Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s14.t2: 2.14.2 Other orthographic 'peculiarities' in the cave inscriptions
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s14.t2
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2.14.2 Other orthographic 'peculiarities' in the cave inscriptions
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The conventions relating to the notation of medial vowels referred to as TB-I to III are not the only 'peculiarities' in the orthography of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions. There are other unusual usages which were inadequately explained or treated as 'scribal errors' or not noticed at all by the earlier investigators. The following is a list of the special usages found mostly in the earlier inscriptions.
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(i) Use of *ī* in the place of *i*.
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(ii) Use of *ū* in the place of *u*.¹
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¹ I. Mahadevan 1985a: pp. 22-27.
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(iii) Avoidance of doubling of consonants.
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(iv) 'Analytical' writing (i.e., separation of non-initial segments and suffixes commencing with vowels).
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(v) 'Pause' (i.e., break between the consonant and the following vowel in the same syllable).
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The special usages are too numerous and too systematic to be dismissed as mere scribal errors. It is significant that many of these special usages have also been discovered in recent years in pottery inscriptions and in legends on coins, seals, etc. The evidence justifies the search for rational explanations for the observed deviations from the Brāhmī norms. Chapter 6 in the present volume includes the results of recent research, much of it previously unpublished.²
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² See sections 6.14 to 6.19.