Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s6.1

c20.s6.1

During the last two decades, eleven more cave inscriptions have been discovered, out of which eight are from six new sites⁶ and three from two known sites.⁷ Many of the recent discoveries have been made by the younger epigraphists of the TNSA, who are familiar with the terrain and have acquired remarkable proficiency in reading the Tamil-Brāhmī script.⁸ Only one of the inscriptions has been illustrated with estampage in the *ARE*.⁹ However, estampages of all other newly discovered inscriptions have been promptly published by the scholars who made the discoveries or who have read the inscriptions – a welcome new development in the field.