Self-Representation and Presentation of Others in Indic Epigraphical Writing

Self-Representation and Presentation of Others in Indic Epigraphica Writing, edited by Daniel Balogh and Annette Schmiedchen, investigates the representation of public personages in inscribed texts from South Asia, focusing on political ideology and patronage policy. Most of the papers are based on talks presented at the 34th Deutsche Orientalistentag held in Berlin in September 2022, during the panel of the same name organized by the Berlin team of the European Research Council project DHARMA. Most of the subcontinent's pre-modern epigraphs are official documents of a certain kind, namely public inscriptions on stone and deeds of donation on copper plates. These texts often contain panegyric passages in which the kings and their dynasties, the benefactors and their families as well as religious figures and their lineage are described. In most cases, eulogies to rulers and their ancestors are not factual "self-representation", yet they convey an image of authenticity and authority. The sources also contain "presentation of others," in particular of subordinates, overlords and adversaries. The contributors have paid particular attention to rivalries within and between dynasties as well as to the comparison of the rulers' self-representation with the depiction in the records of their adversaries. They also examine the presentation of religious figures and the relationship between overlords and their subordinates.