Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s13.28

c21.s13.28

Mayilai Seeni Venkataswamy's revised edition of the cave inscriptions appeared later as a chapter in the *History of Tamil Nadu* published by the Government of Tamil Nadu.³ 70 Tamil-Brāhmī and 2 Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions are included in this collection. A postscript to the chapter has been appended by the Expert Committee(s), adding further comments and suggesting some modifications of the revised interpretations of Venkataswamy. In this edition, tracings from the *Corpus 1966* have been replaced by what appear to be freehand drawings which are more or less in agreement with the new readings, but bear little resemblance to the original inscriptions. Even these drawings are further altered by the addition of dotted lines to bring them more in line with the proposed readings; e.g., *pāmitti* altered as *vāḻutti* and read as *vaḻuti*.⁴ Many of the readings are illusory and the interpretations far-fetched; e.g., the Anaimalai cave inscription is read and interpreted as follows:⁵