Pillars commemorating King George V's coronation found in TN village

CHENNAI: Stone pillars with inscriptions that commemorate the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary of England have been found in a village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

S Thamaraipandian, a professor of manuscriptology at the International Institute of Tamil Studies who found the inscriptions, said commemorative pillars of George V’s coronation were found in the Arulmigu Venkatachalapathy temple and inside a dilapidated fortress in Samugarengapuram village.

There are five stone inscriptions at the entrance and two on the inner surface of the pillars. All the inscriptions were written in the month of Aani (mid-May to mid-June) in the year 1911 CE.

According to the stone inscriptions, they were donated by Sri Krishnaswamy Reddiar of Thiruvananthapuram, Moolaiveedu Chinnammal, Renganatha Ghee company and wife of Vijayaranga Reddiar Avudaimmal.

On the lamp post in front of the temple’s entrance, there is an inscription that states that it was inscribed on December 12, 1911, and informs the coronation of George V and Queen Mary.

Also, there is a place called Kottai, referring to a fortress, on the east of this village, which had been owned by a landlord. There is a dilapidated mandapam inside this fortress, and there is a big stone lamp post at its entrance. This lamp post has an inscription written both in English and Tamil. It states that this post was erected to commemorate the coronation of George V, on the 26th of the Karthigai month in 1911. It was established by Venkatachala Reddiar, who was the village munsiff at that time.

Both these inscriptions showed that the Reddiar community had supported British rule and celebrated monarchy, he said.

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