Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t10.2

c20.s14.t10.2

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