Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s3.1

c5.s3.1

This is the original Tamiḻ alphabet which was once used in all that part of the peninsula south of Tanjore, and also in S. Malabar and Travancore where it still exists though in exceedingly limited use, and in a modern form. It may, therefore, be termed the Pāṇḍyan character, as its use extended over the whole of that kingdom at its best period; it appears also to have been in use in the small extent of country below the ghats (South-Malabar and Coimbatore of the present day) which belonged to the Cera kingdom. As it was only gradually supplanted[^1) by the modern Tamiḻ character beginning about the eleventh century under the Coḷas, it is, therefore, certain that the Tölkāppiyam, Kuṟaḷ and all the other early Tamiḻ works were written in it, under the most flourishing period of the “Pāṇḍya” (or Madura) kingdom, or before the eleventh century when it finally fell under the Coḷas.