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Vedas and writing

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Hammad Shakil, interested in ancient history

Answered Dec 19, 2018 · Author has 1k answers and 195k answer views

we dont really know.

the assumption is that vedas were memorized and it is based on few assumptions and obvious lack of script in india at that early period, i would give some reasons why vedas could have been inscribed as early as it was composed.

the period of vedas is stated as 1500 BC, from bhit dwarka we have excavated an indus script dating earlier than this period.
we have also excavated a bronze plate with brahmi inscriptions dated as early as second mil BC.
vedas in my opinion contains a language which was grammatically refined by the predecessors of the panini who lists ten grammarians before him, if this is indeed true than grammatical work cannot be done orally and must have been inscribed. hence veds must have been inscribed.
The perfect condition of the vedas led one scholar t state that such perfect condition couldn’t have been maintained without inscriptions.
It is naturally assumed that since vedas are poetic, they were transmitted orally, but you are not considering th example of Quran, which was also written down and memorized orally and was in poetic form and most surprising is, there was not a big literary tradition notied among arabs before islam or any major arabic inscriptions discovered until the quranic inscriptions start to discovered, how did arabic inscription appeared out of the blue suddenly, did arabs suddenly invented arab text from aramaic, obviously not, they wrote in perishable materials which didn’t survive, arbs were known as great poets before islam, how many of their pre islamic poetry is preserved, none.
you can literally trace the different layers of epocs by simply studying the vedas, meaning you can trace the language getting older and older as you move into its more archaic form. How cn a text be so wonderfully preserved like this.
it is true that vedas may not have been considered to be written for it was considered pure, and this argument can be justified that they weren’t written even if there was a script, but then again, why were they written a supposed thousands years from today if they wre considered so pure. The only reason it is stated that is because vedic texts from older period have not been found and the date of vedas inscription is stated to be the date of preserved manuscript. The thing is, if you ask the hindus today, why vedas were not written down, why would they answer they were not written down since they already live in the era when vedas have already been written down.
if vedas were not written down, how did they propagate their religion from north to south, how was it possible without any writing, if hindus didn’t value writing, why are there so many sanskritic inscriptions in south east asia.
If for a moment we ignore that brahmi script evolved form semitic scripts, we have only two choices, one is that brahmi was developed by jaina or buddhists, anothe rpossibility is they learnt it from the brahmins who were hindus themselves. What do you think is more possibility, that jainas and buddhists created brahmi or they learnt it from the brahmins, chances are jainas and buddhists both learnt it from brahmins who already knew how to write, or jainas who were brahmins before conversion already knew how to write, the invention of script by jainas seem rediculous since they would have derived much of their literary system from the one which was already established so why script treated in any different way. If brahmins already knew how to write, dont you think that they would have already inscribed the vedas.

my opinion is vedas were obviously written down given their pure grammatical form. the vedic texts dont survive simply because they have perished just like if not for central asia preserving buddhist manuscripts, they would have been declared as orally transmitted.

regards

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The reason is that only with the correct intonation should it be pronounced and if it's written down you will not learn it with the correct intonation.

Another anecdote of information I recently got to know is that if you make mistakes while reciting mantras it is counted as a sin on your gurus part.

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The Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions, sometimes referred simply as the Ghosundi Inscription or the Hathibada Inscription, are among the oldest known Sanskrit inscriptions in the Brahmi script, and dated to the 1st-century BCE. The Hathibada inscription were found near Nagari village, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, India, while the Ghosundi inscription was found in the village of Ghosundi, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Chittorgarh. They are linked to Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism.

Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions
Fragment C of the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions, in Sanskrit. 1st century BCE.
Material	Stone
Writing	Sanskrit
Created	1st Century BCE
Discovered	24.967°N 74.683°E
Place	Nagari (Chittorgarh), Rajasthan
Present location	Government Museum, Udaipur
Nagari Nagari (India)

DescriptionEdit

Dated to the 1st-century BCE, the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions are among the oldest known Sanskrit inscriptions in Brahmi script from the Hindu tradition of ancient India, particularly Vaishnavism.^[1]^[2] Some scholars, such as Jan Gonda, have dated these to the 2nd century BCE.^[3]^[4]

The Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions were found in the same area, but not exactly the same spot. One part was discovered inside an ancient water well in Ghosundi, another at the boundary wall between Ghosundi and Bassi, and the third on a stone slab in the inner wall of Hathibada. The three fragments are each incomplete, but studied together. They are believed to have been displaced because the Mughal emperor Akbar during his seize of Chittorgarh camped at Nagari, built some facilities by breaking and reusing old structures, a legacy that gave the location its name "Hathi-bada" or "elephant stable". The part discovered in the Hathibada wall has the same style, same Brahmi script, and partly same text as the Ghosundi well text, thereby suggesting a link.^[5]^[6]

