Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s10.33
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s10.33
- Language
- English
c25.s10.33
⁵ The earliest inscriptional occurrence of the *āytam* is in the expression *veḵkā* 'name of a river' in the Kasakkudi Plates of Nandivarman II (ca. 753 A.D.). Here the letter is depicted as an upward-looking curve flanked by a pair of dots placed above and below (*SII*. II: No. 73, Pl. IXb, Line 115). This form is likely to have been influenced by the *visarga* symbol of the Grantha script (M. Raghawaiyangar 1938, reprint 1984: pp. 127-131). The *āytam* occurs in the expression *aḵkam* 'payment in grain' in the Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscription of Varaguna II (ca. 874 A.D.) at Tiruchendur. In this record, the letter is represented by a horizontal line with dots marked above and below 'like the division sign' (*EI.* XXI: p. 102).