Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t9: 1.13.9 Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions outside India

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c20.s14.t9

Language: English

1.13.9 Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions outside India

The population of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, has been Tamil-speaking since time immemorial and it is not surprising that Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions occur there contemporaneously with the Tamil country. Several inscribed sherds have been discovered during exploration of villages in the Poonagari region of Jaffna.⁶ One of the inscriptions reads *vēḷāṉ*, a clan name related to *vēḷ*.⁷ Most of the other sherds are too fragmentary, but the occurrence of the diagnostic Tamil-Brāhmī letters *ḻ* *ḷ* *ṟ* and *ṉ* leaves no doubt that the language of the pottery inscription is Tamil.⁸ The sherds have been tentatively assigned to ca. 2nd century B.C. pending regular excavations of the sites.

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⁶ P. Pushparatnam 1993: pp. 36-42, Figs. 27, 30-34; 2000a: pp. 12-13, Table 1; 2001: pp. 85-97, Figs. 1 & 2. I. Mahadevan 1994b: p. 139, Pls. 4 & 5.

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⁷ See No. 7, Table 1.5 and Fig. 1.21 A.

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⁸ See also sections 5.12.1 (f), 2(c), 3(c) and 4(c) for the occurrence of these Tamil-Brāhmī letters in loanwords in the Sinhala-Brāhmī cave inscriptions of Sri Lanka.

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(ii) *Roman settlements on the Red Sea coast, Egypt

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(a) *Quseir al-Qadim

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Excavations in a Roman settlement at this ancient port on the Red Sea coast of Egypt brought to light two inscribed sherds in Tamil written in the Tamil-Brāhmī script.¹ The inscriptions read ***ka ṇa ṉa*** (***kaṇṇaṉ***) and ***cā ta ṉa*** (***cāttaṉ***). The occurrence of the Tamil nominal ending *-aṉ* in the personal names leaves no doubt about the identification of the language and the script. The inscriptions may be dated to ca. 1st century A.D. on palaeographic evidence.² It is significant that both the personal names are also found in pottery inscriptions of the same period from Arikamedu.³ An ostrakon inscription was earlier found at this site on the surface.⁴ The inscription is in Prakrit written in the Southern Brāhmī characters of ca. 2nd-3rd centuries A.D.

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¹ D. S. Whitcomb and J.H. Johnson 1979 : Pl. 27j; 1982: Pl. 61.O. I. Mahadevan 1994b: pp. 136-155, Pls. 7 & 8.

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² See No. 8, Table 1.5 and Fig. 1.21 B.

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³ I. Mahadevan 1996a: Nos. 5.22 & 5.25.

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⁴ R. Salomon 1991: pp. 731-736.

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(b) *Berenike

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The excavations of a Ptolemaic-Roman settlement at this ancient port on the Red Sea coast of Egypt in 1995 yielded an inscribed amphora fragment dated by stratigraphy to 60-70 A.D.⁵ The inscription is in Tamil and written in the Tamil-Brāhmī script. The reading is ***ko ṟa pū mā ṉa*** (*korra-pūmāṉ*) 'Korra(n), the chieftain'.

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⁵ I. Mahadevan 1996b: pp. 205-208, Pl. 9.1 and Fig. 9.2.