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Inscribed potsherd from archaeological excavation at Tissamaharama, Hambantota District, Sri Lanka: From left to right the first letter is Li, second one is ra and the third one is ti. From right to left they are read as tiraLi. The fourth and fifth ones are symbols or graffiti marks. The sixth letter is mu and the seventh one is Ri. The last two are read from left to right as muRi. A little away is found a vertical line that perhaps marks the end of the legend. [Image courtesy: Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka and the academics who sent it] via TamilNet

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Full text of the article by Dr. P. Ragupathy (Source: TamilNet, 28 July 2010):

An inscribed piece of pottery from Tissamaharama

An inscribed piece of Black and Red Ware pottery was found in the archaeological excavations at Tissamaharama in the Hambantota District of Southern Province, Sri Lanka, sometimes back.

Information of the find, along with decipherment of the legend, appeared in The Hindu on 24th June, in an article “An Epigraphic Perspective on the Antiquity of Tamil,” written by veteran epigraphist Iravatam Mahadevan. His article has kindled interest in the official circles of archaeology in Sri Lanka to take notice of the find, which was hitherto not brought by them to the knowledge of the public.

According to Iravatam Mahadevan, the piece of pottery was found in the earliest layer of the excavation and the German scholars who undertook the excavation provisionally dated it to around 200 BCE.

Mahadevan, who identifies the writing on the pottery as Tamil in the Tamil Brahmi script, reads it as “tiraLi muRi” and interprets it as “written agreement of the assembly”.

“The inscription bears testimony to the presence in southern Sri Lanka of a local Tamil merchant community organised in a guild to conduct inland and maritime trade as early as at the close of the 3rd century BCE,” he further says in the article.

A few days ago, the present writer received a clear photograph and a drawing of the pottery sent by academic sources in Sri Lanka seeking opinion.

A perusal of the pottery legend as it appears in the photographs show that Iravatham Mahadevan’s identification of the script as Tamil Brahmi and his reading of the legend in Tamil could hardly be challenged. But there are possibilities of alternative interpretations.

The legend is a combination of readable Tamil Brahmi and unreadable graffiti or symbols that usually appear in megalithic and early historic pottery.

From left to right, the first three are Brahmi letters, the next two are symbols and the following last two letters are again in Brahmi. There is a vertical line, a little bit away from the legend that perhaps marks the end of the legend like a full stop.

Mahadevan reads the first three letters from right to left to get the reading ‘thiraLi’ and reads the last two letters from left to right to get the reading ‘muRi,’ keeping the unreadable symbols in the middle.

Brahmi was usually written from left to right just like all the South Asian-origin scripts of today. In the very few occasions when Tamil Brahmi was found written from right to left, the letters were inverted to serve the purpose of reading it from the above. (Mahadevan, I., 2003, Early Tamil Epigraphy p 179-180).

However, in the island of Sri Lanka, some examples have already been noticed in which Brahmi was found written from right to left without inverting the letters, indicating that even though obscure it was a writing practice in the island. (Paranavitana 1970, Inscriptions of Ceylon Vol I, plate xxii; Karunaratne. S., 1984, cited by Mahadevan, ibid. p.180).

But, perhaps this is the first time, a single legend is partly read from right to left and partly read from left to right, keeping symbols in the middle. The reason for this way of the writing in the pottery needs investigation.

From left to right, the first letter of the pottery legend is a clear Tamil Brahmi ‘Li’ (palatal L). This script is known in the Brahmi inscriptions of Sri Lanka too. No word begins from this letter in the known diction of Tamil, Sinhala, Prakrit or Sanskrit. Mahadevan is logical in reading the three letters placed left to the symbols from right to left to get the meaningful word ‘tiraLi’.

The last letter of the legend (as counted from left to right) is a clear Tamil Brahmi script ‘Ri’ (retroflex R). A few years ago Prof. P. Pushparatnam identified the presence of retroflex R in the Brahmi inscriptions of Sri Lanka. (Pushparatnam. P., cited by Mahadevan I., ibid., p.195).

