In 3rd century CE, cattle were considered the primary form of wealth. Capturing the enemy’s cattle was a strategic declaration of war called ‘aagol’, and recovering or defending them was called ‘meetchi’. The battles fought during these raids are recorded on hero stones found at Irulapatti in Dharmapuri, except they are in Old Tamil, which for decades hardly anyone other than archaeologists and linguists have decoded.But now, a Thanjavur-based organisation, Damarika Archaeological Training Agency, is helping bridge the gap in accessibility for history. “Archaeology is a multidisciplinary subject, and inscriptions are one of its important segments. Most of history is lost because very few can read the inscriptions. “We believe this is something everyone should know and be able to access,” says Aakash A, CEO.Over the past year, the organisation has been hosting workshops on decoding the ancient script of Tamili, found at archaeological sites. “We would never have imagined so many people would show interest. We have more than 250 people from different parts of Tamil Nadu signing up every month and have taught more than 2,000 people so far.”Noora Zaina, an architecture student, says she has always been interested in history but never knew how to begin. “As an architecture student, we visit historical sites and temples, and I would see all these inscriptions. But I could never read what was written. That’s when I saw the Tamili script workshop and signed up immediately. In the workshop, along with context to each inscription and basic history, I learned the evolution of Tamil, from Old Tamil to Tamili-Brahmi and how it evolved to the Tamil we see today with the usage of pulli (dot),” she says. Students have deciphered inscriptions on a variety of subjects from a 5th century cockfight to a 16th-century Kancheepuram idli recipe.“Many words in Tamili, though similar to Tamil, sound different while reading, so we teach participants how to identify these words and correlate the meaning; so they actually understand what they read. Over time, it’s easy to recognise the pattern and understand what sort of an inscription it is, whether it’s a memorial, commemoration, or recording of a historical event,” says Aakash. Unlike modern Tamil script, he says, Tamili used a form of Brahmi adapted to record the sounds of early Tamil. Participants are also taken on curated site visits, where they can apply what they have learned.
