Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s16.t5.17
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s16.t5.17
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c21.s16.t5.17
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