Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t5.13

c5.s2.t5.13

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.