Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s1.12

c25.s1.12

Bühler identified Drāviḍī with the variant of Brāhmī found at Bhattiprolu.¹ However, as the Bhattiprolu inscriptions are in Prakrit, it seems inapt to describe this script as 'Drāviḍī' except perhaps in the geographical sense. Attempts have also been made to revive the names Drāviḍī² and Dāmilī³ to refer to the script of the earliest Tamil inscriptions. However, the descriptive term Tamil-Brāhmī, which transparently indicates Tamil as the language and Brāhmī as the script, has gained wide acceptance. The evolution of the Tamil-Brāhmī script is divided into two broad periods viz., Early Tamil-Brāhmī (ca. 2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.) and Late Tamil-Brāhmī (ca. 2nd-4th centuries A.D.).⁴