01Letters on Nagamalai
Under an overhang on Nagamalai, the snake hill, a line of Tamil-Brahmi letters records the name of a jeweller, Devan Chattan, as the man who cut the writing. Beside it are three sets of five lines each, with the same few syllables arranged in a square grid, reading the same across and down. Iravatham Mahadevan, who dated the inscription to about the 4th century CE on the shape of its letters, saw in these grids a pattern for music or dance; others read them as a word game. Either way the shelter shows that letters were in the hands of craftsmen in the Kongu country before the Pallava age.
02Chinnamalai’s country
Arachalur lies in the open Kongu plain between Erode and Kangeyam, the home country of Dheeran Chinnamalai, the palayakkarar who would not accept Company rule after Tipu Sultan fell in 1799. His fort was at Odanilai, a short ride away. Tamil tradition counts his clashes with Company columns on the Kaveri in 1801, at Odanilai in 1802 and at Arachalur in 1804 among his victories, before he was taken and hanged at Sankagiri in 1805. A memorial to him stands at Odanilai.
The life of this place
- c. 4th century CEThe Tamil-Brahmi inscription and syllable grids are cut on Nagamalai.
- 1804Dheeran Chinnamalai’s men clash with a Company force at Arachalur.
