VILLUPURAM: After the union government failed to confirm in Parliament whether it plans to publish inscriptions from the Chidambaram Nataraja temple in book format, Villupuram MP D Ravikumar on Monday asked the Tamil Nadu government to take the lead in compiling and releasing the records, free of cost.
“These inscriptions are vital not just to the history of the Chidambaram temple, but to over a thousand years of Tamil Nadu’s cultural, political and social evolution,” Ravikumar said, urging Minister Thangam Thennarasu to prioritise the initiative.
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Ravikumar had sought details from the Union government on the status of documentation of inscriptions at the temple, which contains epigraphical records dating back to the 10th century CE, including those from the reign of Aditya Chola I, the Pandyas, and Vijayanagara rulers.
In a written reply, Union Minister for Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said the Epigraphy Branch of the ASI has documented 297 inscriptions from the temple, mostly from the period of Rajendra Chola I and later.
While summaries of these inscriptions were published in the Annual Reports on Indian Epigraphy (1888-1963), and 157 full texts appear in the South Indian Inscriptions series, these publications are available only for purchase at ASI offices, museums, and protected monument sites.