Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t3: 1.13.3 Uraiyur
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t3
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1.13.3 Uraiyur
c20.s14.t3.1
Uraiyur, now a suburb of Tiruchirapalli town on the south bank of the river Cauvery, was the most ancient capital of the Cōḻas and was a flourishing city during the Caṅkam Age. Since it has been under continuous occupation, it is highly disturbed and has very few open spaces. Excavations in limited areas at different locations were carried out by Mahalingam during 1965-69 and a report on them was published by Raman in 1988.⁵
c20.s14.t3.2
⁵ K.V. Raman (ed.) 1988.
c20.s14.t3.3
The excavations have yielded 20 inscribed sherds from Period I levels.⁶ The inscriptions, mostly fragmentary, are in Tamil and incised on black and red ware, russet-coated painted ware and red polished ware. Rouletted ware assigned to the 1st century a.d. appears in the levels immediately above the inscribed sherds. On the basis of stratigraphy, associated pottery and palaeographic evidence, the inscribed sherds are dated to the 1st century b.c.
c20.s14.t3.4
⁶ *Ibid.* chapter 5 by P. Shanmugam (pp. 69-75). See also No. 3, Table 1.5 and Fig. 1.19C in this vol.