Date:22/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/22/stories/2007112255651202.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Exciting discovery

I read with great interest the report that a broken storage jar with inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi script has been excavated in Egypt (Nov. 21). The word Ori (pot suspended in a rope net) is used even today in the Kanyakumari district and some other parts of Tamil Nadu.

The pot, made of clay, is suspended using thick ropes and peculiar knots. It is mainly used to store tamarind or palmyra jaggery. I remember how, as a boy, I used to climb on a stool and pick up some pieces of jaggery from the pot. Since paanai (pot) is an integral part, it is called Paanai Ori.

S.O. Pillai,

Kozhikode