The inscription is significant not only for its antiquity but as a source of information about ancient Indian scripts, the society, its history and its religious beliefs.^[5] It confirms the ancient reverence of Hindu deities Samkarshana-Vasudeva (also known as Balarama-Krishna), an existence of stone temple dedicated to them in 1st-century BCE, the puja tradition, and a king who had completed the Vedic Asvamedha sacrifice.^[1]^[7]^[8] Taken together with independent evidence such as the Besnagar inscription found with Heliodorus pillar, the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions suggest that one of the roots of Vaishnavism in the form of Bhagavatism was thriving in ancient India between the 2nd and 1st century BCE.^[7]^[9] They are not the oldest known Hindu inscription, however. Others such as the Ayodhya Inscription and Nanaghat Cave Inscription are generally accepted older or as old.^[2]^[10]

InscriptionEdit

The discovered inscription is incomplete, and has been interpolated based on Sanskrit prosody rules. It reads:^[5]

Fragment A
Fragment A (Ghosundi stone inscription).

1 ..... tena Gajayanena P(a)rasarlputrena Sa-
2 ..... [j]i[na] bhagavabhyam Samkarshana-V[a]sudevabhya(m)
3 ......bhyam pujasila-prakaro Narayana-vat(i)ka.

Fragment B
1. ....[tr](e)(na) Sarvatatena As[v]amedha....
2 .....sarvesvarabh(yam).

Fragment C
Fragment C (Hathibada stone inscription)

1 ....vat(ena) [Ga]j(a)yan[e]na P(a)r(asaripu)t(re)na [Sa](r)[vata]tena As(vame)[dha](ya)- [j](ina)
2 ....(na)-V(a)sudevabh[y]a(m) anihata(ohyam) sa(r)v(e)[s]va[r](a)bh(yam) p(u)[j](a)- [s](i)l(a)-p[r]a[k]aro Nar[a]yana-vat(i)[k](a).
– Ghosundi Hathibada Inscriptions, 1st-century BCE^[5]

ExtrapolationEdit

Bhandarkar proposed that the three fragments suggest what the complete reading of fragment A might have been. His proposal was:

Fragment A (extrapolated)
1 (Karito=yam rajna Bhagava)tena Gajayanena Parasariputrena Sa-
2 (rvatatena Asvamedha-ya)jina bhagava[d*]bhyaih Samkarshana-Vasudevabhyam
3 (anihatabhyarh sarvesvara)bhyam pujasila-prakaro Narayana-vatika.
– D. R. Bhandarkar^[5]

TranslationsEdit

The Hathibada/Hathiwada enclosure in which was found one of the inscriptions.^[11]

Bhandarkar – an archaeologist, translates it as,

(This) enclosing wall round the stone (object) of worship, called Narayana-vatika (Compound) for the divinities Samkarshana-Vasudeva who are unconquered and are lords of all (has been caused to be made) by (the king) Sarvatata, a Gajayana and son of (a lady) of the Parasaragotra, who is a devotee of Bhagavat (Vishnu) and has performed an Asvamedha sacrifice.
– Ghosundi Hathibada Inscriptions, 1st-century BCE^[5]

Harry Falk – an Indologist, states that the king does not mention his father by name, only his mother, and in his dedicatory verse does not call himself raja (king).^[12] The king belonged to a Hindu Brahmin dynasty of Kanvas, that followed the Hindu Sungas dynasty. He translates one of the fragments as:

adherent of the Lord (bhagavat), belonging to the gotra of the Gajayanas, son of a mother from the Parasara gotra, performer of an Asvamedha.^[12]

Benjamín Preciado-Solís – an Indologist, translates it as:

[This] stone enclosure, called the Narayana Vatika, for the worship of Bhagavan Samkarsana and Bhagavan Vasudeva, the invincible lords of all, [was erected] by [the Bhaga]vata king of the line of Gaja, Sarvatata, the victorious, who has performed an asvamedha, son of a Parasari.^[13]

