The present monograph seeks mainly to acquaint the teachers and students with important ancient Indian inscriptions discovered in the last few decades. Thought their discovery has often made a reconstruction of political and cultural history necessary, but they are usually beyond the reach of teachers and students as for their study they usually have to consult learned journals and research monographs not always easily accessible. Among such inscriptions are included the Sannati Rock Edicts of Asoka, Guntupalli inscription of Maharaja Sada, Reh Sivalinga inscription, Rabatak inscription of Kanishka I, Hunza inscriptions of the time of Deva Sri Chandra Vikramaditya, Risthal inscription of Prakasadharman Aulikara, Sanjeli inscription of Toramana, Ramtek Prabhavatigupta Memorial inscription, many other recently found Vakataka inscriptions, recently found the year 23 and Vishnuhari (Rama) Temple inscription of mid-12th century found from the Ramajanmabhumi site at Ayodhya (which proves that there existed a temple at the Ramajanmabhumi site even before the twelfth century). The present work also studies some old inscriptions and epigraphical problems with a new approach and makes new cogent suggestions for the consideration of learned scholars. Hopefully it will be found useful by the university teachers and students of epigraphy and ancient Indian history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR S R Goyal
Professor S.R. Goyal is the retired Professor and Head, Department of History, J.N.V. University, Jodhpur. Described as ‘one of the five best recent historians of ancient India’ by Professor David N. Lorenzen, the great Mexican Orientalist, Professor Goyal combines all the qualities associated with scientific scholarship. He has authored more than thirty voluminous works and over 150 research papers which cover so diverse fields as political history, religious history, literature, biographies, numismatics and epigraphy. He was honoured with the General Presidentship of the Silver Jubilee Congress of the Epigraphical Society of India held at Udupi in 1999 and was elected the Honorary fellow of the Society. His doctoral thesis, A History of the Imperial Guptas (1967), was acclaimed as ‘the best analysis of the Gupta Period which I have ever read†by Professor A.L. Basham (National Professor of Australia) and as ‘imaginative’, ‘well-written’ and ‘a model of historiography’ by Professor Eleanor Zelliot (Minnesota, U.S.A.). The varaious theories propounded in it are described by Professor R.C. Majumdar as ‘deserving very careful consideration’. Among his other major works are included three corpus-like volumes on ancient Indian inscriptions, two volumes respectively on Kautilya and Megasthenes, a three volume authoritative study of ancient Indian history in about two thousand pages, a three volume study of ancient Indian numismatics, and four volumes on great rulers of ancient India. Professor Goyal is deeply involved with the study of the history of Indian religions. Apart from the present monograph he has published two volumes entitled A Religious History of Ancient India (Vol. I, 1984; Vol. II, 1986), and Harsha and Buddhism (1986). All these works of his have been highly acclaimed and admired both in India and abroad. Professor Goyal has been honoured with several Festschrifts, including Reappraising Gupta History for S.R. Goyal (ed. By Professor B.Ch. Chhabra et al) for S.R. Goyal : His Multidimensional Historiography (ed. By Professor Jagannath Agarwal and Dr. Shankar Goyal). A four volume Festschrift in his honour entitled Sriramabhinandam (Reconstructing Indian History for S.R. Goyal) has recently been published.
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