Towards the edition of a new collection of administrative letters and documents from pre-modern South Asia (2024–2027)
The project will pave the ground for accessing a comprehensive collection of administrative documents and letters from pre-modern India. A preliminary study of the format, terminology, and content of these documents will create the conditions for the future complete edition of the collection. In order to evaluate its importance for the social, economic, and cultural history of the Indian North-West, the project will also cover other so far understudied fields: For the first time, inscriptions and manuscripts written in the Proto-Śāradā script will be systematically collected, studied and used for creating a reliable paleography of the Proto-Śāradā script in the different periods and spaces of its use. The envisaged revision of the entire inscriptional corpus will provide a comprehensive edition of Proto-Śāradā inscriptions that represent an important source for the history of the Indian North-West in the 6th to 10th c. CE. Written objects will be consequently studied with regard to their material and historical contexts. This will result in a better understanding of the so far obscure history and development of Shahi cultures.