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ReferencesEdit

^ ^a ^b Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 239–240. ISBN 978-0-19-509984-3.
^ ^a ^b Theo Damsteegt (1978). Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit. Brill Academic. pp. 209–211.
^ Jan Gonda (2016). Visnuism and Sivaism: A Comparison. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 166 note 243. ISBN 978-1-4742-8082-2.
^ James Hegarty (2013). Religion, Narrative and Public Imagination in South Asia: Past and Place in the Sanskrit Mahabharata. Routledge. pp. 46 note 118. ISBN 978-1-136-64589-1.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f D. R. Bhandarkar, Hathi-bada Brahmi Inscription at Nagari, Epigraphia Indica Vol. XXII, Archaeological Survey of India, pages 198-205
^ Dilip K. Chakrabarti (1988). A History of Indian Archaeology from the Beginning to 1947. Munshiram Manoharlal. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-81-215-0079-1.
^ ^a ^b Gerard Colas (2008). Gavin Flood (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 230–232. ISBN 978-0-470-99868-7.
^ Rajendra Chandra Hazra (1987). Studies in the Puranic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-81-208-0422-7.
^ Lavanya Vemsani (2016). Krishna in History, Thought, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-1-61069-211-3.
^ Julia Shaw (2013). Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change, C. Third Century BC to Fifth Century AD. Routledge. pp. 264 note 14. ISBN 978-1-61132-344-3.
^ ASI Jaipur circle Hathiwada enclosure
^ ^a ^b Harry Falk (2006). Patrick Olivelle (ed.). Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE. Oxford University Press. pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-0-19-977507-1.
^ Benjamín Preciado-Solís (1984). The Kṛṣṇa Cycle in the Purāṇas: Themes and Motifs in a Heroic Saga. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-89581-226-1.

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Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana is a stone inscription related to a Hindu Deva king named Dhana or Dhana–deva of the 1st-century BCE.^[1]^[2]^[3] He ruled from the city of Ayodhya, Kosala, in India. His name is found in ancient coins and the inscription. According to P.L. Gupta, he was among the fifteen kings who ruled from Ayodhya between 130 BCE and 158 CE, and whose coins have been found: Muladeva, Vayudeva, Vishakadeva, Dhanadeva, Ajavarman, Sanghamirta, Vijayamitra, Satyamitra, Devamitra and Aryamitra.^[4] D.C. Sircar dates the inscription to 1st-century CE based on the epigraphical evidence.^[5] The damaged inscription is notable for its mention of general Pushyamitra and his descendant Dhana–, his use of Vedic Ashvamedha horse to assert the range of his empire, and the building of a temple shrine.^[6]

Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana
Ancient Sanskrit inscription
Material	Stone
Writing	Sanskrit
Created	1st Century BCE
Place	Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh
Present location	Ranopali monastery, Shri Udasin Sangat Rishi Ashram
Ranopali Ashram, Ayodhya Ranopali Ashram, Ayodhya (India)

Sunga inscription from AyodhyaEdit

The Ayodhya inscription of the Sunga dynasty era was found by Babu Jagannath Das Ratnakara at the Ranopali monastery in Ayodhya.^[6] The inscription is in Sanskrit, written in Brahmi script, and the inscribed stone is found on a flat surface on a footstone at the eastern entrance to the samadhi (memorial) of Baba Sangat Bakhsh, of Udasi Sikhs. The Udasi trace their heritage to the eldest son of Guru Nanak. The samadhi monument is inside the Ranopali monastery of Udasi Sampradaya, also called Shri Udasin Rishi Ashram, in a section located to the west. It is believed to have been built during the time of Nawab Shuja-ud-daula, and the inscribed stone likely came from some ruins of the period.^[6]

According to Kunal Kishore, the inscription is not grammatically correct Sanskrit.^[7] Others scholars disagree and state that except for one minor scribe error, the inscription is in good Sanskrit.^[6]^[8]

InscriptionEdit

The discovered inscription is damaged and incomplete. It reads:^[6]

1. Kosal-adhipena dvir-asvamedha-yajinah senapateh Pushyamitrasya shashthena Kausiki-putrena Dhana
2. Dharmarajna pituh Phalgudevasya ketanam karitam
– Shunga dynasty Ayodhya Inscription, 1st-century BCE – 1st century CE^[6]^[7]

TranslationEdit

Sahni – a Sanskrit scholar, translates it as,

Dhana (deva, bhuti, etc), Lord of Kosala, son of Kausiki, the sixth of the Senapati Pushyamitra, who had performed the Ashvamedha twice, erected a shrine (or other memorial) in honor of Phalgudeva, the father of the Dharmaraja.
– Dhana's Ayodhya inscription^[6]

SignificanceEdit

The Sunga inscription is short but one that has attracted much debate. Scholars disagree on how to interpret Pushyamitrasya shashthena.^[6]It literally means the "sixth of Pushyamitra", which can be interpreted as "sixth son of Pushyamitra" or "sixth descendant of [generation after] Pushyamitra". The former interpretation would mean Dhana likely lived in early 1st-century BCE, the later would imply Dhana to be a great grandchild of a great grandchild through the father or mother side, and he lived in 1st-century CE.^[6]^[3]

