Minister for Education and Culture M. A. Baby said here on Wednesday that a master plan would be prepared for preservation of the Edakal cave in Wayanad district of Kerala.
This was against the background of detection of certain symbols similar to that of the Indus civilisation in the cave.
The Minister said that the blasting of rocks near the Edakal cave would not be permitted. The Archaeology Department had now assumed responsibility along with the Tourism Department for conserving the site. Visitors would henceforth be allowed only in groups accompanied by guides.
Historian M. R. Raghava Warrier, who discovered the figure of “the man-with-the-jar” on rock beneath the soil during recent explorations at Edakal said that more evidence was necessary to make any definite and meaningful statements about the relations between the Harappan script and the sign found in the cave recently. However, any discussion on the Edakal engravings now would not be complete without a reference to the man-with-the-jar sign.
Dr. Warrier said that the academic and intellectual problems regarding the sign was of how to explain the occurrence of a sign usually found on Harappan objects assigned to the bronze age in a different cultural context like that of Edakal which belongs to the iron age, judging from the available evidence. The human figure found at Edakal followed the typical Edakal style and the jar held by the figure followed the typical Indus style.
He recalled that scholars A. Sundara and Iravatham Mahadevan had reported similar marks and signs from different parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively. The newly found engraving at Edakal rendered support to those findings suggesting continuity of Harappan cultural signs in the southern parts of the sub continent, of a later historical epoch.
