Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c23.s9.t1.1

c23.s9.t1.1

To the earlier investigators of the Tamil caves, the Brāhmī inscriptions in characters resembling those of the Asokan edicts suggested Buddhist association even before the inscriptions could be properly understood. Venkayya traced the use of natural caves for religious purposes to the Buddhists "whose creed makes it binding on the monks to resort to out-of-the-way places". He compared the Tamil caves having stone beds and inscriptions with the rock-cut Buddhist caves of Western India. He also suggested that Asoka's Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka must have passed through the Tamil country and propagated their faith here too.¹