Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s6.t1.1

c20.s6.t1.1

The most outstanding discovery in this period comes from Jambai,¹ a small village on the north bank of the South Pennar river near the town of Tirukkoyilur in Viluppuram District. There are two caves on the hill (Fig. 1.11) to the east of the village, one of them (Fig. 1.12) with a Tamil-Brāhmī inscription, which is exceptionally well preserved as it is engraved on the rear rock wall deep inside the cave. Selvaraj, a young trainee student in the TNSA, stumbled on the inscription in October 1981 during a routine field survey. He informed Nagaswamy, Director of Archaeology, who deciphered the inscription and announced the discovery through a couple of newspaper articles.²