Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t1.1

c5.s2.t1.1

The Grantha, Modern Tamiḷ, Malayāḷam and Tuḷu alphabets all have their origin in the Cera character, a variety of the 'Cave character' which was used in the Cera kingdom during the early centuries A. D. From the third to the seventh century appears to have been the most flourishing period in the modern history of this kingdom; it then extended over the present Mysore, Coimbatore, Salem, Toṇḍaināḍu, South Malabar and Cochin. It was, however, one of the three great old Dravidian kingdoms and existed already in the third century B. C. What civilization it had before the period referred to, there is no information; nor is there the least trace as yet of any inscription before the early centuries A. D.¹ The existing inscriptions show that about the fourth or fifth century A. D. the rulers of this kingdom received the Jains with great zeal, and made most liberal endowments to them in the territory that constitutes the modern province of Mysore.