Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t10: 1.13.10 General characteristics of pottery inscriptions
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t10
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1.13.10 General characteristics of pottery inscriptions
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(i) *Languages and scripts
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The vast majority of the pottery inscriptions from ancient Tamil sites are in Tamil written in the Tamil-Brāhmī script. Relatively much fewer inscribed sherds are in Prakrit in the Southern Brāhmī script. The pottery inscriptions in Prakrit occur mostly in cities, ports and industrial or trading centres. A unique pottery inscription from Arikamedu dated to ca. 1st century A.D. is in Hybrid Sanskrit written in the Northern Brāhmī script.⁶ A small but significant group of pottery inscriptions is in the Sinhala-Prakrit language written in the Early Sinhala-Brāhmī script (ca. 2nd century B.C. to 1st century A.D.).⁷ These inscriptions occur at the ports of Arikamedu and Alagankulam and the inland site of Kodumanal which had trade relations with Sri Lanka. The pottery inscription from Kanchipuram is probably in Pāli.⁸ Pottery (terra sigillata) stamped in Latin in the Roman script occurs at Arikamedu.⁹
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⁶ R.E.M. Wheeler *et al.* 1946: p. 112, Fig. 46.3, Pl. XLI.3. I. Mahadevan 1973: pp. 60-64, No. I, Fig. 1. A.H. Dani 1986: pp. 73-74. His reading *yakhamitrasya* in Hybrid Sanskrit is followed here.
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⁷ I. Mahadevan 1996c: pp. 55-68, Inscriptions 1-7, Figs. 1-7.
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⁸ For discussion, see I. Mahadevan 1997a: pp. 238-240.
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⁹ R.E.M.' Wheeler *et al.* 1946. pp. 34-40, Pl. XXIII.
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(ii) *Palaeography and orthography
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Palaeography of the pottery inscriptions is considered along with that of the stone inscriptions in Chapter 5,¹ where the special palaeographic forms which occur in the pottery inscriptions are illustrated in Palaeographic Chart No. 7. The orthographic features of the pottery inscriptions are considered along with those of the stone inscriptions in Chapter 6.²
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¹ See sections 5.9 to 5.14.
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² See section 6.12.
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(iii) *Contents
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While considering the language and contents of the Tamil-Brāhmī stone inscriptions throughout this study, parallels have been drawn with similar features occurring in the pottery inscriptions.