By Prof.A.V. Narasimha Murthy
Recently I had the good fortune of sharing the dais with Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the scion of Mysore royal family. The occasion was the inauguration of Epigraphical photo gallery, arranged by the office of the Director of Epigraphy which is located at Puratattva Bhavan near Sankranti Circle, Hebbal Second Stage. In fact, it is a good opportunity for our culture-minded youngsters to visit this office and learn about our great heritage. The whole credit should go to the present Director Dr. Muniratnam Reddy, popularly known as Muni which means a sage. He is wedded to epigraphy or inscriptions and in this sense, he is a real Muni. Yaduveer had worn a suit befitting the occasion and had diamond earrings, a symbol of royalty. He had vermillion (Kumkum) on his forehead - an evidence for his love for tradition. I released the brochure on Epigraphical photo gallery. Then Yaduveer spoke about epigraphy as an important source for understanding the history and culture of India. The audience was amazed at his knowledge of our heritage in general and epigraphy in particular. He referred to James Prinsep who was the first to take interest in reading Brahmi script. The romance of this decipherment reads like a novel in Indian Cultural history. Prinsep noticed some bi-lingual and bi-scriptal coins with Greek and Brahmi Writings (legends) and thus the whole vista of epigraphy became an open book. From then onwards thousands of inscriptions have been deciphered and published by this Department. I had written a book — Kannada Lipiya Ugama Mattu Vikasa (Origin and Evolution of Kannada Script) which has seen over eight editions and has bagged many awards. Incidentally it is the first publication of Kuvempu Institute of Kannada Studies, University of Mysore. The Department of Epigraphy had illustrious officers like Dr. Hultzch a great German scholar. He was the first Government epigraphist and held this post with distinctions till 1903. Then came V. Venkayya who unfortunately passed away in 1912. The next scholar was H. Krishna Sastry, followed by Hirananda Sastry, K. V. Subramanya Aiyer, A. S. Ramanatha Aiyer, C. R. Krishnamacharlu, N. Lakshminarayana Rao, R. S. Panehamukhi, P. B. Desai, Dr. Chhabra, D. C. Sircar, Dr. Govindaswami Rao Gai, (who was my neighbour in Jayalakshmipuram), K. G. Krishnan, Pandit V. S. Subramanian, B. R. Gopal, K. V. Ramesh, M. N. Katti and happily S. H. Ritti, M. D. Sampath and K. M. Bhadri are with us. The Epigraphy branch was bifurcated and Arabic and Persian which had headquarters at Nagpur had illustrious scholars like Z.A. Desai, N. M. Ganam, M. F. Khan, M. I. Qureshi and others. The most important contribution of the two branches was the publication Epigraphia Indica with Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam inscriptions and Persian epigraphy. These volumes are a store house of knowledge on Indian epigraphy. Perhaps no other state or country has had the distinction with the sole exception of Lewis Rice who edited Epigraphia Carnatica volumes and I had the good fortune of re-editing and reprinting these volumes with help of some scholars like H. M. Nagaraja Rao, Krishnaveni and others. This series is still continuing in Mysore University.
