Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c23.s9.t1.12

c23.s9.t1.12

(b) I had earlier read the words *mātavirai* 'great nun' and *tavira* 'monk' in the Alagarmalai cave inscriptions.³ As these terms can have Buddhist association, they have been considered as evidence for the presence of Buddhism in the Tamil caves. However, later field work has shown these to be incorrect readings respectively for *mattirai* ('Matirai') and *av[v]ir[u]-* ('those two') (Nos. **38** and **45**).