Epigraphia Carnatica
The digital library of Tuebingen university has many volumes of Epigraphia Carnatica, a very important book series that is related to Karnataka and Kannada language. In this post I am introducing those digital scans.
Epigraphia Carnatica is a set of books (now in public domain) on the epigraphy of the Old Mysore region of India. Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions. It is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the writing and the writers.
Epigraphia Carnatica is compiled and published by B. Lewis Rice (Benjamin Lewis Rice), the great archaeologist. He was the Director of the Mysore Archaeological Department from 1885 to 1906. B. Lewis Rice is the son of Rev. Benjamin Holt Rice who was associated with the London Missionary Society (LMS). The Rice Memorial Church, located at Avenue Road, Bangalore is named after Rev. Benjamin Holt Rice. (I have seen this church many times when ever I pass through the busy Avenue road. Today only I came to know that this Church is connected to the great archaeologist B.Lewis Rice.)
Over a period of about ten years between 1894 and 1905, B.Lewis Rice published Epigraphia Carnatica in a set of twelve volumes. This was a monumental work. The books contain the study of about 9000 inscriptions from stone surfaces and copper plates, which were found in the Old Mysore region. In Epigraphia Carnatica, apart from the original inscription, an English translation and a Roman transliteration are also provided. The inscriptions that B.Lewis Rice documented were in Kannada, Sanskrit, Telugu, and Tamil languages.
The twelve original volumes of “Epigraphia Carnatica” were:
- Inscriptions in Coorg
- Inscriptions in Sravanabelagola
- Inscriptions in the Mysore district, Part I
- Inscriptions in the Mysore district, Part II
- Inscriptions in the Hassan district
- Inscriptions in the Kadur district
- Inscriptions in the Shimoga district, Part I
- Inscriptions in the Shimoga district, Part II
- Inscriptions in the Bangalore district
- Inscriptions in the Kolar district
- Inscriptions in the Chitaldroog district
- Inscriptions in the Tumkur district
After B.Lewis Rice retired, his successors, R. Narasimhachar, M. H. Krishna and others continued the work of discovering of new inscriptions and documenting about it. Many supplementary volumes came after B.Lewis Rice’s 12th volume. The original editions went out of print soon. So in 1972, the Department of Kannada at Mysore University undertook the task of reprinting the volumes, but could bring out only six volumes.
Read more about B. Lewis Rice and Epigraphia Carnatica in the following wikipedia articles.
Tuebingen University has collected the various volumes of Epigraphia Carnatica from various European universities, digitized and released it for the use of general public. The following section provide links to 20 various volumes of Epigraphia Carnatica. Hope research community will make use of this.
Since the Tuebingen University has provided high quality raw scans, the file size of all the volumes are large. To reduce the file size some post processing work need to be done using the tools like Scan Tailor. But for that volunteers need to come forward. Till then it is better to use the online reading option instead of direct download. If you prefer to download, better use good broadband connection.
Hyperlinks to the digital scans
Scan 1: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 1: Inscriptions in Coorg (Kodagu), 1972 reprint.
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 1, 1972 reprint: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (43 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (159 MB)
Scan 2: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 2: Inscriptions in Sravanabelagola, 1973 reprint.
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 2, 1973 reprint: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (138 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (469 MB)
Scan 3: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 3: Inscriptions in the Mysore district (part I), 1894
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 3 (part 1): Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (163 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (545 MB)
Scan 4: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 3: Inscriptions in the Mysore district, 1974 reprint
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 3, 1974 reprint: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (203 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (675 MB)
Scan 5: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 4: Inscriptions in the Mysore district (part II), 1898
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 4 (part II): Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (194 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (638 MB)
Scan 6: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 5: Inscriptions in the Hassan district (part I), 1902
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 5 (part 1): Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (161 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (536 MB)
Scan 7: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 5: Inscriptions in the Hassan district (part II), 1905
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 5 (part II): Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (110 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (376 MB)
Scan 8: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 6: Inscriptions in the Kadur district, 1901
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 6: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (174 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (598 MB)
Scan 9: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 6: Inscriptions in the Mandya district: 1977 (reprint)
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 6: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (214 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (837 MB)
Scan 10: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 7: Inscriptions in the Shimoga district (part I): 1902
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 7: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (248 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (833 MB)
Scan 11: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 8: Inscriptions in the Shimoga district (part II): 1904
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 7: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (277 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (921 MB)
Scan 12: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 7 and 8: Supplementary inscriptions in the Shimoga district, 1970
- Profile page of the scan of Supplimentary to Volume 7 and 8: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (13 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (49 MB)
Scan 13: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 9: Inscriptions in the Bangalore district, 1905
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 9: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (177 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (552 MB)
Scan 14: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 10: Inscriptions in the Kolar district, 1905
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 10: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (119 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (382 MB)
Scan 15: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 11: Inscriptions in the Chitaldroog district, 1905
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 11: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (184 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (644 MB)
Scan 16: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 12: Inscriptions in the Tumkur district, 1904
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 12: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (161 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (544 MB)
Scan 17: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 14: Supplementary inscriptions in the Mysore and Mandya districts, 1943
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 14: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (119 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (409 MB)
Scan 18: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 15: Supplementary inscriptions in the Hasan district, 1943
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 15: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (58 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (206 MB)
Scan 19: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 16: Supplementary inscriptions in the Tumkur district, 1955
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 16: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (50 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (176 MB)
Scan 20: Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 17: Supplementary inscriptions in the Kolar district, 1965
- Profile page of the scan of Volume 16: Link
- Online reading: Link
- Download link: Low resolution – Color scan (64 MB)
- Download link: High resolution – Color scan (229 MB)
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