MADURAI: An epigraphist from a village in Pudukkottai district met Thangam Thennarasu, Minister of Finance, Environment, Climate Change and Archaeology, at his residence in Mallankinaru, Virudhunagar district, and presented him with inscription copies to protect and preserve them in the Department of Archaeology.
At this juncture, the 86-year-old Karu Rajendran, a retired teacher from Melapanaiyur village in Pudukkottai district and the President of the Pudukkottai Archaeological Research Forum, personally presented 20 large-scale inscriptions dating back to the Rajaraja Chola II period, which he had copied from the Rajarajeshwara temple at Kovilpatti village in Marungapuri taluk of Trichy district.
The Finance Minister praised Karu Rajendran, who had donated the inscription copies for research work despite being unable to walk due to a leg injury.
Highlighting the need to ensure its preservation, the elderly Rajendran on Sunday said it would help the student community to gain exposure to archaeology.
The inscriptions provided information that traders in the days of yore paid temple tax, and about land donors, and 96 goats donated by the villagers.
He has been working to estampage and study inscriptions across Tamil Nadu for the past 50 years. He was the first to discover the existence of inscriptions on the tank sluice, copy and study them and inform everyone. Moreover, to his credit, he discovered an ancient inscription about ‘Poolankurichi Kalabhra’.
Rajendran added that he had already presented more than 1,600 inscription copies, which he found and copied to epigraphic research institutions including Thanjavur Tamil University, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Sivagangai district and the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department.
A Manikandan, founder of the Pudukkottai Archaeological Research Forum and V Rajaguru, President of the Ramanathapuram Archaeological Research Foundation, accompanied him.