2,000-Year-old Tamil inscriptions discovered in Pharaohs' tombs in Egypt

The discovery is expected to provide new evidence of direct, two-way contact between ancient Tamil traders and Egypt during the Roman period._Representative photo

• Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in Egypt's Valley of the Kings show ancient trade links.
• Evidence shows Tamil traders ventured deep into Egypt, not just port cities
• Ancient India and Egypt had two-way trade during the Roman period, findings confirm.

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A Tamil merchant travelling through Egypt left behind a remarkable trace of his journey nearly 2,000 years ago.

According to Times of India, he carved his name repeatedly inside the famed Valley of the Kings, the burial site of pharaohs whose tombs date back to 1600 BCE.

The inscriptions, unnoticed for centuries, have now been identified and deciphered by Swiss scholar Ingo Strauch. Written in Tamil-Brahmi script, one of the markings reads “Cikai Korran.” In Tamil, Cikai refers to a tuft or crown, while Korran (interpreted as Kotran) means leader or king.

The discovery is expected to provide new evidence of direct, two-way contact between ancient Tamil traders and Egypt during the Roman period. More significantly, it suggests that Indian merchants travelled far beyond port cities and ventured deep into the Egyptian interior.

The TOI report stated that Strauch, a professor at the University of Lausanne, collaborated with Charlotte Schmid of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) to study the inscriptions. The findings were presented at a Tamil epigraphy conference in Chennai this week.

Until now, historians knew of Tamil traders reaching Egyptian ports such as Berenike along the Red Sea. However, these newly studied inscriptions indicate that merchants did not merely dock, trade, and depart. They appear to have stayed longer and explored iconic sites, including royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

One inscription reads “Cikai Korran – vara kanta,” meaning “Cikai Korran came and saw.” “It seems to imitate the formula of Greek inscriptions found at the Valley of Kings. It shows that this person might have read the Greek inscriptions and was inspired by them,” Charlotte told TOI

Another carving reads “Kopan varata kantan” — “Kopan came and saw.” A third name, “Catan,” appears in one of the tombs; the name is frequently found in early Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in South India.

Of the 30 inscriptions identified by the researchers at the Valley of the Kings, 20 are in Tamil. The remaining inscriptions are in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Gandhari-Kharoshthi, pointing to the presence of traders from north-western and western parts of India, including present-day Gujarat and Maharashtra.

One Sanskrit inscription refers to an envoy of a Kshaharata ruler who “came here,” a notable detail given that the Kshaharata dynasty governed parts of western India in the first century CE.

“There are more than 2,000 graffiti marks and inscriptions in the Greek language found at the tombs in the Valley of Kings. They came from all parts of the Mediterranean world. But none of them came as far as Indian traders,” Charlotte said.

Jules Baillet, a scholar who recorded these inscriptions, told TOI that the Tamil Brahmi inscriptions were graffiti from the Asiatic region.

Through the writings of Ptolemy and Pliny, we know that the Romans came to India for trade.

:But it was not clear whether it was one-way or two-way trade. This new evidence gives proof of two-way trade that happened during the Roman period,” senior epigraphist Y Subbarayalu told TOI.

Archaeologist V Selvakumar of the Department of Maritime History and Maritime Archaeology at Tamil University, Thanjavur, said the Nile river valley and the Red Sea are the connecting points between Rome and ancient India.

“So, the Tamil mercantile community might have visited there for sight-seeing. The traders were also exploring the area,” he said.

Professor K Rajan, academic and research adviser to the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology, said it is important evidence as it brought to light that Tamil traders went to the interior parts of ancient Egypt during the Roman period.

Together, the inscriptions offer rare, tangible evidence of how interconnected the ancient world was — and how far Tamil merchants once travelled.