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HAMPA NAGARAJAIH: EPIGRAPHIA JAINIKA
d.
Fixing the date of undated inscriptions is a challenge to epigraphists. There are quite a good number of Jaina charters having no date at all. The only possible alternative is to explore avenues leading to the clue. Usually epigraphists fix the date, under such peculiar circumstances, on the basis of palaeography of the record. But recent research has confirmed that even the palaeographic assessment may not be always 100% correct. Moreover, editors like myself, may not have an easy access to the original estampage. Albeit, an attempt is made, and no effort is spared to reach a date nearer to the original record.
Scope of the Work:
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The Epigraphia Jainica has an unlimited scope. The students of archaeology, history, religion, culture, linguistics and literature, will find this corpus more useful for further studies. The material will be of immense help in the reconstruction of a more comprehensive ancient history of Karnataka in particular and of India in general. For the students of culture, this corpus of Epigraphia Jainica provides an opportunity to study the phenomena of diffusion of culture and civilization with its localized features.
Language of the Jaina Inscriptions :
We encounter linguistic hyperglossia. Most of the Jaina inscriptions, under the present survey, are in Kannada and some are in Sanskrit. Vernacular transformation, as the literary language against Sanskrit's highly marked cosmopolitan status, needs as in extenso discussion. Sanskrit epigraphs, issued from royal courts, served more as expressions of the political trends. Sanskrit inscriptions generally reveal the flavour of literary language. The Aihole inscription of Jaina poet Ravikirti (C.E. 634) is the most famous political poetry of the Bādāmi Calukyas. It is singular because it provided a model for many a later charters. A similar fascination, with publicly displaying the most sophisticated forms of royal poetry, seized the minds of royal elites and the bards in the court. Many Jaina charters thoroughly infused with the idiom, intelligence, and socio-political imagination.
The Sanskrit charters always had limited elite audience revolving round the royal courts and temple sites. Many inscriptions are placed
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