Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s6.t1.11

c20.s6.t1.11

I became concerned about the controversy and decided to conduct an investigation *in situ*. With the co-operation of the District Collector and the Revenue authorities, I convened a meeting at Jambai on 14th December 1991, which was attended by Revenue officials and the village elders. Appavu, the village *talayāri* who along with two cowherds of the village had guided Selvaraj to the cave, testified at the meeting that they had known about the inscription since their boyhood as they used to rest in the cave when grazing their cattle nearby. And then the clinching evidence turned up. Kodumudi Shanmugam, a senior engineer of the Public Works Department and noted Tamil scholar, who attended the meeting, arranged to have the topsoil removed from the floor of both the caves. Two stone beds of the usual description associated with Tamil-Brāhmī cave inscriptions elsewhere, were discovered in the cave just opposite to the one with the inscription. The discovery put an end to the needless controversy.¹ Jambai is also known to have been a flourishing Jaina centre in later historical times.²