 Until the 1990s, it was generally accepted that the Brahmi script used by Ashoka spread to South India during the second half of the 3rd century BCE, assuming a local form now known as Tamil-Brahmi.Beginning in the late 1990s, archaeological excavations have produced a small number of candidates for Brahmi epigraphy predating Ashoka.Preliminary press reports of such pre-Ashokan inscriptions have appeared over the years, such as Palani, Erode, and Adichanallur, dated to c. 500 BCE, but so far only the claimed pre-Ashokan inscriptions at Anuradhapura have been published academically.