Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t8.6

c20.s14.t8.6

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.).