Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c3.17

c3.17

These grants will again by their local irregularities of spelling throw great light on the history of the literary dialects of those languages, and especially of Canarese and Telugu. It is certain that the earliest literary culture in the Deccan was purely Sanskritic, and that compositions in the vernacular (except in Tamiḷ) scarcely existed before the 10th century A. D.; but these were always artificial to the last degree, and contained Sanskrit words in profusion, they were in short Kāvyas²); hence for specimens of the language as actually used we must depend on the earlier inscriptions. The Tamiḷ literature has also fallen under Sanskrit influences, but to a less degree; yet as it is scarcely probable that the grammarians had ended their work at the date of the earliest documents, these will furnish important information illustrating the history of the language.