The hero stone mentions the name of the warrior’s native village ‘Vellathi’. Is it ‘Bellathi’ in Coimbatore?
The straying of wild animals into human habitations, destroying crops and killing the cattle are not the order of the day just in the modern era, which witnesses man’s encroachment of forest fringes for real estate plots and constructing jungle resorts. In fact, man’s encroachments on the land of wild animals have been on earth since time immemorial.
The late Kovai Kizhar C. M. Ramachandran Chettiar, the first historian of Coimbatore, author of over 100 books and former commissioner of Hindu Religious Endowment Board in the British rule, narrates in his book Ithuvo Engal Kovai (Oh! is this our Coimbatore?) on how the people of Coimbatore protected their cattle from the attack of tigers in the beginning years after the village Kovanpuththur (which later got corrupted to Coimbatore) was founded by clearing the forests of the Irula tribal people. The veteran historian informs that the people honoured the warrior, who died in a fight with a tiger in his attempts of protecting the cattle from it. In order to mark his death, the villager erected a memorial stone called Pulikuththikal or Nadukal (Hero stone), which would depict the warrior’s image in his posture of stabbing the big cat with his sword. Such hero stones are found in Ukkadam, Irugur and Pattanam and several other places in and around the city.
And one such hero stone has been discovered by history enthusiasts Anandakumar, Chandrasekar and Sanjeevi on a farmland called Venkatanaicker Thottam at Kurumbapalayam near Karamadai in Coimbatore. The memorial, which dates back to 16th century CE, contains an inscription with the mention of the warrior’s name.
“The inscription found at the bottom of the hero stone reads that it was erected in memory of one by the name ‘Nayinar’ of a clan called ‘Vendhakulam’ – the man, who died in a fight with the tiger. The hero stone also mentions the name of his native village as ‘Vellathi’,” says Ananda kumar, a history enthusiast and network engineer by profession in a Bengaluru-based company.
Interestingly, the village mentioned as ‘Vellathi’ in the inscription, has now got corrupted to ‘Bellathi ‘which is located near Karamadai. The corruption of the name was due to the influence of Kannada, as the villages surrounding Mettupalayam and Karamadai are highly populated by Kannada-speaking people. According to the linguistic rule, it is natural that a ‘v’ sound turns to ‘b’ sound in Kannada, as seen in ‘Velur’ becoming ‘Belur’. Such changes in the pronunciation of words are heard in the areas located on the Karnataka – Tamil Nadu borders.
Anandakumar is also the author of the book Vettuvar Samudhaya Aavanangal (The social documents of Vettuvar, an aboriginal clan in the Kongu region). Anand’s book is given a review in an issue of Aavanam, an annual edition, which carries the recent discoveries of stone inscriptions and other archaeological findings. The magazine is published by Archaeological Society, Tamil University, Thanjavur.