Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s15.t2.3

c21.s15.t2.3

The *puḷḷi* cannot be easily located on the rough, uneven rock surfaces. It is virtually impossible to detect the *puḷḷi* from estampages or photographs. The discovery of the *puḷḷi* in the Anaimalai cave inscription by Jebarajan and Gift Siromoney in 1978 called for a response to try and locate its possible occurrence in other cave inscriptions also. The search undertaken by our team confirmed the existence of the *puḷḷi* already known at Anaimalai (No. ***60*** in the present Corpus) and Arachalur (No. ***85***), and led to the discovery of more occurrences in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions at Pugalur (Nos. ***67 & 69***), Kunnakkudi (No. ***74***), Tondur (No. ***76***) and Kudumiyamalai (No. ***77***).¹ Most of the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions included in the present Corpus depict the *puḷḷi*; but we were surprised to find them in the Tirunatharkunru and Pillaiyarpatti inscriptions published much earlier without noticing the *puḷḷi* in them. The *puḷḷi* marks at Tirunatharkunru (No. ***116***) were detected by our team by observing the inscription in oblique lighting at sunrise and again at sunset; those at Pillaiyarpatti (No. ***117***) were brought to light by scraping off the thick layer of sandal paste over the inscription on the pilaster. A preliminary report on our fieldwork to locate the *puḷḷi* in the cave inscriptions was published by me in 1992² and has been further updated in this volume.³