Once again Mahadevan is logical in reading the last two letters placed right to the symbols from left to right to get the meaningful word ‘muRi’,

But why the legend meaning “written agreement of the assembly” of trade guild connotations according to Mahadevan, should appear on a small pottery of day-to-day use is a question.

Such pottery legends usually mark individual ownership, serving the purpose of identification.

Both ‘tiraLi’ and ‘muRi’ are connected to the words tiraL, muRi and muRai, listed as Tamil words in the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (entries, 3245, 5008, 5010 and 5015).

The word ‘muRi’ as a noun has several shades of meaning in Tamil. In its literary usages it means sprout or young leaf in Cankam diction; writing, deed, document, written agreement etc in early medieval diction and settlement in old lexicons (Glossary of Historical Tamil Literature, Santi Sadhana, p.2028).

The word ‘muRai’, apart from agreement, approved code of conduct etc (DED 5015), also means share (panku), measure (aLavu) and portion (pakuti) in the Cankam diction itself. (nattiNai 336:6; neTunalvaaTai 70, 177)

The latter shades of meanings are from the verb form of the word muRi, which means ‘to divide, break down etc’ (DED 5008). In the lexicons muRai also means anything that is amassed (kooTTu). (Pinkalam 10:953).

In some instances of usage in Tamil inscriptions muRi means a division of land (DED 5008, Glossary of Tamil Inscriptions, Santi Sadhana, p.510).

Interestingly in a surviving usage of contemporary Eezham Tamil, muRi means a chunk, portion etc (as in ‘meen muRi’ for a piece of fish in the curry).

The shade of meaning, deed, agreement or written bond for the word muRi is found for the first time only in the devotional literature of the 7th century CE (Glossary of Historical Tamil Literature, ibid.). This shade of meaning must have come from the Cankam usage of the word for leaf. But the meanings share, division, measure etc from the verb root muRi are older shades of meaning as found in muRai and are more or less contemporaneous in usage to the pottery legend under discussion.

Therefore, it may be more appropriate to consider that the word ‘muRi’ in the potsherd legend means a measuring utensil or a standard cubic measure. The pottery in question is a flat bottomed and raised edged dish. But it is deep enough to be a cubic measure.

Interestingly, the other word ‘tiraLi’ could also mean the same – ‘an equipment to amass’.

The word ‘tiraL’ as a verb means, to become round, globular, assemble, congregate, collect in large numbers, accumulate, abound etc (DED 3245) and as a noun or adjective means, mass, matured produce, group, ball of rice, society, heap, pearl, congregation of people etc (Glossary of Historical Tamil Literature p.1049).

Even though tiraL could mean an assembly of people, neither the word nor the derivate tiraLi was ever found used to indicate a trade guild.

In fact, in available Tamil diction tiraLi as a noun only means a kind of fish. Another derivate tiraLai means a ball of cooked rice.

However, originating from the verb root tiraL, the word tiraLi could very well mean a utensil or equipment that was used in amassing commodities - in other words a cubic measure.

In this context, note the word-formation ‘uruLi’ in Malayalam for a particular type of vessel, originating from the verb root ‘uruL’ (to round).

There is another possibility that tiraLi muRi may mean ‘a mould for cooked rice’ or a measure for rice balls (from tiraLai). Various dishes made of cooked rice are served in the temples in the moulded form even today.

Such moulded rice items served in the temples are called taLikai (taLicai, taLucai, taLacil in Eezham Tamil), because, they are moulded by a type of eating-vessel or dish called by the same name taLikai.

Temples used to keep a separate vessel called taLikaik-ki’n’nam for this purpose (Winslow’s Tamil Dictionary). This vessel is used in inverted way.

Until recent past, payment of daily wages to certain categories of workers was in the form of cooked and moulded portions of rice, specified in numbers. Standard vessels of measurement must have been used for moulding the portions.

One could also see this practice in serving rice in the restaurants of Tamil Nadu. They use a dish-mould for serving uniform portions of rice.

Therefore, if considered as one phrase, 'tiraLi muRi' from the usages tiraL or tiraLai (rice ball) and muRi (portion) could also be interpreted as the vessel specified for the purpose of serving rice portions.

But the fact that one word being written from right to left and the other word from left to right brings out the question whether both words could make one phrase.

