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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The characters employed in the Erraguḍi edicts are Brāhmī and do not call for any special remark. But the writing of Minor Rock Edicts I-II on Boulder F exhibits some unique characteristics not hitherto noticed in any inscription discovered in India. In the first place, while most of the lines have to be read from left to right as is usual in Brāhmī and its derivatives, some of them are to be read from right to left as in Kharoshṭhī. Secondly, there are some half lines to be read from left to right or from right to left. Thirdly, there are some lines, one part of which has to be read from the left but the other part from the right. Fourthly, there are several cases where a group of letters is engraved not in its proper place but elsewhere in a different line. Besides these peculiarities, the writing also exhibits several cases of the total omission of groups of letters. These irregularities show that the engraver of the inscription did not do his job carefully. The tendency to write passages to be read from right to left may have been due to the face that the scribe or engraver was a person, who, like Chapaḍa[1] of the Mysore versions of the Minor Rock Edicts, hailed from North-Western Bhāratavarsha and was used to write in Kharoshṭhī. As regards the Prakrit language of the Erraguḍi edicts of Aśoka, a remarkable difference is noticed between the Minor Rock Edicts on the one hand and the Rock Edicts on the other. This seems to be due to the fact that the two sets of edicts were received at the place separately on different occasions and dates. In respect of language and orthography, the Erraguḍi text of the Minor Rock Edicts resembles that of some other South Indian versions of the same records, such as those in Mysore, while the text of the Rock Edicts at Erraguḍi resembles their Dhauli and Jaugaḍa versions and also in many points the Kālsī version. There are some cases of inconsistency in the use of case-endings with reference of the number and gender of particular words in both the sets.[2] This feature is also noticed in other versions of the edicts of Aśoka.
The language of the Minor Rock Edicts of Aśoka is what is called the Magadha dialect. The Pillar Edicts and Pillar Inscriptions of Aśoka, the Dhauli and Jaugaḍa versions of his Rock Edicts and his Barabar Hill Cave Inscriptions are couched in this dialect, although the Kālsī text of the Rock Edicts also exhibits some features of the same dialect. But, while the chief characteristic of the Magadha dialect is the change of r of Sanskrit to l, the consonant r is retained in the text of the Minor Rock Edicts at Erraguḍi as also at some other places in South India. In this respect, the language of the Erraguḍi version of the Minor Rock Edicts resembles that of the Girnār, Shāhbāzgarhī and Mānsehra texts of the Rock Edicts. In spite of the close resemblance of the language of the Erraguḍi version of the Minor Rock Edicts to that of their Mysore texts, referred to above, some differences are also noticed between the two. While the consonant ṇ is used in the Mysore versions in some places for Sanskrit ṇ or n, it is conspicuous by its absence in the Erraguḍi text of these edicts. In a few cases, the use of ś for Sanskrit s is noticed in the Mysore versions ; but s is invariably used for the three sibilants in our text. In these respects, the language of the Erraguḍi version of the Minor Rock Edicts is closer to the Magadha dialect, in which ṇ is replaced by n and ś and sh by s. The interesting case of Sandhi in the expression hem=eva (Sanskrit evam-eva), exhibiting the elision of va, is found in both the Erraguḍi and Mysore versions ; but the Erraguḍi text offers another similar case in the expression hev-āha (Sanskrit evam=āha) not found elsewhere excepting the Rājula-Maṇḍagiri copy of the same records.[3] The Brahmagiri text of the Mysore versions has hevaṁ āha in its place. ____________________________________________________
[1] This may stand for Sanskrit Chapala (cf. mahiḍā for Sanskrit mahilā in the Girnār version of Rock Edict IX,
line 3).
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