Inscriptions of the Vijayanagara Rulers ed. Shrinivas Ritti

Vijayanagara Inscriptions

The rulers of the last great Empire of Peninsular India, the Vijayanagara Raya, issued a large number of inscriptions both on Copper Plates as well as on lithic surfaces. It has been estimated that between 1336 and 1565 when the Empire virtually collapsed following the cataclysmic defeat at Talikota, the Empire issued nearly 25,000 inscriptions. A large number of the Vijayanagara inscriptions are in the vernacular languages leading to the suspicion that Vijayanagara presented itself as a "local" ruler in distant localities by propagating Inscriptions in the local languages. The conflict between Tamil and Sanskrit, a product of the identity battles of the twentieth century was virtually unknown during the Vijayanagara period. The volume under review contains the texts of 241 inscriptions issued in the period under discussion by all four dynasties of Vijayanagara.

The Southern Regional Centre of the Indian Council of Historical Research, Bangalore, has embarked upon this ambitious project of compiling all the known Vijayanagara Inscriptions. So far VI volumes have been published making Vijayanagara more accessible to historians. An interesting feature of Vijayanagara Epigraphy which has not received the attention it deserves is the frequent use of local scripts for inscribing Sanskrit inscriptions and simultaneously using Nandinagari script for incising inscriptions in regional/local/vernacular languages.  This fact suggests that the Empires of medieval India had a more inclusive attitude towards languages compared to the identity infused bedlam that we notice today. Another interesting feature is that sanskrit was not projected during the late medieval period as the language of the "elite". All this suggests that modern Indian approaches to medieval history in particular and history in general are marinated in identity controversies that have their roots only in the twentieth century.  Vijayanagara provides us a fascinating glimpse into a complex realm in which languages coexisted in an atmosphere of mutual respect and interaction.

This book like the others in the series has collected all the published inscriptions and has provided a short summary of each inscription along with other details. It will be useful to historians working on Vijayanagara history.