Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c23.s27.t2.4

c23.s27.t2.4

Literacy is not merely the acquisition of reading and writing skills. To be meaningful and creative, literacy has to be based on one's mother-tongue. In this sense, the early Tamil society had achieved true literacy with a popular base rooted in the native language. On the other hand, Upper South India had in this period only elitist literacy based on Prakrit and not the native languages of the region.