Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s4.t4: 2.4.4 Language of cave inscriptions
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s4.t4
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2.4.4 Language of cave inscriptions
c21.s4.t4.1
Subrahmanya Aiyer's analysis not only ruled out Indo-Aryan as the language of the cave inscriptions, but also established convincingly that the language is Old Tamil with an admixture of Prakrit loanwords. His conclusion that "it is quite consistent that in a Tamil country, the inscriptions, meant to be understood by the race, which is not known to have spoken any other language must be Tamil"⁴ has never been seriously disputed thereafter.
c21.s4.t4.2
⁴ Ibid. p. 286.