Limitations of inscriptional evidence
Topic: Studying Indian History: Sources, Dating and Historiography · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"
Meaning
Inscriptions are valuable, but they have clear limits as evidence.
- Technical limits: Letters may be faint or damaged, and some words had meanings tied to one place or time. Experts often argue over different readings. Many inscriptions are still not deciphered, published or translated, and many more are lost.
- Content limits: Inscriptions record grand events and almost never everyday farming or people's joys and sorrows. They show only the view of the person who ordered them.
- Reach: Most people could not read, so it is unclear how many understood the edicts or followed them.
For all these reasons, inscriptions must be read alongside other sources.
Example
In his inscriptions, Asoka expresses deep sorrow over the Kalinga war: 150,000 people deported, 100,000 killed and many more dead. Yet this message is not found in the conquered region of Orissa itself. The ruler decided what each audience would read.
Don't confuse with
- Undeciphered script: the Harappan script cannot be read at all, so it gives no written history. Inscriptional limits apply to records we can read but that tell only part of the story.