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Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t5: D. Grantha-Tamiḷ

Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t5

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D. Grantha-Tamiḷ

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¹ The first specimen printed in an European book that I know of is of 1625 (Purchas’ “His Pilgrimes” vol. i., Bk. i., p. 185.) But this was not the first: In 1578 Father João de Faria cut Tamiḷ types, and printed on the “Pescaria” (Tinnevelly) coast in the same year: “O Flos Sanctorum., a doutrina Christãa, hū copioso confessionario, & outros livros” (Sousa, Oriente Conquistado. ii., p. 256.) I give the exact words as several different accounts have been given which are incorrect. F. de Sousa S. J. compiled his work from MSS. (not now in existence) at Goa in the 17th century. It was printed in 1710, and he died at Goa in 1713. Tamiḷ was printed also in the 17th century at a place in the Cochin territory called Ambalakkāḍu where the Jesuits had a house. F. Paulinus says (“*India Or. Christiana*”): “Anno 1679 in oppido Ambalacāta in lignum incisi alii characteres Tamulici per Ignatium *Aichamoni* indigenam Malabarensem, iisque in lucem prodiit opus inscriptum: *Vocabulario Tamulico com a dignificação Portugueza composto pello P. Antem de Proença da Comp. de Jesu, Miss. de Maduré.*” This writer was born in 1624, went to India (Madura) in 1647, and died at Toṭṭiyam (Madura district) in 1666. Barbosa Machado (“Bibliotheca Lusitana” i., p. 182.) from whom I have taken the dates of F. da Proença’s life, did not know of his Tamiḷ Dictionary, and since Profr. de Gubernatis has made a fruitless search in the library of the Propaganda, there is little hope that a copy will be discovered. If any exist, it must be in the ‘Mission House’ at Halle, or at Goa. The first (engraved) Tamiḷ alphabet that I know of, is in Baldæus (1672) “Beschrijving der Oost-Indische Kusten Malabar en Choromandel” p. 191 ffg. The first printing press in India was that of I. de Endem at Goa—1563.

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The earliest inscriptions in which this character occurs are of the tenth century, and belong to the earlier kings of the revived Coḷa kingdom; they are at Conjeveram and in the neighbourhood of Madras and in the Kāverī delta. South of Tanjore, there are few old inscriptions in this character²).

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² The old Grantha-Tamiḷ alphabet was given by Babington in Pl. xiii. of vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Royal As. Society of London; he apparently took it mostly from the inscription of Šaluvankuppam, which is probably of the year 1038 A. D.; but he added letters from other inscriptions of later times and from other places. I have examined this inscription which is very roughly cut, and therefore preferred that at Tanjore which is of various dates chiefly from 1073 A. D. to 1089. It includes a large number of grants with many clauses in each.

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The origin of this Tamiḷ alphabet is apparent at first sight; it is a brahmanical adaptation of the Grantha letters corresponding to the old Vaṭṭeḻuttu, from which, however, the last four signs (ḷ, ḻ, ṟ and ṉ) have been retained, the Grantha not possessing equivalents. The form of *m* is also rather Vaṭṭeḻuttu than Grantha. Çaṅkarācārya is said to have preached with much success in the Coḷa kingdom; that it was the seat of a great brahmanical mission in the tenth century is shown by the inscriptions. This alphabet, accordingly, represents the later brahmanical Tamiḷ culture as opposed to the older culture of the Jains of Tanjore and Madura, and the Buddhists of Tanjore; but the earliest stage of the history of this alphabet is very obscure before the 11th century.

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Inscriptions in this character abound in all the Northern Tamiḷ country, where there is scarcely a temple of any note which has not acres of wall covered in this way. I need only mention the great temples of Conjeveram and Tanjore. It is, however, very unusual to find any with dates that can fully be identified, most being only in the year (āṇḍu) of the king’s reign (or life?), and genealogical details being very rarely given in them. As the list of the Coḷa and Pāṇḍya kings is uncertain, it is thus impossible to procure a series of palæographical standards, and I, therefore, give only three specimens¹). These will show how very little alteration and development occurred between 1073 and 1600 A. D. A very near approach to the modern Tamiḻ character must already have been reached about 1350 A. D. (cfr. Plates xiv. and xix.). The most important point is the conversion of the curve at the top of **k**, **s**, **t**, **n**, and **r** into an angular stroke, thus [Figure:], and this feature appears in an inscription of about 1200. The last letter to finally assume the modern form was **k** about 1500. The greatest development has occurred in this present century owing to the increased use of writing, and to the arbitrary alterations of the type founders²).

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¹ Our information about the Coḷa kings is confined to the 11th and 12th centuries (see above, p. 39, note). As regards the old Pāṇḍya kings we know still less. (See "The Madura Country" by J. H. Nelson, 1868). It is possible that the mention of some of these kings by the Ceylon annalists, Marco Polo, and the Muhammedan Historians may eventually furnish a clue. What information there is, has been last collected and discussed by Dr. Caldwell, "Dravidian Grammar" pp. 139-146. 536. According to an inscription at Chillumbrum (Śidambaram), Vikrama Pāṇḍya was succeeded in the 11th century by his son Vira Pāṇḍya who was conquered by Koppākesari the Coḷa. He established his younger brother on the throne there. This prince's name was Gaṅyai-kkŏṇḍa Coḷa, but he took the name Sundara Pāṇḍya Coḷa (Inscr. at Karuvūr). In 1173 Madura was conquered by the Singhalese who put a Vira Pāṇḍya on the throne, and about 1310-1315 by the Muhammedans, under whom it continued till about 1370 when it fell under Vijayanagara. From about 1100 down to 1310 there is much confusion, and it is impossible to identify the kings; this is probably to be explained by contests of the Pāṇḍyas and Pāṇḍya-Coḷas for the throne. Dr. Caldwell gives the last Pāṇḍyas as follows: Parākrama Pāṇḍya (1516-1543) Vikrama Pāṇḍya (1543-1565) Vallabhadeva, Ativirarāma (1565-1610) He was alive in 1605; in literature, he is chiefly remarkable as a diligent translator or patron of translators from Sanskrit. I have a grant by a Sundara Pāṇḍya d. Rudhirodgāri thirteenth year of his reign; this can only be 1623. Vallabhadeva, therefore, died in 1610. But all these Pāṇḍyas had no real power.

