Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.s1.2

c10.s1.2

There are at present vowel-marks for a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, ĕ, ē, ai, ŏ, ō and au; but of these in addition to the usual pronunciation of u and ai, these two letters have very commonly the value of ṳ, and this is noticed by the earliest grammarians¹. Again a, i, ī, and ū have distinct secondary² values in some cases, viz., they become ‘mixed’.