Probably tiraLi and muRi as discussed earlier are used as synonyms in this instance, individually meaning an equipment of cubic measure. One word was written right to left and the other left to right, keeping the symbols in the middle.

This also means that the symbols or graffiti at the centre were given the foremost importance in the legend and were probably incised first before writing the words in either direction in Brahmi. Whether the symbols or graffiti have anything to do with the meaning of the words needs further research.

One word written in an unusual way, right to left, beginning from one symbol, and the other word written left to right beginning from the other symbol, may probably mean that there was an effort in the legend to convey that the words in phonetic writing are equivalents to the graffiti.

Megalithic graffiti, the lineage of which is traced back to the Indus Writing, appearing along with phonetic Brahmi in suggesting ways, that too in combination with Tamil/Dravidian words during the transition period of megalithic into early historic, is a very significant topic for serious further investigation. In fact, the topic is of wider academic significance.

In 1980, a similar find, a steatite seal having graffiti in the first line and Brahmi in the second line, has been found in the excavation of a megalithic burial at Aanaikkoaddai in the Jaffna Peninsula and its significance has already been discussed by two of the excavators (Indrapala, K., 26-04-1981, The Hindu; 2006, The Evolution of an Ethnic Identity, pp 337-338; Ragupathy. P., 09-07-1981, The Hindu; 1987, Early Settlements in Jaffna: An Archaeological Survey, pp. 199-204).

Many pottery fragments having legends written in the combination of Brahmi and graffiti have also been found in the excavations of the megalithic site at Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu by Y. Subbarayalu and K. Rajan. (Subbarayalu. Y., 1988 and 1996, unpublished, cited by Mahadevan. I., ibid., pp. 206-210).

As far as the Tissamaharama find is concerned it may not perhaps mean the presence of a Tamil trade guild but means the presence of ordinary Tamil speaking people in the population.

Dr. P. Ragupathy taught archaeology at the University of Jaffna in the early 1980s, was Professor of South Asian Studies and Head of the Postgraduate Departments at the Utkal University of Culture, Bhubaneswar, and for a brief period served as consultant at the National Centre for Linguistic and Historical Research in the Republic of Maldives. He has authored Early Settlements in Jaffna: An Archaeological Survey (1987), An Etymological Dictionary of Maldivian Island Names (2008) and has co-authored Inscriptions of Maldives Vol I (2005).

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Later, this specific potsherd went missing (source: TamilNet, 21 October 2010)

Tissamaharama is located in Hambantota, Sri Lanka

Boat graffiti was found in trench 1G, 23/27, layer 18

The archaeological excavations brought to light the earliest urban phase in the 4th century BC. Fired bricks, Buddhist saddle querns, a potsherd with triangular sail (excavated from the layer of the 1st century BC but on stylistic grounds were assigned to 3rd century BC), a hospital from the 1st century AD-2nd century AD, (the earliest in south Asia), stone paved streets with drains and water channels dated before the Common Era, roof tiles, houses with plastered exterior etc.

Along with this, a potsherd with Tamili (Tamil Brahmi) letters was also found.

Sources:

1. Tissamaharama potsherd evidence ordinary early Tamils among population
2. Tissamaharama Tamil Brahmi inscription ‘missing’
3. Read more in: https://www.academia.edu/10177835/Ancient_Tissamaharama_the_formation_of_urban_structures_and_growing_commerce by Hans-Joachim Weisshaar, German Archaeological Institute

I want the struts here to be inverted. Like they connect at two diffent place at fuselage but at a single point on the high wing (plz look at my dad's blueprint). It should be like this:

HIGH WING

●────●

/ \

───────────

BODY

When I ask Gemini to do this, it refuses. I created this whole image using Gemini. But now, suddenly it started hallucinating.

Could someone help me plzz

This engine was found in a local aircraft manufacturing yard. The engine looks like some inverted car engine. Also, it seems the engine was fitted on a large vertical square/rectangular iron frame. Could someone identify what engine this is (aircraft or car) and what model it is?

Year: 2009 or prior

Thank you so much.

This engine was found in a local aircraft manufacturing yard. The engine looks like some inverted car engine. Also, it seems the engine was fitted on a large vertical square/rectangular iron frame. Could someone identify what engine this is (aircraft or car) and what model it is?

