Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s8.t6: 1.8.6 Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions from outside Tamil Nadu
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s8.t6
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1.8.6 Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions from outside Tamil Nadu
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The Corpus includes four Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions discovered outside the present borders of Tamil Nadu, three from Kerala and one from Karnataka.
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(i) *Ezhuttukallu
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Ezhuttukallu (literally, 'inscribed stone') is a large boulder of gneiss rock jutting out from the bed of the Cherupuzha river deep inside the Nilambur forest in Malappuram District, Kerala. A two-line inscription engraved deeply in bold characters on this boulder is partly submerged under water and is fully visible only in extreme dry weather.⁵ The inscription was copied in 1958-59 by the Government Epigraphist. The Report noted that the inscription was partly submerged, described it as in "archaic Southern characters" and made an unsuccessful attempt to decipher it.⁶ Narayanan published his reading and interpretation of the inscription in 1972.⁷
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⁵ Earliest notices in W. Logan 1887: vol. II, p. 356; and C.A. Innes 1908 (1951 reprint): p. 446. These sources also describe the gold-washing operations in the Nilambur region.
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⁶ *ARE* B. 281/1958-59. I have seen the unpublished estampage of the inscription in the Directorate of Epigraphy, ASI, Mysore. It has the impression of only the upper line.
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⁷ M.G.S. Narayanan 1972: pp. 317-321 (not illustrated).
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I visited the site in October 1995 with an expert team⁸ to study the inscription *in situ*. Unfortunately, the water level in the stream was high; the lower line with just two characters was submerged (Fig. 1.18), but could be made out as the water was crystal-clear. The inscription is in Tamil written in the Early Vaṭṭeluttu characters of about the 5th century a.d. It records the existence of a dam (*aṇa*) across the stream at the place called Mācakōṭu.¹
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⁸ The team included, besides myself, M.G.S. Narayanan, M.R. Raghava Varier, S. Swaminathan (ASI), and Donald Davis (a student from the University of Wisconsin, U.S.A.).
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¹ See No. *120* illustrated by a direct photograph of the complete inscription taken in extreme dry weather in 1971 by M.G.S. Narayanan (Pl. 53).
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Figure 1.17. Erettimalai: inscribed stone-stopper.
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Figure 1.18. Ezhuttukallu: boulder (middle right) in the river bed with partly submerged inscription.
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I have suggested that the 'dam' was most probably a seasonal structure built of timber to arrest the flow of water to facilitate the gold-washing operations known to have been conducted in the past in the Nilambur region as recorded by Logan and Innes. The dam must have been abandoned in course of time when gold-washing was discontinued due to decreased availability.² The inscription is also interesting from the linguistic point of view. It provides the earliest epigraphic attestation of the pre-Malayalam form *aṇa* (LT *aṇai*) 'dam' as early as in the 5th century a.d.³
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² I. Mahadevan 1999: pp. 1-19.
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³ Ibid.
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(ii) *Edakal-B*
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As mentioned earlier, among the cave inscriptions at Edakal, Kerala, discovered by Fawcett in 1894 and copied by Hultzsch in 1897, there are two Tamil inscriptions in the Early Vaṭṭeluttu script of ca. 5th century a.d.⁴ Hultzsch made two attempts to read one of the inscriptions, but neither was wholly successful.⁵ He declared that the other inscription was "unintelligible" to him.⁶ Both inscriptions, engraved in bold characters and still in an excellent state of preservation, were copied and deciphered by our team which visited the site twice during 1995-96.⁷
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⁴ See section 1.2.2.
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⁵ In Fawcett 1901: Estampage No. 2 = *ARE 121/1897*.
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⁶ Ibid. Estampage No. 3 = *ARE 122/1897*.
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⁷ Nos. *118* & *119*. See also Fig. 8.53 (tracings) and Pl. 52 (estampages).
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(iii) *Tamatakallu*
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The brief inscription on the rim of a herostone at Tamatakallu near Chitradurga town in Karnataka is the northernmost Tamil inscription in Early Vaṭṭeluttu discovered so far.⁸ The herostone depicts three warriors in bas relief with an accompanying Sanskrit inscription in the Early Telugu-Kannada script. The Sanskrit inscription was published earlier by Rice⁹ who apparently did not notice the Vaṭṭeḷuttu inscription engraved inconspicuously on the rim of the herostone. Rajasekharappa who discovered the rim inscription has suggested plausibly that it is the signature of the Tamil mason and scribe who carved the herostone and engraved the Sanskrit inscription on it.¹⁰ This is a unique occurrence as none of the herostones found in the Tamil country have the signature of the mason or scribe on them. The Sanskrit inscription and the Tamil Vaṭṭeḷuttu inscription on the same herostone may be assigned to the beginning of the 6th century a.d. on palaeographic grounds.
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⁸ No. *121*. I. Mahadevan and S. Swaminathan 1996: pp. 9-12 (with Pl.). See also Fig. 8.54 (tracing) and Pl. 54 (estampage).
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⁹ *Epi.Car.* XI (ed. B.L. Rice), Chitaldurg, No. 42.
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¹⁰ B. Rajasekharappa 1995. Unpublished paper in Kannada; also in personal discussions when he conducted S. Swaminathan (ASI) and myself to the site in February 1996.
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[Figure: SITES OF EARLY TAMIL INSCRIPTIONS IN TAMIL NADU (Second Century B.C. - Sixth Century A.D.)]
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Map I. Sites with Early Tamil inscriptions. (Excluding Tamatakallu, Chitradurga District, Karnataka.)
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Map I A. Detail showing concentration of Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions in the Madurai region.
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| Region | Tamil-Brāhmī Inscriptions | | Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu Inscriptions | |
| | Sites | Inscriptions | Sites | Inscriptions |
| Northern | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Southern | 20 | 63 | 2 | 8 |
| Western | 5 | 21 | 3 | 4 |
| Eastern | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Total | 30 | 89 | †11 | †20 |
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† Excluding the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscription at Tamatakallu in Karnataka.
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Table 1.1. Geographical distribution of Early Tamil inscriptions in the Corpus.