Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.s1.7

c10.s1.7

³ It is quite certain that the Tamiḻ alphabet was always limited in extent, for the Tŏlkāppiyam (i., 1, 1) and Nannūl (ii., 4) expressly put the number of *letters* at thirty. The Nannūl (ii., 8) says also: “Beginning with a, twice six are vowels beginning with k, (there) are thrice six consonants: thus say the learned.” It is remarkable that only in one system of writing and that just deciphered, we find the same character used to express both the sonant and surd consonants of the same class; I mean the mysterious Cypriote syllabary (*“Journal des Savants”*, Sept. 1877, p. 560). At the very first view it is easy to trace striking resemblances between some of the Cypriote characters and Vaṭṭeḻuttu letters (e. g. [Figure:] = **ϰε, ϰη; χε, χη; γε, γη**); but the syllabic nature of the former makes it difficult to suppose any real connection between the two in their forms as now known. Further research into the systems of writing once used in the Levant and in the Aramean country will, I have no doubt, eventually clear up the origin of the Vaṭṭeḻuttu.