According to Bhandare, there is uncertainty if there were more than one ancient kings named Dhanadeva. The inscription suggests there was one in the 1st century BCE, while the dating of the coins with Dhanadeva name range from 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE. Typically, both are considered to be the same. The coins with Dhanadeva were mold cast, were made from silver or copper, and show a bull with fodder tray in front. His name is in Brahmi script, and the coins also show swastika and Ujjayini signs.^[9]^[3]

The ancient Ayodhya inscription is significant also because it establishes that the Hindu Sungas dynasty was ruling Ayodhya around the 1st century BCE, that the custom of building temple shrines to popular leaders or famous kings was already in vogue by then, and that Phalgudeva may have been the same person as Pushyamitra. It is also the earliest epigraphical evidence that the general Pushyamitra Shunga founded a dynasty and performed the Vedic ritual Ashvamedha twice (it is unclear why he did it twice).^[6]

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ReferencesEdit

^ P. K. Bhattacharyya. Historical Geography of Madhyapradesh from Early Records. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 9 footnote 6. ISBN 978-81-208-3394-4.
^ Ashvini Agrawal (1989). Rise and Fall of the Imperial Guptas. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 126. ISBN 978-81-208-0592-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c Shailendra Bhandare (2006). Patrick Olivelle (ed.). Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE. Oxford University Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-0-19-977507-1.
^ P.L. Gupta (1969), Conference Papers on the Date of Kaniṣka, Editor: Arthur Llewellyn Basham, Brill Archive, 1969, p.118
^ D.C. Sircar (1965), Select Inscriptions, Volume 1, 2nd Edition, pages 94-95 and footnote 1 on page 95
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j RBDR Sahni, A Sunga Inscription from Ayodhya, Epigraphia Indica Volume 20, ASI, pages 54-58
^ ^a ^b Kunal Kishore, Ayodhya Revisited, p.24, Prabhat Prakashan
^ Theo Damsteegt (1978). Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit. Brill Academic. pp. 206, 209–210.
^ D.C. Sircar (2005). Studies in Indian Coins. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 352. ISBN 978-81-208-2973-2.

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Naneghat, also referred to as Nanaghat or Nana Ghat (IAST: Nānāghaṭ), is a mountain pass in the Western Ghats range between the Konkan coast and the ancient town of Junnar in the Deccan plateau. The pass is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of Pune and about 165 kilometres (103 mi) east from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.^[1] It was a part of an ancient trading route, and is famous for a major cave with Hindu Sanskrit inscriptions in Brahmi script.^[2] These inscriptions have been dated between the 2nd and the 1st century BCE, and attributed to the Satavahana dynasty era.^[3]^[4]^[5] The inscriptions are notable for linking the Vedic and Vaishnavism deities, mentioning some Vedic srauta rituals and of names that provide historical information about the ancient Satavahanas.^[4]^[6] The inscriptions present the world's oldest numeration symbols for "2, 4, 6, 7, and 9" that resemble modern era numerals, more closely those found in modern Nagari and Hindu-Arabic script.^[5]^[7]^[8]

Naneghat Cave and Inscriptions
History
नाणेघाट
Naneghat geography and inscriptions
Naneghat caves Shown within India Show map of IndiaShow map of MaharashtraShow all
Alternative name	Nanaghat caves
Location	Maharashtra, India
Region	Western Ghats
Coordinates	19°17′31.0″N73°40′33.5″E
Altitude	750 m (2,461 ft)
Type	Caves, trade route passage
Builder	Queens, Satavahana dynasty -Naganika
Material	Natural rock
Founded	2nd-century BCE
Cultures	Buddhism
Management	Archaeological Survey of India

LocationEdit

Nanaghat pass stretches over the Western Ghats, through an ancient stone laid hiking trail to the Nanaghat plateau. The pass was the fastest key passage that linked the Indian west coast seaports of Sopara, Kalyan and Thana with economic centers and human settlements in Nasik, Paithan, Ter and others, according to Archaeological Survey of India.^[9] Near the top is large, ancient manmade cave. On the cave's back wall are a series of inscriptions, some long and others short. The high point and cave is reachable by road via Highways 60 or 61. The cave archaeological site is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of Pune and about 165 kilometres (103 mi) east from Mumbai.^[1] The Naneghat Cave is near other important ancient sites. It is, for example, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the Lenyadri Group of Theravada Buddhist Caves and some 200 mounds that have been excavated near Junnar, mostly from the 3rd-century BCE and 3rd-century CE period.^[9]

