800-year-old stone inscription with horse’s image found in Virudhunagar

Madurai: An eight hundred-year-old stone inscription with an image of a horse inscribed on it has been discovered near Tiruchuzhi in Virudhunagar district. The inscription was found along with two more inscriptions and broken idols from the same era.

President of the Ramanathapuram Archaeological Society, V Rajaguru, said that he had been informed of stone inscriptions and idols scattered near a tank in Purasalur near Tiruchuzhi by two persons, S Ramesh and T Sripal. Rajaguru said that he visited the spot and recovered the artefacts. He said that there was a temple near the tank which is now in a dilapidated condition. A sluice had also been constructed for the tank near the temple over 800 years ago. It was when the villagers decided to construct a new sluice for the tank that the stones inscriptions and idols were unearthed.

Broken pieces of idols of deities like Jagathi, Kumutham and Yazhi were also found. It was determined that they belonged to the 13th century AD. Of the three inscriptions recovered, the researchers were able to decipher one of the inscriptions. The inscription has four lines speaking of the boundaries of a certain piece of land and the name Varulvasanallur is inscribed on it. He said that it may refer to the present day Thiruvarulvasaganallur.

There is a mention of Karana Maravar, a community in which the menfolk were usually soldiers, found in the inscription and there is an image of a horse inscribed next to it. Hence, it may refer to the soldiers in the calvary, Rajaguru said. It may be an inscription detailing about the land given to soldiers by the king and the people from the Karana Maravar community may have been appointed as caretakers, he added.


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