Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s3.t1.1

c22.s3.t1.1

Only two non-Tamil sounds (*dh* and *s*) occur marginally in loanwords in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions.² It is significant that these are confined only to the Early Tamil-Brāhmī Period (ca. 2nd century B.C. to 1st century A.D.). Actually, the number and relative frequency of non-Tamil characters in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions are far less than those of Grantha letters in the later Tamil inscriptions.