Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c4.15

c4.15

alphabet used only in S. India, the Vaṭṭeḷuttu or old Tamiḻ alphabet, which must also have been derived from the same or a Semitic source; but which is apparently, not derived from, nor is the source of the Southern Açoka alphabet though in some respects very near to it. Perhaps the most important proof of the Semitic origin of these two last alphabets is the imperfect system of marking the vowels which is common to them both. They have, like the Semitic alphabets, initial characters for them, but in the middle of words these letters are marked by mere additions to the preceding consonant. In the Vaṭṭeḷuttu it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the initial **i** and **u** are anything more than the consonants **y** and **v**. These points are intelligible only on the supposition that the Indian alphabets are derived from the Phœnician, which was formed to suit languages in which the vowels are subsidiary to the consonants, a condition which is not met with either in the Sanskritic or Dravidian languages. The character in which the Northern Inscription of Açoka (at Kapurdigiri) is written, is from right to left, like all the Semitic characters; and the character of the Southern Inscriptions which runs in the contrary direction, yet shows traces of once having been written the same way¹.