Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s1.t3.11

c22.s1.t3.11

The basically Tamil language used in these inscriptions was different from the Tamil language used in the Sangam literary works and contains good proportion of Prākṛit words. Probably the view that the language employed in many of these lithic records "is Tamil in its formative stages" may not be quite easy of acceptance though it betrays much unsteadiness in its grammatical and other features showing that "it was less homogeneous and regular in its characteristics". Its difference from the literary Tamil from the point of style was obviously due to the fact that "those who have been responsible for the records in question were obviously Buddhist and/or Jaina (and Ājīvika? - T.V.M) monks using a hybrid jargon with great admiration for Pāli and/or Prakrit" ... The language of these inscriptions is that of these religious teachers and their followers in the Tamil country.³