Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c21.s4.t5.7

c21.s4.t5.7

According to Subrahmanya Aiyer, "a large number of Sanskrit words in their Prākṛit forms" occur in these records.³ Later studies have shown that he tended to overestimate the presence of the Indo-Aryan element in these records, though not perhaps to the same extent as was done by Krishna Sastri. Many of the so-called Prakrit words turn out to be due to incorrect reading. For example, out of the fifteen words listed by Subrahmanya Aiyer in their Sanskrit form to illustrate his point, about half the number do not in fact occur in the inscriptions read by him.⁴