Which of the following statements are TRUE regarding the limitations of inscriptional evidence in India?
A. Letters of some inscriptions are very faintly engraved.
B. Routine agricultural practices and joys and sorrows of daily existence were recorded in all inscriptions.
C. Several thousand inscriptions have been discovered and all have been deciphered, published and translated.
D. Some inscriptions may be damaged or have letters missing.
E. It is not always easy to be sure about the exact meaning of the words used in inscriptions.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → A, D, E only
A. Letters of some inscriptions are very faintly engraved. Correct. This is a technical limitation: where letters are very faintly engraved, reconstructions are uncertain.
B. Routine agricultural practices and joys and sorrows of daily existence were recorded in all inscriptions. Incorrect. Routine agricultural practices and the joys and sorrows of daily existence find no mention in inscriptions, which focus, more often than not, on grand, unique events.
C. Several thousand inscriptions have been discovered and all have been deciphered, published and translated. Incorrect. Several thousand inscriptions have been discovered, but not all have been deciphered, published and translated.
D. Some inscriptions may be damaged or have letters missing. Correct. This is another technical limitation: inscriptions may be damaged or letters missing.
E. It is not always easy to be sure about the exact meaning of the words used in inscriptions. Correct. Some words may be specific to a particular place or time, and scholars are constantly debating alternative ways of reading inscriptions.
NCERT (2026-27): “8. The Limitations of Inscriptional Evidence … By now it is probably evident that there are limits to what epigraphy can reveal. Sometimes, there are technical limitations: letters are very faintly engraved, and thus reconstructions are uncertain. Also, inscriptions may be damaged or letters missing. Besides, it is not always easy to be sure about the exact meaning of the words used in inscriptions, some of which may be specific to a particular place or time. If you go through an epigraphical journal (some are listed in Timeline 2), you will realise that scholars are constantly debating and discussing alternative ways of reading inscriptions. Although several thousand inscriptions have been discovered, not all have been deciphered, published and translated. Besides, many more inscriptions must have existed, which have not survived the ravages of time. So what is available at present is probably only a fraction of what was inscribed. There is another, perhaps more fundamental, problem: not everything that we may consider politically or economically significant was necessarily recorded in inscriptions. For instance, routine agricultural practices and the joys and sorrows of daily existence find no mention in inscriptions, which focus, more often than not, on grand, unique events.…” |