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Photo: Chetan Karkhanis · CC BY-SA 3.0
Inscription · c. 1st century BCE

Naneghat inscription of Queen Naganika

Found
A rock-cut hall at the Naneghat pass on the old trade road from Junnar down to the Konkan, Pune district
Kept at
In place in the cave

The Satavahana queen Naganika, widow of Satakarni I, records the Vedic sacrifices her husband performed and the fees he gave.

What it says

It opens with salutations to Dharma, Indra, Sankarshana and Vasudeva, Chandra and Surya, and the guardians Yama, Varuna, Kubera and Vasava. Then it lists the yajnas: two Ashvamedhas, a Rajasuya, Agnyadheya and others, with dakshina counted in thousands of cows, horses, elephants and karshapanas. Its numerals are among the earliest Brahmi numerals known.

What it proves

It shows a Deccan dynasty performing the great Shrauta sacrifices and honouring Vasudeva in the 1st century BCE, and preserves an early form of the Indian numerals.

Evidence for

Satavahana dynasty

Satavahana Vedic sacrifices

Evidence

Boğazköy treaty naming Mitra, Varuna, Indra and the NasatyasInscription
c. 1380 BCE

Boğazköy treaty naming Mitra, Varuna, Indra and the Nasatyas

A treaty between the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I and Shattiwaza, prince of Mitanni in north Syria, sworn before the gods of both kingdoms. Among the Mitanni gods stand four names any Vedic priest would know.

Behistun inscription of Darius IInscription
c. 520 BCE

Behistun inscription of Darius I

The Persian king Darius I tells, in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, how he took the throne and which lands obeyed him. Gandhara is on the list.

Kandahar bilingual edict of AshokaInscription
c. 258 BCE (ten years after Ashoka’s abhisheka)

Kandahar bilingual edict of Ashoka

Ashoka’s message of dhamma, carved in Greek and Aramaic for the Greek and Persian-speaking subjects at the western edge of his empire.

Edicts of AshokaInscription
c. 268–232 BCE

Edicts of Ashoka

Fourteen major rock edicts, minor rock edicts and seven pillar edicts in which the Maurya emperor speaks in his own voice, as Devanampiya Piyadasi.

Kalinga edicts at Dhauli and JaugadaInscription
c. 3rd century BCE

Kalinga edicts at Dhauli and Jaugada

In conquered Kalinga, Ashoka left out the thirteenth rock edict, which mourns the war, and carved two separate edicts addressed to his officers there instead.

Sohgaura copper plateInscription
Maurya period, c. 3rd century BCE

Sohgaura copper plate

A small bronze-copper plate in early Brahmi, issued by the officials of Shravasti, cast with symbols of storehouses above the text.

Hathigumpha inscription of KharavelaInscription
c. 2nd–1st century BCE

Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela

Seventeen lines in Prakrit and Brahmi recording, year by year, the reign of Kharavela, the Jain emperor of Kalinga.

Heliodorus pillar, BesnagarInscription
c. 113 BCE

Heliodorus pillar, Besnagar

A stone Garuda-dhvaja raised to Vasudeva by Heliodorus, a Greek envoy from Takshashila, at the court of King Bhagabhadra.