‘Epigraphy alone does not provide a full understanding of political and economic history.’ Justify the statement with its four limitations.

Epigraphy faces several limitations.

• Technical limitations: Faintly engraved letters make the task of reconstruction uncertain and difficult. Inscriptions may be damaged or letters missing.

• Although several thousand inscriptions have been discovered, not all have been deciphered, published and translated.

• Inscriptions have not been able to survive the ravages of time. Thus, we have only limited inscriptions.

• Not all economically and politically important things and events have been recorded in inscriptions. For instance, routine agricultural practices and the joys and sorrows of daily existence find no mention in inscriptions.