Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s16.t5: 2.16.5 Palaeographic evidence

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s16.t5

Language: English

2.16.5 Palaeographic evidence

The fundamental basis for dating Early Tamil-Brāhmī is its obviously close resemblance to Mauryan Brāhmī. The near-identity in the shapes of the common letters and medial vowel signs between the two leaves no reasonable doubt that Tamil-Brāhmī was formed from Brāhmī before the end of the Mauryan Age. A small but significant detail is the formation of the Tamil-Brāhmī *ḻ* from the rare Asokan *ḍ* not known to have been in use after his time.³

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³ See sections 5.4, 5.6.1 and 5.12.1 (b); Palaeographic Charts 1 to 3.

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(ii) *Occurrence of Brāhmī letters in Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions

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The Brāhmī letters *dh* and *s* occur only in Early Tamil-Brāhmī cave inscriptions, the latter occurring also in the legends on coins, seals and rings. The presence of Brāhmī letters with non-Tamil sounds indicates an early date corroborated by palaeographic evidence.⁴

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⁴ See section 5.5 (n. 2).

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(iii) *Sinhala-Brāhmī

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Early Tamil-Brāhmī and Early Sinhala-Brāhmī also resemble each other very closely indicating their descent from Mauryan Brāhmī at about the same time. As Early Sinhala-Brāhmī has been dated with the help of a few royal inscriptions from about the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 2nd century B.C., Early Tamil-Brāhmī can also be placed in the same period. The earliest common structural feature is the absence of conjunct consonants in both the scripts. The two scripts also share the special forms of *ī* (read as *i*), *m* and *ḷ*, all of which get replaced in Late Sinhala-Brāhmī by the corresponding Southern Brāhmī forms. Recent discoveries of the occurrence of the special Tamil-Brāhmī letters of *ḻ*, *ṟ* and *ṉ* (in addition to *ḷ* known earlier) in Early Sinhala-Brāhmī inscriptions provide confirmation that Early Tamil-Brāhmī and Early Sinhala-Brāhmī are coeval.¹

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¹ See sections 5.6.4; 5.12.1 (e), 2 (c), 3 (c) & 4 (c); Figs. 5.5, 5.7 & 5.8.

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(iv) *Southern Brāhmī*

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The 'circular top' form of Tamil-Brāhmī *ḻ* occurs in the Ikshvaku inscription of ca. 3rd century A.D. at Gurzala in Andhra. By this time however, the character in Tamil-Brāhmī had evolved into the 'loop' form. The preservation of the archaic form in the Ikshvaku record indicates that the 'circular' form of *ḻ* in the Proto-Telugu-Kannada script originated from Tamil-Brāhmī.² The Tamil-Brāhmī form of *ḷ* occurs uniquely in the Prakrit inscription of ca. 1st century A.D. at Malakonda in Andhra.³

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² See section 5.12.1(g).

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³ See section 5.12.2 (d).

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There has been movement in the reverse direction also. Southern Brāhmī forms are seen in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions during the Late Period (ca. 2nd to 4th centuries A.D.) in the border regions of the Tamil country adjoining Andhra and Karnataka. The Southern Brāhmī forms with known dates help in determining the dates of the less well-known Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions in which the forms occur; e.g., *v* at Pugalur and *k* and *m* at Mamandur (ca. 3rd century A.D.); *k* and *t* at Ammankoyilpatti and *k* at Arachalur (ca. 4th century A.D.)⁴

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⁴ See sections 5.6.2 and 5.11; Palaeographic Charts 5A, 5B & 6.

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(v) *Legends on Sātavāhana coins*

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The legends on the reverse of the famous series of silver portrait coins issued by the Sātavāhanas in ca. 1st-3rd centuries A.D. are in Tamil in the Late Tamil-Brāhmī script. The occurrence of the Late Tamil-Brāhmī forms of *c* and *m* and the distinctive Tamil-Brāhmī characters *ḻ* and *ṉ* and the *puḷḷi* in the coin legends are noteworthy. As the coins are of known dates, the Tamil-Brāhmī characters occurring in them help to date the inscriptions with similar forms.⁵

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⁵ See section 5.15 and Figs. 5.9 & 5.10.

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(vi) *Pottery inscriptions*

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The increasing numbers of pottery inscriptions in Tamil-Brāhmī from Tamil sites and from outside Tamil Nadu provide a powerful new method to determine the chronology and evolution of Tamil-Brāhmī. The presently available dates for pottery inscriptions range from ca. 200 B.C. to 300 A.D.⁶

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⁶ See section 1.13, Tables 1.4 & 1.5 and Map 2.