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Epigraphy is overmuch much than the survey of past inscriptions and is simply a captious subject that enables america to recognize the improvement of nine crossed political, social, economic, cultural, and technological dimensions, said Minister for Finance and Archaeology Thangam Thennarasu successful Chennai connected Wednesday (February 11, 2026).
Speaking astatine the inauguration of a four-day International Conference connected Tamil Epigraphy organised by the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA), Mr. Thennarasu said, dissimilar literate sources, inscriptions person a unsocial authenticity. Being engraved connected imperishable materials specified arsenic chromatic oregon metal, they are mostly escaped from aboriginal interpolations and biases, offering america an unfiltered and reliable reflection of the realities of the past.
In the Indian context, epigraphy has played a foundational relation successful humanities reconstruction. With implicit 1 lakh inscriptions documented crossed South India, Tamil Nadu unsocial accounts for astir 30,000 inscriptions, providing an unbroken chronological grounds from the 6th period BCE to the assemblage period, helium said.
This immense assemblage of grounds allows historians to continually reassess and refine our knowing of the region’s agelong and analyzable taste evolution. To guarantee the preservation and continuity of Tamil Nadu’s affluent heritage, the TNSDA has undertaken respective ambitious, technology-driven, semipermanent projects. These initiatives widen good beyond accepted documentation and follow precocious technological methods, helium said.
The 20-year Vision Project connected the taste past of Tamil Nadu aims to papers archaeological monuments astatine the colony level crossed each districts, with progressive fieldwork presently nether mode successful Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, the Nilgiris, Erode, and Tiruppur. The theme-based epigraphy task uses modern integer technologies to grounds inscriptions based connected circumstantial themes specified arsenic commercialized guilds and leader stones, helium said.
Beyond tract research, the TNSDA is modernising museums, conducting caller excavations, expanding collaborations with nationalist and planetary probe institutions, and strengthening quality resources to accommodate to emerging technological technologies. Forthcoming publications volition see broad studies connected Tamil Nadu’s stone art, past symbols, and pottery inscribed with Tamil-Brahmi characters, helium added.
Mr. Thennarasu besides launched a website connected graffiti signs of Tamil Nadu and books specified arsenic 2 volumes of Inscribed Potsherds of Tamil Nadu: Graffiti and Tamili,Traditional Water Management: Sluice Technology successful Tamil Nadu, six volumes of Tamil Nadu Kalvettugal from Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Tiruvallur, Vellore, and Salem districts, and the league proceedings.
K. Manivasan, Additional Chief Secretary (Tourism and Culture); T. Udhayachandran, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) and Commissioner of Archaeology; R. Balakrishnan, Chairman, International Institute of Tamil Studies; and Professor K. Rajan, Academic and Research Advisor, TNSDA, were among those present.
