Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s10.23

c25.s10.23

⁶ This is what K.V. Subrahmanya Aiyer (1924: p. 283) meant when he stated that "in the case of combined consonants the occurrence of short *e* and short *o* deserves special attention, the two being the special characteristics of the Dravidian alphabets". He was not referring to the graphic forms as misunderstood by T. N. Subramanian (1938, reprint 1996: p. 22; 1957: p. 1507) and T.V. Mahalingam (1967: p. 134). For discussion on the contrast between *e*/*ē* and *o*/*ō* sounds in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions, see section 6.16.