A 700-year-old hero-stone was discovered by a team of four archaeologists at Koduvai near Tirupur.
The stone has developed cracks but three lines of inscriptions in Tamil are clearly visible on it. It is interesting that the stone was erected by the hero’s mother. Usually the practice is for villagers to do that in order to commemorate some act of courage. Historian/archaeologist K. Ponnusamy said that this fact made the stone unique.
“Muthan was killed while protecting cattle from a tiger. He killed the tiger but died in the process. His mother erected the stone instead of the usual practice of non-family members constructing the memorial stone”, he explained.
The hero stones that were earlier discovered in this region rarely had inscriptions. And those that did not have Tamil wordings,” S. Ravikumar, one of the archaeologists from Virarjaendran Historical Research Centre who discovered the stone, told The Hindu .
The archaeologists said that the cracks on the stone could be set right and that it was a historical treasure that should be properly preserved.
