Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s4.1

c20.s4.1

After 1918, interest in the cave inscriptions waned.⁵ During the next four decades, only five sites with seventeen inscriptions were discovered at long intervals, all of them accidentally. Only two of the newly discovered sites (Vikkiramangalam and the upper cave at Tirupparankunram) are from the southern region to which the earlier search was confined. The other three sites are Pugalur near Karur in the western region, Tiruchirapalli in the eastern region and Mamandur near Kanchipuram in the northern region. The new discoveries made by officers working under the Government Epigraphist, were routinely announced in the *ARE*,¹ and only one estampage (of the inscription from Tirupparankunram)² was published. Among the few new discoveries made during this period, the Pugalur cave inscriptions of the Cēras of the Caṅkam Age stand out. The inscription on the hill at Tiruchirapalli is no longer extant.³