A silver ring with an inscription in the ancient Tamil Brahmi script has been found reportedly from the Amaravathi riverbed at Karur in Tamil Nadu. The highly stylised script depicts the punctuated Pandya fish emblem.

Ms Beena Sarasan, an expert in numismatics, who purchased the ring from an antique dealer, suggested that the script reads “ peruvazhuthi.”

Peruvazhuti is the name of a Pandya king who, according to the Tamil sangam tradition, has performed several vedic yagas and rituals . The letters are engraved in bold and legible characters.

The full name of this Pandya king was Palyagasalai Mutukutumi Peruvazhuthi who finds mention in several early Tamil sangam songs.

Dr. M.R. Raghava Varier, former Professor of Epigraphy, Calicut University said the letters on the ring can be attributed to an early stage of evolution of the Tamil Brahmi characters on the basis of the palaeographical features of the script.

Dr. Varier observed that the characters representing the peculiar Dravidian sound “Zha” show the earliest form of the letter found in the cave labels of Arittappatti- Mangulam group of inscriptions of the 3rd or 2nd century BCE.

The characteristic rightward stroke of the Tamil Brahmi letters as suggested by earlier scholars are also present in the third letter “Va”. The artefact is a valuable find in the historical and epigraphical studies of ancient Tamilakam, Dr. Raghava Varier added.