CHENNAI: A ninth century stone sluice, known as ‘Kumilithoombu’ in Tamil, with inscriptions in Grantha script has been discovered near Thirumangalam in Madurai.
D Muneeswaran, founder of Pandiya Nadu Panpattu Maiyam, said that based on the inscription, the period of the intricately carved pillars of the sluice is 9th century. The sluice was seen on the bund of Periyakanmoi in Mela Urappanur near Thirumangalam.
The tank was spread over a large area, and hence had many sluices to regulte waterflow into the tank. The pillars were about 10ft tall, and had a lotus flower carved on top of each of them. The sluices, designed to have a stone tank at their base, have two types of holes — the smaller ones to filter mud and sediments and the bigger ones to let out the gushing water.
In the middle of the stones, the inscriptions read ‘Sri thasaskanth, Sri Nasaskanth’ in Grantha script. They could be the names of the people who constructed the sluice, Muneeswaran said.
A similar sluice with names of Pandiya king Veera Narayanan had been earlier found on the other side of the tank a few years ago.
