Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s13.23

c21.s13.23

Venkataswamy compares his readings of the inscriptions with what he considers to be the corresponding forms in *centamiḻ* (Literary Tamil) and interprets them accordingly after making appropriate 'corrections'. For example, *nelveḷi*- is considered to be an 'error' (of the engraver or the copyist) for Nelvēli as only the latter place is known to Tamil tradition;⁷ *ataṉ* and *antai* are 'erroneous' forms of ātaṉ and āntai respectively as only the latter names are found in literary works;¹ *-caliyaṉ* is an 'error' for *ceḻiyaṉ* as only the latter form is grammatically correct;² and so on. Given this approach, his readings and interpretations turn out to be highly prescriptive, imposing on the language of the cave inscriptions norms which are not applicable to them.