Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s2.t2.15

c20.s2.t2.15

The unexpected discovery of the occurrence of Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions in Kerala led to organising an expedition to the Edakal cave in October 1995 and again in February 1996.² During our first visit to the cave, we copied the Sanskrit inscription and the two Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions, all deeply engraved on the south rock wall of the cave and still in an excellent state of preservation. But in spite of intensive search we could not locate the pair of Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions reported to be engraved on the north rock wall of the cave. We had to discontinue the search as it was getting late and we had to reach the plains before darkness fell. A second visit was organised by the team in February 1996 and this time, we were equipped with exact measurements based on Fawcett's photographs of 1894-96. We were able to locate the spot ³ where the inscriptions ought to have been, but found, to our dismay, that they had been totally obliterated by the mindless vandalism of tourists who had incised their names over them on the soft rock.⁴ At present, the only source for these two inscriptions is the excellent reproduction of Hultzsch's 1897 estampage in Fawcett 1901.⁵