The Hindu : Karnataka News : Epigraphical sources may disintegrate, fears expert

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Epigraphical sources may disintegrate, fears expert

R. Krishna Kumar

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Noboru Karashima

MYSORE: When a relatively young assay master of the East India Company mint in Bengal, James Princep, deciphered the Brahmi script in 1837 thus unlocking the mysteries of the Mauryan period, and introducing the life and times of Ashoka to the world, it helped to enshrine epigraphy as a particularly valuable branch of historical enquiry for Indian history.

“Epigraphical sources are important because they contain vital information pertaining to the polity, economics and society of a country. But, of late, epigraphy as a field of specialisation has few takers and this could create a crisis in Indian history,” said professor Noboru Karashima, a professor of Indian Studies at Taisho University, Japan.

Dr. Karashima, who was recently in Mysore to study inscriptions relating to land holding patterns during the Chola and Vijayanagar periods, lamented this loss of specialist interest.

“Given the paucity of scholars and epigraphists among the new generation which is attracted to Information Technology and other emerging technologies, Indian historiography will face a crisis, a view shared by other eminent personalities, including professor Romila Thapar,” he pointed out.

Dr. Karashima’s own work on economic history of the early and medieval period of south India is based mainly from the evidence painstakingly gleaned from thousands of Tamil inscriptions.

Substantiating his argument, Dr. Karashima said that of the 35 sanctioned technical posts of epigraphists in the Epigraphy branch of the Archaeological Survey of India, 24 are vacant. Of them, 10 vacancies are in Sanskrit, seven in Dravidian studies and six in Arabic and Persian, apart from the post of the director itself.

In addition, the number of inscriptions copied so far by the Epigraphy branch of the ASI — whose head quarters is in Mysore — is around 80,000 of which 40,000 inscriptions are in Tamil, 15,000 in Kannada, 8,000 in Telugu, 5,000 inscriptions in Sanskrit and 12,000 inscriptions in Persian and Arabic. But 60 per cent of the Tamil inscriptions are yet to be published while 20 per cent of Kannada, Telugu and Persian or Arabic inscriptions and 10 per cent of Sanskrit inscriptions too have remained unpublished, according to Dr. Karashima.

“At this rate, and with the current strength of staff, it may take another 100 years for publishing these inscriptions,” said Dr. Karashima who fears that the existing transcripts will simply disintegrate unless measures are taken to preserve them.

He took a dim view of IAS officers occupying top positions in the ASI instead of scholars.

Dr. Karashima, who has authored more than a dozen books on south Indian culture and history, spoke highly of the publication of epigraphs in the Karnatak University, the University of Mysore, and the State Department of Archaeology in Tamil Nadu. But he called for digitalisation of texts and posting them online for public use of the transcripts that will expedite the work of scholars while help preserve the content of the inscriptions for posterity.

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