TIRUCHY: A stone tablet discovered while de-silting a tank near the ancient Kasivisvanathar temple at Woriyur in Tiruchy has not only elaborated details of the tank, but has interestingly revealed for the first time that a religious head has donated an irrigational facility to the people who depended on the tank.

This information is rare is it speaks of an instance of donor-ship contrary to the general practice of local governing bodies of villages, landlords or merchants “gifting” irrigational facilities to the people.

The finding of the stone tablet with valuable inscriptions in both Tamil and Grantha scripts and dated to either end of 16th century CE or early 17th century CE, was reported by Mrs P N Uthra and her team when the temple tank was being cleaned, according to Dr M Nalini, head of History department, Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College and Dr R Akila, assistant professor, Arignar Anna Government Arts College, Musiri.

Dr M. Nalini explained that the tablet attests that the tank was made as ‘gift’ of a certain Jeeyar by name Sathasiva Vajabeyar. The water to the tank was brought through a channel named as ‘Sathram Vaykkal’.