HistoryEdit

The Naneghat caves, likely an ancient rest stop for travellers.^[10]

During the reign of the Satavahana (c. 200 BCE – 190 CE), the Naneghat pass was one of the trade routes. It connected the Konkan coast communities with Deccan high plateau through Junnar.^[1] Literally, the name nanemeans "coin" and ghat means "pass". The name is given because this path was used as a tollbooth to collect toll from traders crossing the hills. According to Charles Allen, there is a carved stone that from distance looks like a stupa, but is actually a two-piece carved stone container by the roadside to collect tolls.^[11]

The scholarship on the Naneghat Cave inscription began after William Sykes found them while hiking during the summer of 1828.^[12]^[13] Neither an archaeologist nor epigraphist, his training was as a statistician and he presumed that it was a Buddhist cave temple. He visited the site several times and made eye-copy (hand drawings) of the script panel he saw on the left and the right side of the wall. He then read a paper to the Bombay Literary Society in 1833 under the title, Inscriptions of the Boodh caves near Joonur,^[12] later co-published with John Malcolm in 1837.^[14] Sykes believed that the cave's "Boodh" (Buddhist) inscription showed signs of damage both from the weather elements as well as someone crudely incising to desecrate it.^[11] He also thought that the inscription was not created by a skilled artisan, but someone who was in a hurry or not careful.^[11] Sykes also noted that he saw stone seats carved along the walls all around the cave, likely because the cave was meant as a rest stop or shelter for those traveling across the Western Ghats through the Naneghat pass.^[10]^[11]^[12]

William Sykes made an imperfect eye-copy of the inscription in 1833, to bring it to scholarly attention.^[15]

Sykes proposed that the inscription were ancient Sanskrit because the statistical prevalence rate of some characters in it was close to the prevalence rate of same characters in then known ancient Sanskrit inscriptions.^[12]^[16] This suggestion reached the attention of James Prinsep, whose breakthrough in deciphering Brahmi script led ultimately to the inscription's translation. Much that Sykes guessed was right, the Naneghat inscription he had found was indeed one of the oldest Sanskrit inscriptions.^[11]He was incorrect in his presumption that it was a Buddhist inscription because its translation suggested it was a Hindu inscription.^[17] The Naneghat inscription were a prototype of the refined Devanagari to emerge later.^[11]

Georg Bühler published the first version of a complete interpolations and translation in 1883.^[18] He was preceded by Bhagvanlal Indraji, who in a paper on numismatics (coins) partially translated it and remarked that the Naneghat and coin inscriptions provide insights into ancient numerals.^[18]^[19]

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DateEdit

Naneghat Pass Entrance

The inscriptions are attributed to a queen of the Satavahana dynasty. Her name was either Nayanika or Naganika, likely the wife of king Satakarni. The details suggest that she was likely the queen mother, who sponsored this cave after the death of her husband, as the inscription narrates many details about their life together and her son being the new king.^[4]

The Naneghat cave inscriptions have been dated by scholars to the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE. Most scholars date it to the early 1st-century BCE, some to 2nd-century BCE, a few to even earlier.^[3]^[4]^[5] Sircar dated it to the second half of the 1st-century BCE.^[20] Upinder Singh and Charles Higham date 1st century BCE.^[21]^[22]

The Naneghat records have proved very important in establishing the history of the region. Vedic Gods like Dharma Indra, Chandra and Surya are mentioned here. The mention of Samkarsana (Balarama) and Vasudeva (Krishna) indicate the prevalence of Bhagavata tradition of Hinduism in the Satavahana dynasty.

Nanaghat inscriptionsEdit

Two long Nanaghat inscriptions are found on the left and right wall, while the back wall has small inscriptions on top above where the eight life-sized missing statues would have been before somebody hacked them off and removed them.^[11]

