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Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s2: 3.2 Dravidian element

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s2

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3.2 Dravidian element

3.2.1 Phonemic inventory

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There is near one-to-one correspondence between the phonemic inventory of Old Tamil and Tamil-Brāhmī; the only exceptions are the absence of the vowel *au* and the *āytam* (*ḵ*) from the inscriptions.

3.2.2 Lexical items

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(i) *Verbs

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The Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions are relatively richer in verbs when compared to similar brief votive inscriptions in Prakrit. 15 verb stems are attested in the inscriptions, all of which are Dravidian in origin.

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(e.g.) *aṟu* 'to cut', *āku* 'to become', *ī* 'to give', *ēvu* 'to command', *koṭu* 'to give', *cey* 'to make', *toṭu* 'to excavate', *piṟa* 'to be born', *puṇaru* 'to compose' and *vai* 'to endow'.

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Verb forms occurring in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions belong mainly to the following categories:

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intransitive, transitive and causative forms; past and non-past tenses; participial and verbal nouns; adjectival participles and the infinitive.

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(ii) *Adjectives

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Reflecting the Old Tamil tradition of prefixing attributes to personal and place names, the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions possess a rich inventory of adjectives.

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(e.g.) *irum* 'great', *iḷa(m)* 'young', *kaṭu(m)* 'ferocious', *kuṟu(m)* 'short', *ciṟu* 'small', *cem* 'good', *nal* 'good', *neṭu(m)* 'great', *peru(m)* 'large, great' and *veḷ* 'white, pure'.

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(iii) *Nouns

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(e.g.) *ayam* 'tank', *aṟam* 'charity', *aṟuvai* 'cloth', *u(p)pu* 'salt', *uṟai* 'abode', *ū(ṟ)ṟu* 'spring', *eṇṇai* (LT *eṇṇey*) 'oil', *eḻuttu* 'letter', *ēri* 'lake', *kaya(m)* 'pond', *karaṇṭai* 'cave', *kal* 'stone', *kala(m)* 'a measure', *koḻu* 'ploughshare', *cuṉai* 'spring', *nel* 'paddy', *paḷḷi* 'hermitage', *paṉai* 'palm (tree)', *poṉ* 'gold', *yāṟ(u)* 'river' and *vēmp(u)* 'neem (tree)'.

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(iv) *Toponyms

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Toponyms commonly occurring with place names in Old Tamil are well represented in the inscriptions.

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(e.g.) *aṟai* 'rock', *il* 'place', *ūr* 'village' (frequent), *kāṭu* 'jungle', *kuṉṟu* 'hill', *talai* 'place', *tuṟai* 'waterfront', *teṉku* 'southern', *nāṭu* 'country', *pa(ḷ)ḷi* 'hamlet', *malai* 'mountain', and *veḷi* 'field'.

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(v) *Rare lexical items

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The Tamil-Brāhmī cave inscriptions are the earliest lithic records in Dravidian. It is, therefore, not surprising that there are words and usages in the inscriptions which are not found even in the earliest layer of Old Tamil. It is, in my view, a mistake to dismiss these features as 'scribal errors'. Some of the rare usages are attested in later Tamil inscriptions indicating their presence all along in the spoken language though not represented in the earlier literary records. Some of the more interesting items not attested in Old Tamil are mentioned below.¹

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¹ Listed in Etymological Index: Dravidian (Appendix IV). See Commentary on the relevant entries for discussion.

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*-aṇṇi*: honorific suffix (fem.). The dictionaries describe the word as 'local'. However, the word is undoubtedly ancient as it has been borrowed (along with the corresponding masculine honorific suffix *-aṇṇa*) in the early Prakrit inscriptions of South India.

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*antai*: a frequent honorific affix (masc.). It occurs also as an independent word in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions and once in a later Tamil inscription, but only as a bound suffix in Literary Tamil. *antai* is arguably the most significant of the 'lost' words in Old Tamil recovered through the decipherment of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions. This has led to two important results in linguistic and historical studies:

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(a) *antai* as an independent word appears to be the primary kinship term from which cognates like *entai*, *tantai*, etc., are derived systematically by the addition of pronominal prefixes.

