Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s3.1

c21.s3.1

Krishna Sastri made the next attempt to read the cave inscription at Sittannavasal,⁶ but admitted that he was not able to suggest any possible interpretation of the inscription.⁷ However, his tentative reading illustrates another characteristic of the Tamil cave inscriptions, namely, that even where the writing is bold, clear and exceptionally well-preserved as in this case, the text is almost wholly unintelligible. We know now that Krishna Sastri could not have succeeded in reading the inscription as the clues to a correct understanding of the script were yet to be discovered. However, Krishna Sastri had already started moving away from Venkayya's position and, adopting a more cautious approach, declared that the language of the cave inscriptions was "neither Pāli nor Dravidian".⁸