Left wallEdit

Left wall inscription, Brahmi script

InscriptionEdit

sidhaṃ ... no dhaṃmasa namo īdasa namo saṃkaṃsana-vāsudevānaṃ caṃda-sūrānaṃ mahimāvatānaṃ catuṃnaṃ caṃ lokapālānaṃ yama-varuna-kubera-vāsavānaṃ namo kumāravarasa vedisirisa raño ......vīrasa sūrasa apratihatacakasa dakhināpaṭhapatino raño simukasātavāhanasa sunhāya ...... mā ..... bālāya mahāraṭhino aṃgiya-kulavadhanasa sagaragirivaravalayāya pathaviya pathamavīrasa vasa ... ya va alaha ......salasu ..ya mahato maha ... .... sātakaṇi sirisa bhāriyā devasa putadasa varadasa kāmadasa dhanadasa vedisiri-mātu satino sirimatasa ca mātuya sīma .... pathamaya ..... variya ....... ānāgavaradayiniya māsopavāsiniya gahaṭāpasāya caritabrahmacariyāya dikhavratayaṃñasuṃḍāya yañāhutādhūpanasugaṃdhāya niya ....... rāyasa ........ yañehi yiṭhaṃ vano \| agādheya-yaṃño dakhinā dinā gāvo bārasa 12 aso ca 1 anārabhaniyo yaṃño dakhinā dhenu ......... ...... dakhināya dinā gāvo 1700 hathī 10 ..... ......... as ..... sasataraya vāsalaṭhi 289 kubhiyo rupāmayiyo 17 bhi ...... .......... riko yaṃño dakhināyo dinā gāvo 11,000 asā 1,000 pasapako .............. ............. 12 gamavaro 1 dakhinā kāhāpanā 24,400 pasapako kāhāpanā 6,000 \| rājasūya-yaṃño ..... sakaṭaṃ NOTE: (the missing characters do not match the number of dots; Bühler published a more complete version.^[18])

Left wall translation without interpolationEdit

Sidham^{[note 1]} to Dharma, adoration to Indra, adoration to Samkarshana and Vasudeva,^{[note 2]} the descendants of the Moon endowed with majesty, and to the four guardians of the world, Yama, Varuna, Kubera and Vasava; praise to Vedisri, the best of kumara!^{[note 3]} Of the king.
.... of the brave hero, whose rule is unopposed, the Dekhan......
By ..... the daughter of the Maharathi, the increaser of the Amgiya race, the first hero of the earth that is girdled by the ocean and the best of mountains....
wife of . . . Sri, the lord who gives sons, boons, desires and wealth, mother of Yedisri and the mother of the illustrious Sakti.....
Who gave a . . . most excellent nagavaradayiniya,^{[note 4]} who fasted during a whole month, who in her house an ascetic, who remained chaste, who is well acquainted with initiatory ceremonies, vows and offerings, sacrifices, odoriferous with incense, were offered......
O the king ........ sacrifices were offered. Description - An Agnyadheya sacrifice, a dakshina^{[note 5]} was offered twelve, 12, cows and 1 horse; - an Anvarambhaniya sacrifice, the dakshina, milch-cows.....
...... dakshina were given consisting of 1700 cows, 10 elephants,
.... 289.....17 silver waterpots.....
..... a rika-sacrifice, dakshina were given 11,000 cows, 1000 horses
......12 . . 1 excellent village, a dakshina 24,400 Karshapanas, the spectators and menials 6,001 Karshapanas; a Raja ........ the cart^[26]

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Right wall translation without interpolationEdit

...used for conveying a mountain of grain, 1 excellent dress, 1 horse, 1 horse-chariot, 100 kine. A second horse-sacrifice was offered; dakshina were given 1 horse with silver trappings, 12 golden...... an(other) dakshina was given 14,000 (?) Karshapanas, 1 village . . elephant, a dakshina was given
....cows, the cart used for conveying a mountain of grain..... an..... Ovaya sacrifice.......... 17 milch cows (?)....
........ 17 ....... presents to the spectators were given.... a dakshina was given 12..... 1 silver ornaments for them, a dakshina was given consisting of 10,000 Karshapanas............
..... 20,000(?) cows ; a Bhagala-Dasharatha sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given 10,001 cows; a Gargatriratra sacrifice was offered ...... the presents to the spectators and menials 301 dresses; a Gavamayana was offered, a dakshina was given 1,101 cows, a .... sacrifice, the dakshina 1,100 (?) cows, the presents to the spectators and menials . . Karshapanas, 100 dresses; an Aptoryama sacrifice .....
..... ;a Gavamayana sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given 1,101 cows; an Angirasamayana sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given 1,101 cows; was given 1,101 cows; a Satatirata sacrifice ...... 100 ......... ; ......sacrifice was offered, the dakshina 1,100 cows; an Angirasatriratra sacrifice was offered; the dakshina .... cows ....
........ 1,002 cows; a Chhandomapavamanatriratra sacrifice was offered, the dakshina .... ; a ....... ratra sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given; a ...... tra sacrifice was offered, a dakshina ... ; a ..... sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given 1,001 cows
.......... ; a dakshina was given ..... cows ........; an Angirasamayana, of six years ....... , a dakshina was given, 1,000 cows ..... was given 1,001 cows, thirteen ........
........... a Trayoclasaratra ......... a dakshina was given, .... cows ......... a Dasaratra .... a ...... sacrifice, a dakshina was given 1001 cows....
^[28]

