Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s6.t2: B. — The Vaṭṭeḷuttu
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s6.t2
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B. — The Vaṭṭeḷuttu
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Among the Vaṭṭeḷuttu inscriptions, the Śāsanas of Bhāskara-Ravivarman in favour of the Jews (pl. VIII, cols. XXI, XXII) and of the Syrians of Kocin,⁴ as well as the Tirunelli copper-plates of the same king,⁵ have been published with facsimiles. Trusting to rather weak arguments, Burnell ascribes the first-named two documents to the 8th century.⁶ But the Grantha letters occurring in the Śāsana of the Jews belong to the third and latest variety of that alphabet, and the Nāgarī *śā* or *śī* (probably for *śrīḥ*) at the end of the document, to which Hultzsch has called attention,⁷ resembles the northern forms of the 10th and 11th centuries (compare plate V, 39, 47, VIII; 48, X).
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⁴ Madras Journ. Lit. Soc. 13, 2, 1; IA. 3, 333; B.ESIP. pl. 32 *a*; EI. 3, 72; alphabet, IA. 1, 229; B.ESIP. pl. 17.
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⁵ IA. 20, 292.
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⁶ IA. 1, 229; B.ESIP. 49; disputed by Hultzsch, IA. 20, 289.
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⁷ EI. 3, 67.
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From a paleographical point of view, the Vaṭṭeḷuttu may be described as a cursive script, which bears the same relation to the Tamil as the modern northern alphabets of the clerks and merchants to their originals, *e. g.*, the Moḍī of the Marāṭhās to the Bālbodh and the Ṭākarī of the Dogrās to the Śāradā.⁸ With the exception of the *Ī*, probably borrowed from the Grantha, all its letters are made with a single stroke from the left to the right, and are mostly inclined towards the left. Several among them, such as the *ña* (plate VIII, 15, XXI) with the curve and hook on the left, the *va* with the open top and the hook on the left (plate VIII, 38, XXI, XXII; compare cols. XVII—XX) and the round *ra* (plate VIII, 45, 46, XXI, XXII; compare 47, XVII—XX), show the characteristics of the second variety of the Tamil of the 11th and later centuries. And with the usage of the later Tamil inscriptions agrees the constant omission of the Virāma. Some other characters, such as the round *ṭa* (plate VIII, 20—23, XXI, XXII; compare col. XVI), the *ma* with the curve on the right (plate VIII, 34, XXI, XXII; compare col. XVI), and the *ya* with the loop on the left (plate VIII, 35, XXI, XXII; compare col. XVI), seem to go back to the forms of the earlier Tamil. And three, the rounded *U* (plate VIII, 5, XXI), the pointed *E* (plate VIII, 8, XXI) and the *ṇa* with a single notch (plate VIII, 26, XXI, XXII), possibly show characteristics dating from a still earlier period.
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⁸ Compare above, § 25, note 8.
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Perhaps it may be assumed that the "round-hand" arose already before the 7th century, but was modified in the course of time by the further development of the Tamil and the Grantha scripts. Owing to the small [73] number of the accessible inscriptions, this conjecture is however by no means certain.
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The transformation of the Vaṭṭeluttu *ka* (plate VIII, 11—14, XXI, XXII), which seems to be derived from a looped form, is analogous to that of the figure 4 in the decimal system of numeral notation (compare plate IX, B, 4, V—VII, and IX). The curious *ta* (plate VIII, 25—28, XXI, XXII) has been developed by the change of the loop of the Tamil letter (compare cols. XVII, XVIII) into a notch and the prolongation of the tail up to the head. The still more extraordinary *na* (plate VIII, 29, XXI) may be explained as a cursive derivative of the later Tamil *na* with the stroke hanging down from the top.