Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c23.s10.t1.3

c23.s10.t1.3

As the Bhadrabahu-Chandragupta legend is found only in relatively late sources, scholars have been hesitant to accept it as a historical event. The Tamil-Brāhmī cave inscriptions, now known to be the earliest Jaina records in South India, provide indirect corroboration of two key elements of the legend. The palaeography of the cave inscriptions is consistent with borrowing from Magadha in ca. 3rd century B.C. during the Mauryan Age. The decipherment of the inscriptions has also revealed early links with Karnataka and Old Kannada indicative of the proximate source of Jainism in the Tamil country.¹ The views of some scholars that Jainism reached the Tamil country from Bengal and Orissa and not from Karnataka can no longer be accepted.²