Right wall translation with interpolationEdit

Used for conveying a mountain of grain, 1 excellent dress, 1 horse, 1 horse-chariot, 100 kine. A second horse-sacrifice was offered; dakshina were given (consisting of) 1 horse with silver trappings, 12 golden...... an(other) dakshina was given (consisting of) 14,000 (?) Karshapanas, 1 village . . elephant, a dakshina was given
....cows, the cart used for conveying a mountain of grain..... an..... Ovaya sacrifice.......... 17 milch cows (?)....
........ 17 ....... presents to the spectators were given.... a dakshina was given (consisting of) 12..... 1 (set of) silver ornaments for them, an(other) dakshina was given consisting of 10,000 Karshapanas............
..... 20,000(?) cows ; a Bhagala-Dasharatha sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given (consisting of) 10,001 cows; a Gargatriratra sacrifice was offered ...... the presents to the spectators and menials (consisted of) 301 dresses; a Gavamayana was offered, a dakshinawas given (consisting of) 1,101 cows, a .... sacrifice, the dakshina (consisted of) 1,100 (?) cows, the presents to the spectators and menials (consisted of) . . Karshapanas, 100 dresses; an Aptoryama sacrifice (was offered).....
..... ;a Gavamayana sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given (consisting of) 1,101 cows; an Angirasamayana sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given (of) 1,101 cows; (a dakshina) was given (consisting of) 1,101 cows; a Satatirata sacrifice ...... 100 ......... ; ......sacrifice was offered, the dakshina (consisted of) 1,100 cows; an Angirasatriratra sacrifice was offered; the dakshina (consisted of) .... cows ....
........ 1,002 cows; a Chhandomapavamanatriratra sacrifice was offered, the dakshina .... ; a ....... ratra sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given; a ...... tra sacrifice was offered, a dakshina ... ; a ..... sacrifice was offered, a dakshina was given (consisting of) 1,001 cows
.......... ; a dakshina was given (consisting of) ..... cows ........; an Angirasamayana, of six years (duration) ....... , a dakshina was given, (consisting of) 1,000 cows ..... (a sacrificial fee) was given (consisting of) 1,001 cows, thirteen ........
........... a Trayoclasaratra ......... a dakshina was given, (consisting of) .... cows ......... a Dasaratra .... a ...... sacrifice, a dakshina was given (consisting of) 1001 cows....
^[29]

Back wall relief and namesEdit

Back wall with missing images and small inscriptions.

The back wall of the cave has a niche with eight life-size relief sculptures. These sculptures are gone, but they had Brahmi script inscriptions above them that help identify them.^[21]

Raya Simuka - Satavahano sirimato
Devi-Nayanikaya rano cha
Siri-Satakanino
Kumaro Bhaya ........
(unclear)
Maharathi Tranakayiro.
Kumaro Hakusiri
Kumaro Satavahano

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Reception and significanceEdit

The Nanaghat inscription has been a major finding. According to Georg Bühler, it "belongs to the oldest historical documents of Western India, are in some respects more interesting and important than all other cave inscriptions taken together".^[15]^[24]

The inscription mentions both Balarama (Samkarshana) and Krishna (Vasudeva), along with the Vedic deities of Indra, Surya, Chandra, Yama, Varuna and Kubera.^[11] This provided the link between Vedic tradition and the Vaishnava-Hinduism tradition.^[30]^[31]^[32] Given it is inscribed in stone and dated to 1st-century BCE, it also linked the religious thought in the post-Vedic centuries in late 1st millennium BCE with those found in the unreliable highly variant texts such as the Puranas dated to later half of the 1st millennium CE. The inscription is a reliable historical record, providing a name and floruit to the Satavahana dynasty.^[11]^[31]^[10]

1911 sketch of numerals history in ancient India, with the Nanaghat inscription shapes.

The Nanghat inscriptions have been important to the study of history of numerals.^[8] Though damaged, the inscriptions mention numerals in at least 30 places.^[33] They present the world's oldest known numeration symbols for "2, 4, 6, 7, and 9" that resemble modern era numerals, particularly the modern Nagari script.^[5]^[34] The numeral values used in the Naneghat cave confirm that the point value had not developed in India by the 1st century BCE.^[7]^[35]

The inscription is also evidence and floruit that Vedic ideas were revered in at least the northern parts of the Deccan region before the 1st-century BCE. They confirm that Vedic srauta sacrifices remained in vogue among the royal families through at least the 1st-century BCE.^[30]^[6] The Naneghat cave is also evidence that Hindu dynasties had sponsored sculptures by the 1st-century BCE, and secular life-size murti (pratima) tradition was already in vogue by then.^[10]^[36]^{[note 6]}

