Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s2.t3: 1.2.3 Kilavalavu: the earliest reference to Tondi on the east coast
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s2.t3
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1.2.3 Kilavalavu: the earliest reference to Tondi on the east coast
c20.s2.t3.1
In 1903, Venkoba Rao discovered an inscription in "archaic characters" in a cave on the rocky outcrop at Kilavalavu, a small village about 38 km. north-east of Madurai (Fig. 1.4).³ Even though the inscription is engraved in bold and legible characters and is reasonably well-preserved, it could not be read and its significance was not recognised until much later after many similar inscriptions had come to light. Neither Venkayya⁴ nor Krishna Sastri⁵ refers to it in the Annual Reports on the discovery of the cave inscriptions up to 1909. It was only in 1910, seven years after the discovery, that the Kilavalavu cave and its inscription find a mention in Krishna Sastri's report.⁶ Even thereafter, the estampage of the inscription was not included in the large number of photographs of the cave inscriptions published in the Annual Reports during 1911-18.⁷ The correct reading of this inscription has eluded the investigators until recently probably because of the unusual manner in which it is engraved.⁸ The present Corpus includes the most recent direct reading from the stone and the interpretation based on it.⁹ The inscription is notable for the earliest reference to the port of Tondi on the east coast.
c20.s2.t3.2
³ G. Venkoba Rao: *ARE* 135 /1903 = *SII.* VIII: No. 422 = No. *10*. He also discovered another inscription in similar characters in this cave. Krishna Sastri makes a passing reference to it as "much damaged" (*ARE* 1909-10: paragraph 4). The inscription is not included in *ARE* 1903 or *SII.* VIII, but I have seen the almost completely illegible estampage (133B / 1903) in the Directorate of Epigraphy, ASI, Mysore. During my visits to the cave, I have not been able to locate this inscription which seems to have been completely eroded as it was engraved above the drip ledge.
c20.s2.t3.3
⁴ *ARE 1906-07*: (paragraphs 1-5) and 1907-08 (paragraphs 1-7).
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⁵ *ARE 1908-09*: (paragraphs 1-9).
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⁶ *ARE 1909-10*: (paragraph 4).
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⁷ The estampage was first published in T.V. Mahalingam 1967: Pl. 7.
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⁸ The inscription is engraved from right to left and with most (but not all) of the characters turned upside down. See section 5.8 (Direction of writing) for discussion on this peculiar feature found at Kilavalavu and a few other caves.
c20.s2.t3.8
⁹ No. *10* is a revised version of my earlier attempt in the *Corpus of the Tamil-Brāhmī Inscriptions 1966* (1968): No. 9). See also Fig. 8.8 (tracing) and Pl. 8 (estampage).