Chola-Period Inscription Discovered Near Tiruvannamalai
This inscription gains great importance as it provides information about the Chithramezhi Periya Nattar Sabha and also records a Chola-period inscription related to water management, in which a spring was discovered, named, and formally documented
Tiruvannamalai: Members of the Tiruvannamalai District Historical Research Centre — S. Balamurugan, C. Palanisamy, M. Bharathiraja, and artist Sivakumar — following information provided by a woman named Lakshmiyammal, discovered a Chola-period inscription at the foothills of Bavupattu village near Tiruvannamalai.
This inscription belongs to the 12th century, during the reign of Kulothunga Chola, and was found carved on a slab stone measuring 2 feet in width and 6 feet in length. The inscription was engraved in the 22nd regnal year of Kulothunga Chola III (1200 CE).
The inscription records that in the Sengundra region on the northern bank of the Pennai river, at the foothills of Kattaamboondi hill, a person named Pulavar-Adiyan Otrikondaan Thiruvaanai Mugavan discovered a natural water spring at that location. He named it “Chithramezhi Perootru” (the Great Spring of Chithramezhi) and donated it as a charitable endowment to the Periya Nattar (Great Regional Assembly).
This inscription gains great importance as it provides information about the Chithramezhi Periya Nattar Sabha and also records a Chola-period inscription related to water management, in which a spring was discovered, named, and formally documented.
