganagara and Jain patronage.
- Nānāghāt cave inscriptions (1st century BCE): Prakrit, early evidence for the Sātavāhana house.
- Besnagar Garuḍa pillar (c. 2nd century BCE): Prakrit record of Heliodorus, a Greek envoy.
- Nāsik inscriptions of Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi: Prakrit.
- Bhārhut and Sāñcī donative labels: short Prakrit records by donors.
Why it matters
Inscriptions show Prakrit as a public administrative and religious language centuries before the literary kāvyas, and they document dialect geography.
Worked example
A question describes an inscription mentioning Kaliṅga and a Jain patron. The clues point to Hāthigumphā: Khāravela of Kaliṅga, Prakrit text in Brāhmī script.
Traps
Calling Aśoka’s edicts Sanskrit; assigning Hāthigumphā to Aśoka; mixing up the Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī regions; forgetting that Rudradāman’s Girnar inscription is Sanskrit, not Prakrit.