HYDERABAD: In a new development, epigraphists have confirmed that stone inscription excavated in Phanigiri, an ancient Buddhist site in Tirumalagiri mandal of Suryapet district, is the oldest Sanskrit inscription written in Brahmi script found in southern India.
A fragment of the inscription on a white marble stone was among the artifacts found during a series of excavations done at Phanigiri between 2003 and 2006. Recently, Dr K Munirathnam Reddy, Director (Epigraphy), Archaeological Survey of India, decoded the inscription and explained that Telangana now attains prominence as the State to have South India’s oldest Sanskrit inscription.
A similar inscription was found at Chebrolu in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh last year, which was then believed to be the oldest one. That inscription was issued by the 28th Satavahana ruler Vijaya, who had ruled the empire in the 3rd century AD.
The fragment of stone discovered in Phanigiri where only three lines can be seen, records the reign of Sivasri Satakarni, the 25th ruler of the Satavahana dynasty, and also describes him as the son of Vasishthiputra Pulumavi II.
“Though the exact period of his rule is debatable, it has been established that Sivasri ruled before Vijaya. The Phanigiri inscription must have been issued decades before the Chebrolu inscription,” observes historian and epigraphist Dr Surya Kumar.
Sanskrit emerged in Hala period
Interestingly, though no Sanskrit inscription was found from the period before that in the south, there were inferences drawn by archaeologists from inscriptions of the time, that ‘Sanskritisation’ had happened during the rule of Hala, the 17th king of Satavahana dynasty in the 1st century AD.
THREE-LINE INSCRIPTION
The fragment of stone discovered in Phanigiri where only three lines can be seen, records the reign of Sivasri Satakarni, the 25th ruler of the Satavahana dynasty, and also describes him as the son of Vasishthiputra Pulumavi II