Rudradaman I issued the Junagadh rock inscription in Sanskrit around 150 CE.
Rudradaman was a powerful ruler of the Western Kshatrapas, a dynasty of Saka origin that controlled parts of western India. His inscription is carved near Girnar hill at Junagadh in Gujarat and records repairs to the Sudarshana Lake and its irrigation works after severe damage caused by floods.
The record is historically important because it describes water-management projects reaching back to the Mauryan period. It mentions the reservoir’s construction under Chandragupta Maurya and later work during the reign of Ashoka. It therefore preserves more than royal praise: it also documents public works, political succession, and regional administration.
The inscription is famous in the history of Indian languages because it is one of the earliest long inscriptions written in fairly standard Sanskrit prose. Earlier major inscriptions, including Ashoka’s edicts on the same rock, were generally written in Prakrit. The rock later received another inscription associated with Gupta emperor Skandagupta, making the site a layered record of western Indian history.