MADURAI: Historians discovered a 2,200-year-old Tamil Brahmi inscription in Thiruparankundram hillock cave in Madurai on Wednesday. Thiruparankundram in Madurai is the foremost of Murugan’s Arupada houses while the entire hillock is rich in archaeology and history.
There are many rock-cut temples of the early Pandyas on this hillock. There are two natural caves on the western slope of the hill located opposite Thiruparankundram Railway Station. The cave above it contains a large number of stone beds and three Tamil Brahmi inscriptions of 1 BCE and CE 1. These are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.
In this case, on the way to the above cave, there is a small natural cave to its left, which has five circular stone beds inside with a cut in the front to prevent rainwater from entering. Madurai archaeologist V Balamurali, a researcher of rock paintings, inscriptions, and rock-cut temples, found and studied a Tamil Brahmi inscription on the cave’s western side of the canopy.
Based on the information, Ramanathapuram Archeological Research Foundation president V Rajaguru and Pandya Country Historical Research Centre researcher Udhayakumar read the inscription and re-studied it with the help of senior archaeologist Santhalingam.
Rajaguru and Balamurali observed that the inscription has two lines.