Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t8: 1.13.8 Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions from sites outside Tamil Nadu

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t8

Language: English

1.13.8 Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions from sites outside Tamil Nadu

Salihundam, a Buddhist site in Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh, has yielded 69 inscribed sherds dating between ca. 3rd-2nd century B.C. and 4th-5th century A.D.² The inscriptions are in Prakrit in the Southern Brāhmī script with one notable exception. The unique inscribed sherd is a fragment of a rouletted ware dish of fine fabric found at surface level³ and said to be similar to Type 1a pottery at Arikamedu. The sherd has been assigned to ca. 3rd or 2nd century B.C. by the excavator who has offered two or three alternative readings of the inscription,⁴ According to my revised reading, the text is *na ku lā na* (*nakulan*), a masculine personal name (Nakulaṉ) in Tamil⁵ after one of the Pāṇḍava brothers. The orthography is influenced by the Bhattiprolu style as may be seen from the apparent lengthening of *lā*. The inscription may be dated to ca. 1st century B.C. from palaeographic evidence. The inscription was incised probably by a Tamil monk or pilgrim at the site.

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² R. Subrahmanyam 1964: pp. 43-45, 83-90, Pls. XLVII-LIX.

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³ Ibid. Fig. 13, No. 3a; Pl. XLVII, top left.

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⁴ Ibid. p. 44, No. 3a; p. 83, No. 1.

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⁵ I. Mahadevan 1994b: p. 145, Pl. 10. The language is not Prakrit as the reading requires a basic consonant in final position. The language is also not Old Telugu as the expected *-anṟ* ending does not occur. Tamil satisfies all the criteria including orthography. The medial vowel notation is a mixture of the TB-I & II systems as in the Alagarmalai inscriptions (especially, Nos. 38-45, ca. 1st century B.C.). See sections 6.5 to 6.8 on medial vowel notations in Tamil-Brāhmī. The use of dental *n* instead of alveolar *ṉ* has parallels in the Jambai inscription (No. 59, ca. 1st century A.D.).