A foot and a half is not much but that saved the rocks with seventh-century inscriptions — in Poonjeri village near the World Heritage Site in Mamallapuram on East Coast Road (ECR) — from getting lost forever.
Widening of the ECR had threatened these rocks containing the names of sculptors of the world heritage monuments in the port city of the Pallavas.
They are safe now owing to the timely act by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-Chennai Circle in coordination with the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) that maintains ECR, a State highway.
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After being alerted by the ASI, the TNRDC has made modifications in its design on the embankment that forms part of the ongoing widening work of the stretch into four lanes between Akkarai and Mamallapuram — a distance of around 30 km — to preserve the treasure, say sources.
Historical value
“The inscriptions may not be part of the protected monuments but they have historical value as the inscribed rocks contain names of the sculptors who designed the monuments in Mamallapuram,” an ASI official told
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ASI officials said the inscriptions mentioned a few Mamallapuram sculptors such as Kevatha Perunthachan, Ravi Perunthachan, Paiyamizaippaan and Lalithangkuran.
The term ‘Perunthachan’ refers to chief (Perun) sculptor (Thachan) in ancient Grantha script.
Published in ASI report
In fact, the inscriptions were published in the ASI’s annual report many years ago as part of its efforts to record such rare findings.
The Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department too has recorded the inscriptions in its publications under Kancheepuram section.
However, it is the ongoing road widening work on the stretch that brought the safety of the inscriptions into focus.
After alerts from local ASI officials and village elders, officials at ASI Chennai Circle recently requested to the Kancheepuram Collector to take steps to modify the design on the widening work.
Spot Inspection
Subsequently, a team of TNRDC officials inspected the site and agreed for modifications.
A copy of these communications between ASI Chennai Circle and TNRDC is available with The Hindu .
As per the new project for road widening, the width of the expanded stretch has been modified by decreasing the paved shoulders (emergency stopping lane on highways) by 0.5 metre to a length of 15 metres along the stretch where the inscribed rocks are found.
By this, TNRDC officials said there would be no hindrance to the free flow of traffic and, at the same time, inscriptions would not be damaged.
Archaeologists said that most inscriptions about sculptors were found in temples.
For example, names of the chief sculptor during the reign of Raja Raja Chola I, Perunthachan, at Thanjavur’s Big Temple, and Ravishekaran, chief sculptor of the famous Shiva temple at Tiruvottiyur in north Chennai in the eleventh century, were found in these temples themselves.
In contrast, inscriptions about the Mamallapuram sculptors were found around 300 metres away from the World Heritage Site in Poonjeri. Historians believe that the sculptors might have lived in Poonjeri while working on the Mamallapuram monuments, a port city during the Pallava rule.
Archaeologists want the ASI to move the fragile inscribed rocks to its museum in Mamallapuram for safety from future development activities.
The inscriptions
were published in
ASI’s annual report listing rare findings many years ago