Estampages of Tamil inscriptions moved from Mysuru to Tamil Nadu

Over 20,000 estampages of Tamil inscriptions, which were preserved at the epigraphy wing of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Mysuru since 1960s, were moved to Chennai on Tuesday, in line with a 2021 order of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.

The estampages of Tamil inscriptions will now be kept at the ASI office inside Fort St George, the seat of power of the Tamil Nadu government. They were brought from Mysuru and handed over to ASI officials here on Tuesday.

The move comes amid a renewed interest in Tamil Nadu over archaeological excavations in the state with the discovery of a Sangam-era site in Keeladi, 12 km from Madurai. The ASI and Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) are conducting excavations across the state with carbon dating of artefacts proving that Keeladi could be as old as 2,600 years.

Tamil scholars have been demanding that estampages of Tamil inscriptions should be brought to Tamil Nadu to enable people and scholars to look at them. They felt keeping the inscriptions in far-away Mysuru in another state was not serving any purpose.

ASI’s epigraphy branch was founded in 1887 and moved to Ooty in 1911 before relocating to Mysuru in 1966. Since then, the treasures were at the epigraphy wing of ASI, Mysuru.

In 2021, the Madras High Court asked the Union Culture Ministry and ASI to transfer all estampages of Tamil inscriptions from Mysuru to Chennai in six months. The court also directed the ASI to name the Chennai branch as ‘Epigraphy Branch- Tamil’. It also asked the Tamil Nadu government to provide assistance to the ASI to set up the branch.

The court issued the directions while hearing a batch of PILs seeking digitisation and transfer of estampages of Tamil inscriptions from Mysuru to Chennai.

Madurai MP and writer Su Venkatesan said the return of the estampages of Tamil inscriptions to Tamil Nadu was a “huge victory” to the long struggle carried forward by several people. “These estampages have returned to TN after 60 years,” he said.