Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t5.8

c5.s2.t5.8

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.