Year: 2009 or prior

Thank you so much.

This engine was found in a local aircraft manufacturing yard. The engine looks like some inverted car engine. Also, it seems the engine was fitted on a large vertical square/rectangular iron frame. Could someone identify what engine this is (aircraft or car) and what model it is?

Year: 2009 or prior

Thank you so much.

Got this in 2007 .. whats the exact model name of this Cessna RC?

This was bought in the year 2007.

According to Professor S. Pathmanathan, the text consists of Prakrit language words of Tamil origin, written using Brahmi script characters. The explanations for the first two images are as follows:

• S. Pathmanathan, Tamil Inscriptions in Sri Lanka (2006, Department of Hindu Religious & Cultural Affairs, Sri Lanka), page: xxix-xxx and xxxvi-xxxvii

Translation by myself from the subheading 'Eelam Brahmi Inscriptions' of the above book, which was originally written in Tamil.

>There are over two thousand Brahmi inscriptions in Sri Lanka. These were written in the Prakrit language using Brahmi script characters. The Prakrit used in these inscriptions is a mixed language. It contains many words not found in the Prakrit inscriptions of India. Among these, many words are of Tamil origin, while others are common to several Dravidian languages. Brahmi inscriptions serve as strong evidence for the prevalence of the Tamil language in various parts of the island (Eelam). Examples of Tamil words found in them include Parumaka(n), Parumakal, Marumakan, Maruman, Maruka, Maara, Ay, Vel, and Pa(ri)ari. When Tamil words were written in the Prakrit language, they were adapted according to that language's grammatical traditions. ..........................................

>............................. The inscription found in Anuradhapura mentions Tamils who were householders and Tamils who belonged to a Sanga (association). It has been explained elsewhere here that they might be Jains. Through this inscription, one can learn that there is a connection between the word ‘Paratha(n)’ and Tamils. Therefore, this strengthens the view that the ‘Baratha’ mentioned in the Brahmi inscriptions of Eelam (Sri Lanka) refers to the ‘Parathavar,’ a specific section of Tamil society. It is a noteworthy feature that figures of fish are found on one side of a coin inscribed with the name ‘Baratha Thisaka.’ That the Parathavar were people who lived in the Neydal (coastal) region can be known through ancient Tamil works like Pattinappalai. An epigraphical note also exists which confirms that it was indeed the ‘Parathar’ who were referred to as ‘Paratha’ in the inscriptions of Eelam. The following phrase is found in an inscription at Polonnaruwa.

>Ba3ratha Saga3rikasa Lenee

>It can be observed that the word ‘Kadalan,’ which appears in Tamil Brahmi inscriptions, has been translated here into Prakrit as "Sāgarika." The term ‘Kadalan’ has multiple meanings such as sailor, helmsman, sea voyager, captain of sailors, or maritime merchant. To confirm this explanation, the figure of a ship has been carved on the specific inscription. In total, the name ‘Paratha’ is found in 21 inscriptions (in Sri Lanka). These have mostly been found in the Northwestern and Northeastern regions.

Image Source: EXCAVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN TAMIL NADU: ALAGANKULAM AN ANCIENT ROMAN PORT CITY OF TAMIL NADU, Editor T.S. Sridhar, IAS, https://telibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Alagankulam.pdf

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• About this vessel mast:

>.... Although damaged at one end, the vessel’s mast can be clearly seen as can at least one clear horizontal line, likely to represent a yard. This image is therefore strongly suggestive of a square-sail rig. It is currently the least ambiguous iconographic depiction that could be interpreted as a square-sail rig from an Indian context. At roughly the same time, Pliny the Elder (Natural History VI, 24.82-3) notes that voyages from the Ganges to Sri Lanka took place in local reed vessels which carried ‘the rigging used on the Nile’ and therefore presumably indicates the use of a square-sail rig in the Bay of Bengal at that time.

