Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s10.1

c21.s10.1

The cave inscriptions are engraved on uneven, rough and badly weathered rock without any prior dressing of the surface. Estampages (inked impressions) show up pits, depressions and faults on the rock surface, creating a babel of background 'noise' which almost drowns the 'information' of the inscriptions. Except in cases where the inscriptions happen to be favourably located, the estampages tend to be virtually illegible. It is even more difficult to make out the texts from photographs of such estampages, given the scale of reduction, the quality of the photographs and reproduction in print. The earlier attempts to decipher the cave inscriptions were unsuccessful largely due to reliance on unsatisfactory estampages and photographs. This is also the reason why many important inscriptions including a Pāṇṭiya inscription from Mangulam and a Cēra inscription from Pugalur remained unpublished for long periods of time.