Ancient oil ghanis and inscriptions found near Tiruvannamalai

They found six stone inscriptions, believed to be more than 1,000 years old, and three stone oil ghanis at Rayandapuram, situated around 35 km from Tiruvannamalai.

The team lead by its president T M Prakash and secretary S Balamurugan found the inscriptions near an ancient temple on the banks of the south Pennar river.

The inscriptions, three of which are in a good condition, dating back to the period of Rajaraja Chola I, revealed that goats were donated to the temple by local chieftains.

According to Prakash, the village was called originally called Rajakandapuram, while the temple was then called Thirukurankoil. The inscriptions revealed that the temple was famous in its day as a group of traders and a local king had provided oil through the ghanis for use in the temple. The three ghanis were meant to crush oil seeds to ensure that the temple never ran out of oil, Prakash added.