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² The first edition of the N. T. in Tamiḻ (4°. Tranquebar, 1714) is printed with type that exactly reproduce the character of the Tamiḻ inscriptions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

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The Grantha-Tamiḻ differs from the Grantha-alphabet in precisely the same way as the Vaṭṭeḻuttu, as far as the reduplication of consonants and the expression of the absence of the inherent vowel (virāma) are concerned. The puḷḷi or dot above the consonant which serves the purpose of the virāma, does not occur in any of the inscriptions I have seen, and it is omitted in the earliest printed books³). The famous Jesuit C. J. Beschi (in India, 1704-1744?) is the author of a great improvement in modern Tamiḻ orthography—the distinction between the long and short **e** and **o**. This he effected by curving the top of the [Figure:]- used to express the short e, thus [Figure:], and the same sign serves (in the compound for **o**) to express the long **ō**⁴). Before then, he states, the short **a** and **o** were *occasionally* distinguished by a stroke (the Sanskrit prosodial mark) above them. In the alphabet as given by Baldæus (1672) the same character stands for **ĕ** and **ē**, **ŏ** and **o**; but he notices the fact that these letters are long and short.

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³ It appears to have been known to the Tamiḻ grammarians.

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⁴ "Grammatica Latino-Tamilica, in quā de vulgari Tamulica lingua" etc. (Tranquebar, 1739, 12°).—"longis (e et o) nullo notatis signo brevibus superscribendum docent illud signum(-). Attamen nullibi hæc signa præterquam paucis aliquot dictionibus ex inertia fortasse amanuensium superscribi vidi unquam.......addo excogitasse me alium et faciliorem modum distinguendi e et o longa a brevibus: scilicet, cum utrique inserviat littera *[Figure:]* combu dicta; si hæc simplici formā scribatur, erit e breve et o breve: si autem inflectetur in partem superiorem, ut infra dicam de i-longo, sic *[Figure:]*, e at o erunt longa."

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Beschi omits to mention the information given by the Tamiḷ grammarians which is of some interest. The Tŏlkāppiyam (i., 1, 16) states that a dot is to be put over **ĕ** and **ŏ**. This practice was, therefore, recognized by the grammarians about the 8th century. In the 11th century the Vīraśōliyam of Buddhamitra (i., 6: “ĕɣaravŏɣaramĕyyiṟ puḷḷi mēyvum”) repeats this rule, and so does the Nannūl in still more recent or, as Dr. Pope considers, in quite recent times. Of this also, I have not been able to find the least trace in the inscriptions.

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The angular form of this Tamiḷ character is owing to a wide-spread practice in the South of India, of writing with the style resting on the *end* of the left thumb nail; in Malabar and the Telugu country the roundness of the letters is to be attributed to the practice of resting the style *òn* the left *side* of the same thumb.

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The map shows a great extension of the Grantha-Tamiḷ alphabet to the North extending over the deltas of the Kṛishṇā and Gōdāvarī; this occurred under the Coḷa rule in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Inscriptions in Tamiḷ and in the form of character given in Pl. xviii. still exist (or existed till lately) in some of the islands of the Gōdāvarī delta, and the village accountants were originally all Tamiḷ Brahmans¹). The ritual of many temples was also in this language. This however did not continue long, for in 1228 the Coḷas lost Kaliṅga which was conquered by the Ŏruṅgal king²), and by the beginning of the fourteenth century, Telugu inscriptions and grants only appear.

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¹ This remarkable extension of Tamiḷ to the north was first pointed out by F. W. Ellis (“On the Law-books of the Hindus” in Madras Lit. Trans. i.); I was able to verify it for myself in the Nellore province.

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² “About the year . . . A. D. 1228, the fourth prince of this [the Ŏruṅgal] line drove the Shózha Raja entirely out of Cālinga; this fact and date being proved by a remarkable inscription on a stone now standing on the westernmost point of the island of Dive” . . . Ellis, *u. s.*

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Tamiḷ is remarkable among the Southern languages for using a number of abbreviations for common words such as month, year, fanam etc. These appear in common use at the beginning of the 16th century³).

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³ They are to be found in most Tamiḷ Grammars.

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In the 16th and rarely in the 17th century, an abridged style of writing Tamiḷ is not unusual in which the long **ā** is connected with the preceding consonant; thus [Figure:]=**rā**⁴). Other letters *e.g.* [Figure:] (=**ṭṭ**) are also joined in a similar way; this manner of writing exists now in the cursive hand only.

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⁴ See inscription of ç. 1454 (=1532-3 A. D.) on the Gopura of the Piḷḷaiyār Temple in the Fort at Tanjore. Thus in the Digambara cosmogony called ‘Trilokasāra’ the gāthas 848-850 describe the persecution of some Jain ascetics by Kalki (a king said to have lived 394 years after the Çakarāja). These run:

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