Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s8.t6.12

c20.s8.t6.12

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