Source: Sailing rigs of the western Indian Ocean during the first millennium AD, Julian Whitewright, University of Southampton, UK https://www.academia.edu/22037056/Sailing_Rigs_of_the_Western_Indian_Ocean_in_the_First_Millennium_AD

Image context: These drawings, found in the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, date back to the 5th century CE. They portray the landing of Prince Vijaya and his 700 followers in Sri Lanka (Eelam). An important thing to note is that it shows elephants and horses being carried in watercrafts.

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• My question is: are there any references in Sangam literature or other contemporary historical sources that describe elephants being transported to other places by Tamil's ships or other watercrafts?

This painting is estimated to be around 1500 BCE, Neolithic Period.

• Source: pg 71 of the report EXCAVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN TAMIL NADU ALAGANKULAM, AN ANCIENT ROMAN PORT CITY OF TAMIL NADU by T.S. Sridhar, IAS, Special Commissioner, Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005

Dating back to between 1000 and 500 BCE, this rock painting depicts four people travelling in a canoe, with the second person from the right using a paddle.

It is said that this was created using red-ochre pigment by a hunter-gatherer community.

(fyi, the first image is located on the left most side of the map - in the second image)

I’m analyzing a Dutch colonial map of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, dating to 1724, and I’m trying to identify the exact origin/type of vessel depicted in the illustration.

Specifically, I’m trying to determine whether this vessel represents a European (Dutch East India Company / VOC) design or a local indigenous vessel?

• Location: Batticaloa Lagoon / Eastern Coast, Sri Lanka
• Date of Map: 1724 (Dutch Colonial Era) or, some say 1726
• Description: Antique print titled 'Baticalo'. Old print of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka/Ceylon. This print originates from 'Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën' by F. Valentijn.
• Artists and Engravers: François Valentijn (1666-1727), a missionary, worked at Amboina from 1684 to 1694 and 1705 to 1713 and travelled extensively in the VOC's lands.

 

Any insights from maritime historians, cartography enthusiasts, or experts in maritime history would be greatly appreciated!

I came across research by a scholar who argued that the ancient Tamils were primarily coastal navigators rather than true high-seas sailors. What do you all think?

• Source: On Kings Who Drove Back the Sea: Shipping, Seafaring and Naval Campaigns in the Early Cēra Kingdom, Roland Ferenczi, September 25, 2023

The author (Roland Ferenczi) addresses both points in the paper:

• On Sailing the High Seas: He states that if by "sailing the high seas" we mean sailing their own ships with their own crews across the open waters of the Indian Ocean to South Arabia, Egypt, or Africa, the answer is probably "No".
• On Coastal Trading: He notes that literary and historical evidence suggests ancient Tamil rulers and traders were engaged in coastal shipping.

Overall, he concludes that while Tamil inscriptions appear as far as Egypt and Thailand, their actual involvement in long-distance open-ocean navigation - and even their overall level of coastal shipping - was "moderate and incidental" compared to the foreign trade fleets operating on the Arabian Sea. He also states that the Tamils' maritime knowledge (shipping and shipbuilding) might have been borrowed from the Yavanas!

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Important extracts from his research:

>The question arises as to whether ancient Tamils actually sailed the high seas. If we mean that they sailed with their own ships and their own crew in the open waters of the Indian Ocean to South Arabia, Egypt, or Africa, in accordance with the views of Gurukkal (2016: 198–199) and De Romanis (2020: 115), the answer is probably ‘No’. However, we have pieces of evidence in the Tamil sources which might suggest that some of the Tamil rulers were able seafarers. Cōḻaṉ Karikāl Peruvaḷattāṉ (probably around the 2nd c. AD), for example, was ‘the descendent of strong men who ruled [by means of] the action of the wind, after [they] had driven ships of the vast dark ocean’.19 Gurukkal (2016: 86) is right, that this does not necessarily mean knowledge of seasonal winds and of voyaging overseas. However, it might mean that some of the Tamil rulers were engaged in coastal shipping. Gurukkal discusses another passage of the Puṟanāṉūṟu, in which we read the following sentence: ‘… we are similar to [those] other vessels that do not go past that route, where the gold-bringing ships (nāvāy) of the western sea [which belongs to] Vāṉavaṉ with enraged army, were driven.’20

.............................................................

