Arachalur Rock-cut Cave Musical Inscription, also known as Arachalur Isai Kalvettu is a rock cut historical site of musical inscriptions at the south of Nagamalai hill in

Arachalur Arachalur is a panchayat town in Erode district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is situated 22 kilometres from Erode and an important junction on SH 37 en route to Dharapuram and other important small towns like Kodumudi and Chennimalai. ...

Reserve Forest near

Erode Erode () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Erode is the seventh largest urban agglomeration in the state, after Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tiruppur and Salem. It is also the administrative headquarters of the E ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

The Inscriptions

There are three 2nd century C.E.

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

inscriptions in Arachalur, which Dr. S. Raju discovered. On a Jain bed in the Arachalur hills, is an inscription — ‘ezhuthum punaruthan maniya vannakkan devan sathan.’ The word ‘punaruthan’ is an alteration of punarthan, which means organised. The other two inscriptions have musical syllables, which are the same when read from left to right, and vice versa; they are also the same when read from the top of a column to the bottom and vice versa. These two inscriptions show that 'Maniyan Vannakkan Devan Sathan' organised musical syllables. “This inscription, which belongs to the same period as Silappadikaram, is centuries older than the 'Kudumiyamalai inscriptions' on music, and yet the Arachalur inscription hardly draws visitors,” rues Dr.S. Raju.

Location

The site is located on the Erode-Palani State Highway-83A about 20 km from

Erode Central Bus Terminus Silver Jubilee Bus Terminus or Erode Central Bus Station is a terminal bus station located in the City of Erode, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located near Swastik Circle at the junction of Mettur Road and Sathy Road about 3 km north of Ero ...

and 18 km from

Erode Junction railway station Erode Junction railway station (Station Code: ED) is the main railway junction serving the city of Erode, Tamil Nadu. Erode Junction is one of the major railway Junction in Southern Railway and is located 3 km away from Erode Central Bus ...

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em 2nd-century inscriptions Archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu Jain rock-cut architecture Erode district Tourist attractions around Erode Indian music history