SEAArch - The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog

16 July 2006 (The Hindu) - Inscriptions on a 2nd-century pottery find in Thailand indicate origins in Tamil Nadu in India, indicating a new extent of Tamil influence in the ancient world.

Tamil-Brahmi inscription on pottery found in Thailand

A unique Tamil-Brahmi Inscription on pottery of the second century AD has recently been excavated in Thailand.

A Thai-French team of archaeologists, led by Dr. Bérénice Bellina of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, and Praon Silpanth, Lecturer, Silpakorn University, Thailand, has discovered a sherd of inscribed pottery during their current excavations at Phu Khao Thong in Thailand.

At the request of the archaeologists, Iravatham Mahadevan, an expert in Tamil Epigraphy, has examined the inscription. He has confirmed that the pottery inscription is in Tamil and written in Tamil-Brahmi characters of about the second century AD. Only three letters have survived on the pottery fragment. They read tu Ra o… , possibly part of the Tamil word turavon meaning `monk.’

Related Books:
- Temple Art Icons and Culture of India and South East Asia by K. V. Raman
- Art of India and Southeast Asia
- Temple Consecration Rituals in Ancient India: Text and Archaeology (Brill’s Indological Library) by A. A. Slaczka

Tags: Bérénice Bellina, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ceramics, Indian influences in Thailand, Iravatham Mahadevan, Phu Khao Thong, pottery, Praon Silpanth, Silpakorn University, Tamil-Brahmi characters, Thailand archaeology

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