RAMANATHAPURAM: The Ramanathapuram Archaeological Research Foundation has discovered a 550-year-old inscription at Brahmanakurichi near Ilayangudi. V Rajaguru, president of the foundation, with his team, discovered the nine-lined granite inscription standing 6.5 feet tall and one foot wide from the Thadiyar Udayar Ayyanar temple.
Rajaguru said the Vanathirayars served as chieftains and court officers during the reign of the Pallavas, Cholas, and Pandyas. After the fall of the Pandyas, he explained, a separate state was established under the Vijayanagara and Nayaka kings with Madurai Alagar temple as its headquarters. Their inscriptions are found in Madurai, Pudukottai, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, and Sivagangai districts, and they were followers of Vaishnavism.
According to the inscription, King Sundarathol Mahavali Vanathirayar, who had ruled from 1468 AD and 1488 AD, had donated Agraharam to Brahmins at Anakurichi in the 15th century AD. Though the village is now known as Brahmanakurichi, the inscription refers to it as Anakurichi.
A field exploration around the Ayyanar temple also discovered black and red potsherds, red potsherds, and iron slags along with hopscotches. Rajaguru added that these artefacts can help them ascertain if the village has been inhabited for about 2,000 years, from the Sangam Age and if it was part of the iron smelting industry.