Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s1.t5: 3.1.5 Dravidian and Indo-Aryan in the inscriptions: the true proportion
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s1.t5
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3.1.5 Dravidian and Indo-Aryan in the inscriptions: the true proportion
c22.s1.t5.1
The extent of change in our understanding of the language of the cave inscriptions may be quantified (Table 3.²) on the basis of the data compiled from the revised and enlarged Corpus included in this volume.
c22.s1.t5.2
² T.V. Mahalingam 1967: pp. 201-298.
c22.s1.t5.3
The Corpus comprises 110 inscriptions, 89 in Tamil-Brāhmī and 21 in Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu. There are 371 simple stems in the Corpus; 256 stems are Dravidian, 101 stems are Indo-Aryan, and the remaining 14 are of doubtful etymology.⁷ Taking the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions (Nos. *1-89*) alone into account, there are 307 stems out of which 213 stems are Dravidian, 81 stems are Indo-Aryan, and the remaining 13 are of doubtful etymology. In brief, the proportion of Dravidian: Indo-Aryan in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions has increased dramatically from less than 1:1 as computed by Zvelebil in 1964 to more than 2.5:1 at present; only about one-fourth (in numbers as well as frequency) of the simple stems in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions in the Corpus are of Indo-Aryan origin. It is significant that the proportion remains about the same even when the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions in the Corpus are included. These findings disprove the earlier view that the language of the cave inscriptions is a 'hybrid jargon' dominated by Indo-Aryan.
c22.s1.t5.4
⁷ See Etymological Indexes (Appendices IV to VI) for complete word lists.
c22.s1.t5.5
| Stems in the Corpus | Dravidian (Appendix IV) No. | Dravidian (Appendix IV) % | Indo-Aryan (Appendix V) No. | Indo-Aryan (Appendix V) % | Doubtful Etymology (Appendix VI) No. | Doubtful Etymology (Appendix VI) % | Total No. | Total % |
| In Tamil-Brāhmī Inscriptions (*1-89*): | | | | | | | | |
| Stems | 213 | 69.38 | 81 | 26.38 | 13 | 4.24 | 307 | 100.00 |
| Frequency | 339 | 71.67 | 118 | 24.95 | 16 | 3.38 | 473 | 100.00 |
| In Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu Inscriptions (*101-121*): | | | | | | | | |
| Stems | 43 | 67.19 | 20 | 31.25 | 1 | 1.56 | 64 | 100.00 |
| Frequency | 61 | 71.16 | 22 | 25.88 | 2 | 2.36 | 85 | 100.00 |
| Total for the Corpus: | | | | | | | | |
| Stems | 256 | 69.00 | 101 | 27.23 | 14 | 3.77 | 371 | 100.00 |
| Frequency | 400 | 71.68 | 140 | 25.09 | 18 | 3.23 | 558 | 100.00 |
c22.s1.t5.6
Table 3.2. Relative frequency of Dravidian and Indo-Aryan stems in the Corpus.
c22.s1.t5.7
Dry statistics do not, however, tell the whole story. To convey the 'feel' of the language of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions, a rapid overview of their main lexical and grammatical features, dealing with the Dravidian and Indo-Aryan elements separately, is given below. Detailed documentation has been avoided in this summary as the topics are dealt with more fully in Chapter 7 (Grammar) and in the Commentary on the inscriptions. See also Inscriptional Glossary (Appendix I) and word-lists (Appendices II-VI).