A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c10.19

c10.19

The short Brāhmī inscriptions found in natural rock caverns in the hills of the South have many features in common with the similar, but more numerous, records of Ceylon, and are among the earliest monuments of the Tamil country to which we may assign a date with some confidence. The script employed resembles that of the inscriptions from Bhaṭṭiprolu and may well be assigned to the third century B.C. These inscriptions have not yet been fully elucidated; but clearly they are mostly either brief donative records or the names of the monks who once lived there. One of the places where the caverns are found bears the name Kaḷugumalai, ‘vulture’s hill’, Tamil for Gridhrakūṭa, a name hallowed in the annals of early Buddhism. From this fact it has been deduced that these monuments were all of them of Buddhist origin; but it is premature to formulate final conclusions on this matter. New caves and inscriptions are still being discovered, such as the inscribed natural cave at Malakonda in the Nellore district. And tradition is strong, as we have seen, that Jainism came into South India about the same time as Buddhism, if not earlier. It is not possible to assert that these monuments owe their origin exclusively to Buddhists or Jains; it is probable that some may be attributed to the one and some to the other.