Isai Tamil inscription in ruins

The Hindu ^ | Monday, Nov 6, 2006 | Karthik Madhavan

[SunkenCiv]

The inscriptions are tala notes (adavu) that a Bharatnatyam dancer dances to. It has five lines and as many rows, resembling a five-row - five-column matrix. It has been arranged in such a way that read either from left to right or top to bottom it reads the same. It is a palindrome as well. Close by is another inscription, which is also in Tamil Brahmi. It talks about the person who chiselled the above-mentioned lines. Most of it is damaged. The third inscription is equally bad... [T]he inscriptions came to light only about five decades ago, when Prof. S. Raju, an epigraphist of Erode, discovered them in the early 1960s. He says they were carved by wandering Jain monks, who came south during Chandra Gupta Maurya's time.

[SunkenCiv]

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Needs Restoration: The cave where the inscription is damaged. — Photo: M. Govarthan

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[SunkenCiv]

This really isn't a great article though, and the photo is useless (as is the caption). But enjoy it everyone, it's better than the election results. ;')

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