NotesEdit

^ Variously translated to "Success" or "Om adoration"".^[23]^[24]
^ Samkarshana and Vasudeva are synonyms for Balarama and Krishna.^[25]
^ Kumaravarasa translated to "royal princes" or "Kartikeya".^[18]^[25]
^ Buhler states that its translation is uncertain, can be either "who gave a most excellent image of a snake deity" or "who gave a most excellent image of an elephant deity" or "who gave a boon of a snake or elephant deity".^[23]
^ variously translated as "sacrificial fee" or "donation".^[18]^[11]
^ The eight statues were missing when William Sykes visited the cave in 1833.

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ReferencesEdit

^ ^a ^b ^c Georg Bühler 1883, pp. 53-54.
^ Theo Damsteegt 1978, p. 206, Quote: "A Hinduist inscription that is written in MIA dialect is found in a Nanaghat cave. In this respect, reference may also be made to a MIA inscription on a Vaishnava image found near the village Malhar in Madhya Pradesh which dates back to about the same age as the Nanaghat inscription."; see also page 321 note 19.
^ ^a ^b Richard Salomon 1998, p. 144.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Upinder Singh 2008, pp. 381-384.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Development Of Modern Numerals And Numeral Systems: The Hindu-Arabic system, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Quote: "The 1, 4, and 6 are found in the Ashoka inscriptions (3rd century bce); the 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9 appear in the Nana Ghat inscriptions about a century later; and the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 in the Nasik caves of the 1st or 2nd century CE — all in forms that have considerable resemblance to today’s, 2 and 3 being well-recognized cursive derivations from the ancient = and ≡."
^ ^a ^b Carla Sinopilo 2001, pp. 168-169.
^ ^a ^b David E. Smith 1978, pp. 65-68.
^ ^a ^b Norton 2001, pp. 175-176.
^ ^a ^b Lenyadri Group of Caves, Junnar, Archaeological Survey of India
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Vincent Lefèvre (2011). Portraiture in Early India: Between Transience and Eternity. BRILL Academic. pp. 33, 85–86. ISBN 978-9004207356.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Charles Allen 2017, pp. 169-170.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Shobhana Gokhale 2004, pp. 239-260.
^ Charles Allen 2017, p. 170.
^ John Malcolm and W. H. Sykes (1837), Inscriptions from the Boodh Caves, near Joonur, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 4, No. 2, Cambridge University Press, pages 287-291
^ ^a ^b Georg Bühler 1883, p. 59.
^ Charles Allen 2017, pp. 169-172.
^ Theo Damsteegt 1978, p. 206.

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^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Georg Bühler 1883, pp. 59-64.
^ Bhagavanlal Indraji (1878). Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Asiatic Society of Bombay. pp. 303–314.
^ D.C. Sircar 1965, p. 184.
^ ^a ^b Upinder Singh 2008, pp. 382-384
^ Charles Higham (2009). Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. Infobase Publishing. p. 299. ISBN 9781438109961.
^ ^a ^b Georg Bühler 1883, pp. 59-64 with footnotes.
^ ^a ^b Mirashi 1981, p. 231.
^ ^a ^b Mirashi 1981, pp. 232.
^ Report On The Elura Cave Temples And The Brahmanical And Jaina Caves In Western India by Burgess [1]
^ Report On The Elura Cave Temples And The Brahmanical And Jaina Caves In Western India by Burgess [2]
^ Report On The Elura Cave Temples And The Brahmanical And Jaina Caves In Western India by Burgess [3]
^ Report On The Elura Cave Temples And The Brahmanical And Jaina Caves In Western India by Burgess [4]
^ ^a ^b Joanna Gottfried Williams (1981). Kalādarśana: American Studies in the Art of India. BRILL Academic. pp. 129–130. ISBN 90-04-06498-2.
^ ^a ^b Mirashi 1981, pp. 131-134.
^ Edwin F. Bryant (2007). Krishna: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press. pp. 18 note 19. ISBN 978-0-19-972431-4.
^ Bhagvanlal Indraji (1876), On Ancient Nagari Numeration; from an Inscription at Naneghat, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 12, pages 404-406
^ Anne Rooney (2012). The History of Mathematics. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-1-4488-7369-2.
^ Stephen Chrisomalis (2010). Numerical Notation: A Comparative History. Cambridge University Press. pp. 189–190. ISBN 978-1-139-48533-3.
^ Vidya Dehejia (2008). The Body Adorned: Sacred and Profane in Indian Art. Columbia University Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-231-51266-4.