Inscriptions
Words cut in stone and metal — how kings, donors and scholars left records that historians still read.
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c. 272/268–231 BCE🏺 Ancient
Asoka's edicts: four languages
Most of Asoka's Prakrit inscriptions were in the Brahmi script; in the northwest some were in Kharosthi, and in Afghanistan Aramaic and Greek were used.
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Mauryan period🏺 Ancient
“Beloved of the gods”
Some edicts do not name Asoka: they use his titles devanampiya, ‘beloved of the gods’, and piyadassi, ‘pleasant to behold’.
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c. second century CE🏺 Ancient
The Sudarshana lake inscription
A Sanskrit rock inscription records that the Shaka ruler Rudradaman repaired the Mauryan-era lake after a storm broke its embankments — without taxing his subjects. A later Gupta inscription on the same rock records another repair.
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Early centuries🏺 Ancient
Donors named at Sanchi
Inscriptions on stupa railings and pillars record donations — from kings such as the Satavahanas, from guilds such as the ivory workers who paid for part of a Sanchi gateway, and from hundreds of women and men.
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c. fourth century CE🏺 Ancient
The Prayaga Prashasti
Also known as the Allahabad Pillar Inscription, it was composed in Sanskrit by Harishena, the court poet of Samudragupta — a prashasti written in praise of the king.
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From 1836🏭 Modern
Hampi's inscriptions collected
As early as 1836 epigraphists began collecting dozens of inscriptions from the temples at Hampi, which helped rediscover the Vijayanagara Empire.
How we check: each entry is written from a passage in the NCERT chapter it links to, and our build fails unless key phrases from that passage are found in the chapter’s own text. Dates appear only where the chapter gives them.