Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s10.6

c25.s10.6

The letter *ī* does not occur in Asokan Brāhmī. The Northern Brāhmī form of four dots in a rectangular pattern (Chart 1), derived from the three-dot form of *i*, does not occur in Tamil-Brāhmī. In this script, there is a special form for *ī* consisting of a tall vertical line flanked by a pair of dots (Chart 2). The letter occurs from the earliest times in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions (Chart 4: *ī: 1*) and its form remains stable. It is possible that Tamil-Brāhmī was formed at a time when Brāhmī still did not have a character for *ī* and one had to be created locally.