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(b) *-antai* as a bound suffix is seen to be merely honorific (like *-ayyaṉ* or *-appaṉ*) and does not literally mean 'father of' as interpreted in Tamil grammatical tradition.¹

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¹ See in particular the parallel passages in inscriptions Nos. 65 & 66 and the discussion on 66.2 in the Commentary for clinching evidence in support of the proposed reinterpretation.

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*-a(p)pa-*: honorific suffix (masc.). The word is attested in later works from the time of *Tēvāram*.

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*karaṇtai*: 'cave'. The word is listed in later *nikaṇṭus* as *karaṇtai* or *kāṇtai*. The occurrence of *karaṇtai* in Tamil-Brāhmī indicates that it is the correct form and that *kāṇtai* is incorrect reading caused by the near-identical shapes of *ra* and *-ā* in the medieval Tamil script.

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*karu-iya*: 'which was carved'; adjectival past participle from **karu(v)u* 'to carve'. The verb is clearly related to the nouns *karu* 'mould' (Ta.), 'embossed work, bas-relief' (Ka.) and *karukku* (inscr.) 'bas-relief'.

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*kolvaṉ* occurs in *poṉ-kolvaṉ* 'goldsmith'. The word appears to be a variant of the literary form *kollaṉ* as indicated by analogous pairs like *kaḷḷaṉ* / *kaḷvaṉ*, *cellam* / *celvam*, etc.

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*cē-*: 'to make' (LT *cey*). The verb occurs in the forms *cē-iya*, *cēy-a*, *cētavar* and *cēvit-ōṉ*. The *cē-* forms occur fairly commonly in Tamil inscriptions.² In my view, it is not necessary to 'correct' the inscriptional forms like *cēta* as *ce(y)ta* and *cēvittāṉ* as *ce(y)vittāṉ*.

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² A. Velu Pillai 1976: pp. 5, 143 (examples from inscriptions of 6-9 centuries A.D.)

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*muḷa-ukai* and *muḷākai*: 'cave'. The context and the obvious resemblance to *muḻai* 'cave' makes the meaning of the two words clear. It is significant that when the nominal suffix *-kai* is removed, we get the forms *muḷa(v)u* / *muḷā*,³ following the known pattern of pairs like *nilavu* / *nilā*, *palavu* / *palā*, etc.

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³ These words meaning 'cave' are cognate with *muḻai* (D. 4994), but are to be distinguished from *muḻā* / *muḻavu* 'drum' (D. 4989).

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*muṉṟu*: 'front yard'. The word is clearly related to the literary form *muṉṟil* with the same meaning. The recovery of the basic form *muṉṟu* makes it possible to analyse *muṉṟil* as *muṉṟ(u)* + *il*, rather than as *il-muṉ* in the traditional, but rather *ad hoc*, derivation.

3.2.3 Grammatical elements

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(i) *Pronouns* (e.g.) Personal pronouns: *em* 'our' (exclusive). Demonstrative pronominal bases: *a-* 'that'; *i-* 'this'. Numeral pronouns: *iruvar* 'two persons'.

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(ii) *Numerals* (e.g.) *iru-* 'two'; *patiṉ-* 'ten' (oblique); *nūṟu* 'hundred'.

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(iii) *Interjections* (e.g.) *ītā* 'lo, behold!'

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(iv) *Particles* (e.g.) *-um* 'also, too'; *-ē* 'emphatic particle'

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(v) *Grammatical morphemes*

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There are about 38 types of grammatical morphemes in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions including pronominal (PNG) suffixes, suffix of the oblique case, case-endings, causative suffixes, tense markers, suffixes of the participial and verbal nouns, suffixes of the adjectival participles and suffix of the infinitive.¹

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¹ See section 7.38 and Appendix VII (Index to Grammatical Morphemes) for details.

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(vi) *Rare grammatical usages*

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(a) *Absence of finite verbs:*

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A remarkable feature of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions is the absence of finite verbs, their place being taken by participial nouns or adjectival participles. (e.g.) *antuvaṉ koṭupitavaṉ* 'Antuvaṉ caused to be given'. *(i)ḷaṅkō ceypita paḷi-i* 'hermitage caused to be made by (I)ḷaṅkō'.

