Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s7.4

c20.s7.4

The Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions, mostly very short, are engraved on the brow of the overhanging boulders generally under the drip ledge or on the stone beds in the caves. The inscriptions, which record the gift of the rock shelters and stone beds, mention mostly the names of the donors, less commonly of the monks or nuns occupying the cave shelters and stone beds, and rarely of the stone masons who carved the drip ledges and stone beds.³ An interesting feature of many of the caves is the presence of Jaina sculptures and Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions from a later period (ca. 8th-10th centuries A.D.) ⁴