>It possibly shows a real or fictitious story of a South Indian man who decides to leave his lover for a shorter or longer period of time for the sake of maritime trade or other business on the other shores of the sea. Of course, a port full of sand can be imagined anywhere on the map, but it is also possible, taking into account the long, day and night travel, that we are dealing with a brief schematic description of South Arabian or Red Sea ports.23 We thus see the maritime trade from a closer perspective: the tiresome travel on the open seas, the Tamils who managed to get on the deck, and the actual lighthouses which suggest a surprisingly modern infrastructure at the early Tamil harbours.

>In all these passages we can see maritime activities with their unfortunate mishaps on the South Indian shores, in which Tamils must have been involved (or they organized it themselves). If there had always been foreign merchants in these cases, the poets would probably have emphasized their outsider status as usual. Regarding the question of Tamil shipping, we could mention other passages that refer to strong coracles,29 to the great quantity of goods showering down like the monsoon rain that comes from the sea to the land and then flows from the land to the sea,30 to the elephant-like swinging movement of ships in the harbour,31 etc., but from these texts we are rarely able to reconstruct whether these poets were talking about coastal shipping or sea voyages, Tamil or non-Tamil merchants.

>In South India, archaeologists have not yet found much to suggest Tamil shipping, whether by sea or by river. The most important of these findings was the wooden dugout canoe of Paṭṭaṇam with a wharf (Fig. 4), which was excavated in 2007 by the Kerala Council for Historical Research. It was certainly the same type of watercraft as the monoxylus linter of Pliny the Elder, or the tōṇi of the backwaters in the Puṟanāṉūṟu 343: 6.

Read further from page 8 to page 12 in his research paper. Small paragraphs can be read in 2-3 mins.

His final conclusion

>................................... Other texts in the Caṅkam literature, which we will discuss in detail in the second part of our study, also mention the Cēra kings who fought on the sea, defeated the kaṭampu tribe on an island, collected tributes beyond the sea, and piled them up in their treasuries. All these texts show that the Cēra kings de facto sailed the seas, but we have only evidence that they did so for military purposes, while their assumed sea-trade activities cannot be substantiated. However, as we have seen before, the Tamils had the knowledge to sail along the coast. I think it is not unfounded to assume that the Cēra kings utilized the yavaṉas’ knowledge in shipping and shipbuilding, and they therefore may have been able to build a powerful fleet to be used in naval battles. However, it is likewise possible that the vessels of the Cēras were used to transport warriors, and only when they landed did the fighting begin. Be that as it may, Mediterranean sailors and warriors appeared on the Malabar Coast, governed by the Cēras, perhaps every year for centuries and have certainly helped them in their maritime activities, although perhaps not for free. We can deduce that the very costly punitive campaign in the northern areas,52 in which neither new territory nor new vassals were acquired, was to stabilize trade relations and Cēra interests on the Malabar Coast.

Source for Image: https://www.academia.edu/22037056/Sailing_Rigs_of_the_Western_Indian_Ocean_in_the_First_Millennium_AD

Alagankulam was an important port in South India that survived between 4th century BCE (AMS date 2320 ± 30) and 1st century BCE (AMS date 2030 ± 30), representing the Early Historic phase, popularly called the Sangam Age.

This was the earliest Sangam-era boat drawings ever found in the Tamil lands.

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Source to read: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024057980?__cf_chl_tk=7Agdw5LYy971mU1bYYgksx2AMl4MIKoI8K8IUwSSQYw-1782695267-1.0.1.1-nbs6DSMXksvQ7svPbN.2RFiud3wf4pTgQC9rgJ2l3Uw

I noticed that the Microsoft Edge installation size is listed at over 2GB in the Windows 11 settings app. Given how deeply integrated Edge is into Windows 11 features (like widgets and webviews), I'm curious about what actually happens behind the scenes if a user forces an uninstallation or restricts its storage. Does the OS have a lightweight fallback, or does it actively impact system stability?

This model was made in early 1800s in Jaffna. This is the only image/ model available regarding the Vattal from Jaffna of 19th Cen.

Image from the British Museum.

The soldier on the left is wearing a head ghillie, and her rifle is covered with ghillie fabric too.

Edit: The image is from the final months of 2008, not 2009 (My bad).