Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s2.t2.10

c20.s2.t2.10

One would have expected that the announcement by Hultzsch of the discovery of inscriptions in 'cave characters' not known till then to occur in the Tamil country (including the Kerala region) would have aroused the curiosity of other investigators to examine the unread inscriptions. What happened thereafter is an incredible story of long neglect and the eventual loss of the two earliest inscriptions at Edakal.⁷ During the next century, that is, between 1897 when Hultzsch had the estampages taken and 1995-96 when our team visited Edakal, there is no record of any attempt to read the inscriptions. In course of time, the inscriptions fell into total oblivion as there is virtually no mention of them in any later epigraphical publications.⁸