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Recently, yet another archaic brahmi record has been brought to light from the same cavern which reveals that the reputed monk, Attirai of Madurai had his abode in the same shelter, and for whose convenient stay a stone bed was caused to be made by one udayana. Apparently, the inscription refers to the first among the five stone beds found inside the cave.
The monk is referred to as an 'amanan' (śramana) and his atone bed as 'Urai' (abode) in the record. He was a native of the town Madirai (Madurai) which was the capital of the Pandhya kings. It emerged into a stonghold of Jainism with a cluster of cave shelters around the town as early as the 2nd century B.C.
It is worthy of note that the newly discovered epigraph exhibits an undeveloped and archac form of script than all other known brahmi inscriptions, hence, palaeographically assigned to the 3rd century B.C.3 It is, perhaps, the earliest Jains epigraph discovered so far in Tamilnadu.
2. TONDUR ADHISTHANAM
Tondur, about 15 kms. north-east of Gingee in South Arcot district, attained Jaina importance as importance as early as the 1st century A.D. The small hillock on the northern side of the village has a mediumsized cave with stone beds cut side by side, close to them is inscribed a brahmi record in characters of the 1st century A.D. It mentions that these three stone beds were caused to be cut by Aramõsi of Agalur village at the instance of the monk Senkayāpan (Senkasyāpa).
2. Mahadevan, "New Jaina Inscriptions" Paper presented to the seminar on
Jaina Heritage of Tamilnadu. March, 1995, Madras. 3. Ibid., p.6. 4. M. Chandramurti, "Brahmi inscription from Tondur"
Dinamani, 20th Oct. 1991.
SO
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