There are a lot of private inscriptions and we have a record that in pre-Gupta period their number was 1,500. Some of them are to be found in the pedestal of images. The story of art and architecture would be only half told, if numerous inscriptions occurring on the monuments and sculptures are not taken into account. About the value of epigraphy as a source of ancient Indian history Dr. R. C. Majundar observes: "Our knowledge of the history of this period is mainly confined to facts such as fights and victories by individual rulers, rise and fall of the royal dynasties, perpetual shifting of boundaries of kingdom etc; derived from contemporary epigraphic records. Although these are by no means few in number, we are not always able to connect the different events and find out their relations and consequences in order to fit them into an integrated picture of the country as a whole. We get brilliant flashes, but not an unbroken outline: important and interesting opisodes. but not a continued narrative."
Some of the inscriptions found abroad have no less historical value. The Boghaz Koi inscription found in Asia Minor tells us the condition of the Aryans before their coming into India. The inscription found at Nakshi Ruttom tells us the relation between India and Iran. The reconstruction of the historical and cultural geography of the country with the help of epigraphy is a field which was totally unexplored until very recently