ANNUAL REPORT ON SOUTH INDIAN EPIGRAPHY
FOR THE YEAR 1935-36

PERSONNEL.

PART I.

  During the year 1935-36, I was on leave on average pay for 3 months and 17 days from 5th September to 21st December 1935, when Mr. G. V. Srini- vasa Rao, the Senior Epigraphical Assistant, was appointed to hold charge of the current duties of the office in addition to his own (vide Notification No. F. 37-8/35-F, dated 5th July 1935 and 22nd January 1936 of the Government of India, Department of Education, Health and Lands).

TOURS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE ASSISTANTS.

  2. I was on tour for about 20 days from 16th February 1936 in the Ramnad and Tinnevelly districts, where I visited 9 villages. The Second Epigraphical Assistant accompanied me during part of this tour. In the course of my tour in these two districts I found the inscriptions in most of the temples covered with repeated coatings of whitewash or paints or oily gift in several places. The sculptures had in almost all cases lost their form and beauty by this pernicious habit of applying white or colour wash, and I had to impress on the Trustees of these temples the sacred duty of keeping the inscriptions and soulptures clean and free from any coating.

  2. I was on tour for about 20 days from 16th February 1936 in the Ramnad and Tinnevelly districts, where I visited 9 villages. The Second Epigraphical Assistant accompanied me during part of this tour. In the course of my tour in these two districts I found the inscriptions in most of the temples covered with repeated coatings of whitewash or paints or oily gift in several places. The sculptures had in almost all cases lost their form and beauty by this pernicious habit of applying white or colour wash, and I had to impress on the Trustees of these temples the sacred duty of keeping the inscriptions and soulptures clean and free from any coating.

  Impelled by such observations made by me in previous years I had drawn up a Note on the preservation of Sculptures and Inscriptions in the Madras Presidency, which was issued as a Government Communique by the Director- General of Archӕology in September 1935. This has been subsequently published both in English and in the languages of the several districts in all the District Gazettes of the Madras Presidency. Copies of the Note were widely distributed among the several temples of the province through the Hindu Religious Endowment Board, Madras, and also some copies were supplied through the Superintendent, Archӕological Survey, Western circle, to the Collectors of the several districts in the Bombay-Karnatak whose epigraphical survey is being conducted by the Department. The Note has also been translated in all Western India languages. It is hoped that this propa ganda has borne fruit in several cases, though there still lingers a sentimental regard for the old habit of applying white and colour wash to these valuable monuments. It behoves all local officials and cultured members of the public to educate the temple managers and pilgrims to adopt an enlightened attitude in the matter and thus co-operate with the Government and the scholarly world in the proper maintenance of these monuments.

   3. The Senior Epigraphical Assistant was on tour for a few days in November 1935, when he visited Hampi and secured photographs of some interesting sculptures at the place besides copying three new inscriptions. He toured again for a month from the 10th February 1936 in the Trichinopoly and Tanjore districts, where he visited 9 villages and revised in situ the readings of several damaged inscriptions of the early Chōḷas now under publication and secured copies of 26 new inscriptions form 3 other villages.

   The Second Epigraphical Assistant was on tour from the 11th February to 21st March 1936. Besides accompanying me through part of my tour in the Ramnad and Tinnevelly districts he visited a few villages in connection with

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