Reading inscriptions and dates
This path follows the Learn course, from how an inscription is put together to the scripts, numbers and dates you will meet. It has 14 pages and takes about 3 hours to read, longer if you do the exercises.
- ThemesInscriptions & sources
How we know: inscriptions, coins, travellers' accounts, the Mackenzie kaifiyats and archives.
- LearnLearn to read inscriptions
What the course covers: scripts, letters and numbers, dates and eras, and the parts of an inscription.
- LearnHow an inscription is built
The set pattern most inscriptions follow, from the opening blessing to the closing curse.
- LearnWhat inscriptions were written on
What inscriptions were written on: rock, pillars, copper plates, caskets and palm leaves.
- LearnLetters, vowel signs and conjuncts
How a Telugu syllable is built, with a worked reading of the Hanamkonda inscription.
- LearnNumbers in inscriptions
The three ways inscriptions write numbers, with real numerals to read.
- LearnThe Telugu-Kannada script through the centuries
How the letters changed from Asoka's Brahmi to modern Telugu, and how to use the changes to date a record.
- LearnBrahmi and Prakrit: the oldest writing
How to recognise Brahmi and the Bhattiprolu alphabet, with an Amaravati inscription to read.
- LearnSanskrit charters and the Nagari script
How Sanskrit replaced Prakrit in royal grants, and how to recognise Nagari and Nandinagari.
- LearnTamil and Grantha
How to tell Tamil and Grantha from Telugu-Kannada, with a Tamil boundary clause to read.
- LearnKalinga script and Odia
The Kalinga script of the Eastern Ganga plates and the Odia records of Simhachalam, Srikurmam and Mukhalingam.
- LearnPersian and Arabic inscriptions
How the Persian and Arabic inscriptions of Golconda and Hyderabad are laid out, and their scripts.
- LearnReading dates: eras, the sixty-year cycle and regnal years
How to turn Saka years, the sixty named years, months, fortnights and tithis into Common Era dates.
- LearnHijri, Fasli and chronograms
How to convert Hijri and Fasli years and read chronograms.