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(b) *Absence of present tense:*

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The Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions have only two tenses, the past and the non-past, and no present tense, agreeing in this respect with Old Tamil. The present tense in Tamil is a later development.

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(c) *Rare grammatical morphemes:* *-a* occurs as the accusative case suffix in *itta* 'this' (LT *ittai*). *-a* is the most common genitive suffix in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions. (e.g., *ciḻivaṉ-a*, *tiṭi-il-a*, etc.). This suffix occurs only rarely in Old Tamil. *-ā* occurs as a genitive case suffix. (e.g.) *nalliy-ūr-ā* 'of Nalliyūr'.

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This morpheme is not attested elsewhere in Tamil. However, it occurs as a genitive suffix in Old Kannada inscriptions.

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*-ā* occurs as an adjectival suffix in *mutā*/*mūtā* (*mutu*/*mūtu*+*ā*) 'senior, elder'. This morpheme is also not attested in Tamil.

3.2.4 Influence of Old Kannada

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The present study has brought to light the hitherto unsuspected influence of Old Kannada on the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions from a period (ca. 2nd century B.C.-4th century A.D.) anterior to the earliest known Kannada inscriptions and literature. See especially No. **49** from Sittannavasal-A (ca. 1st century B.C.), No. **55** from Tirupparankunram (ca. 1st century A.D.), No. **79** from Edakal-A (ca. 3rd century A.D.) and No. **83** from Nekanurpatti (ca. 4th century A.D.). Some of the more interesting lexical items and grammatical usages showing the influence of Old Kannada are listed below.¹

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¹ See also Commentary on the inscriptions cited in this paragraph.

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(i) *Lexical items

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*erumināṭu* is almost certainly the same as LT *erumaināṭu*, the Mysore region (*mahiṣha-maṇḍala*) of Karnataka. The word *erumi* (Ta. *erumai*, Ka., Tu. *erme*, Go. *ermi*) 'buffalo' appears to preserve an ancient dialectal form.

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*kavuṭi* is the personal name of the nun who is described in the inscription as born in a village in *erumināṭu*. cf. Ka. *gavuḍi*, *gauḍi* 'feminine of *gauḍa*, wife of a *gāvuṁḍa*, wife of a village officer'.

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*pocil* 'entrance'. The expression occurs as part of the place name *teṉku-ciṟu-pocil* which appears to be the same as *teṉ-ciṟu-vāyil*, mentioned in the later Tamil inscriptions of the region as the name of the *nāṭu* (territorial division) immediately to the east of the hill at Sittannavasal. *pocil* is not attested in Tamil and appears to be related to Ka. *hosilu* (< *\*posil*) 'entrance'. cf. also To. *pōş* 'entrance'.

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*tāyiyaru* 'mother' (honorific). This is clearly a loanword from Kannada. The word occurs in New Kannada but is not attested in Old Kannada. However, as this inscription from Nekanurpatti is assigned to ca. 4th century A.D. on palaeographic evidence, we have to regard *tāyiyaru* as an Old Kannada word which existed in the spoken language but was not attested in contemporary records.

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(ii) *Personal names and honorifics

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Personal names like *āy(c)ca* and *polāl(a)*, and the suffixed honorifics *aṇṇi*, *a(p)pa*- and *a(y)yaṉ* / *aiyaṉ* appear to be more at home in Old Kannada onomastics.

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(iii) *Grammatical usages

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*-ā*, occurring as the genitive suffix in some inscriptions is not attested in Tamil, but occurs in Old Kannada inscriptions where it is regarded as more ancient than *-a*.²

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² See section 7.27.4 for details.

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*-u*, the euphonic suffix to stems ending in liquid consonants (e.g., *ūru* 'village') occurring mostly in the later inscriptions, is not attested in Old Tamil and appears to be due to the influence of Old Kannada, even though the suffix is attested in Kannada inscriptions only from the middle period (ca. 8th century A.D.).

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*(iv) Spread of Jainism from Karnataka*

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The presence of Old Kannada elements in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions corroborates the traditional account of the spread of Jainism from Karnataka into the Tamil country.¹

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¹ See sections 4.8 to 4.13.

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