Feb 10 2012
A short inscription engraved in the Brahmi characters has been discovered in the Edakal cave on the Ambukuthi hill in Kerala's Wayanad district. This is the fifth Tamil-Brahmi inscription discovered in the caves.
M.R. Raghava Varier, retired Professor of Epigraphy, Calicut University, who made the latest discovery, has read the record as ‘Sri Vazhumi.' An estampage of the inscription was made by K. Krishnaraj, designer in the Kerala State Department of Archaeology.
In Dr. Varier's interpretation, the inscription appears to be a label attached to a human figure, engraved exactly in the Edakal style of drawing. The figure is shown as having a big phallus, probably denoting fertility, and suggesting Brahma, the Creator himself.
The term, ‘Vazhumi,' could be the Tamil rendering of the Sanskrit name, Brahma, said Dr. Varier, now Editor of Kerala Archaeological Series, a publication of the Department of Archaeology.
The letter ‘zhu' is written in the Tamil-Brahmi script, and the rest of the letters take the forms of the northern variety of the alphabet. The cursive letter ‘zha' represents a later stage of evolution.
Epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan termed the latest find “an important discovery.” “There is no doubt that the language is Tamil, and the script is Tamil-Brahmi because of the occurrence of the unique letter ‘zha'.” Going by the palaeographic evidence, he estimated that the inscription belonged to the fourth century C.E.
From-The Hindu
No comments:
Post a Comment