Ravages was in Darasuram temple near Kumbhakonam and clicked the photo of the inscription shown above. There is a number in the inscription which is either 1355 or 355. What is a number in Indo-Arabic numerals doing in the middle of all that Tamil text?
If you have any ideas, please post a comment.
Inscription from Darasuram temple
Published
This inscription perhaps can be dated 10th-11th century CE. There are no Indo-Arabic numerals in this inscription. The picture resolution is not good enough to read the inscription, but what looks like 1355 could be read as ra – r.a – t.a (t.u) – t.a (t.u) in the Tamil script of circa 10th-11th century CE. A tracing of the inscription would help better.
Best regards,
Arvind.
Correction in earlier message:
The date stands to be 10th/11th century CE. I was able to enhance th picture a bit. Th bottom line what looks like 1 is actually right part of the character the sequence in bottom line is ya – l.a – r.a – t.a (t.u) – t.a (t.u) – ne – na.
Tamil ய ள ற
I agree that it’s 10th-11th century and that the “1” is part of the previous character, which I’m fairly sure is a ண (3 dips). I tend to think that the last line is
ய ண ற
The possibility of interprating that the “1” is part of the previous character as n.a ண (3 dips) can not be ruled out. Though even in the 10th-11th century the loop formation prevailed for this character (as against the dips were used l.a ள. The last 3 characters form ந