Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s11: 5.11 Consonants
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s11
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5.11 Consonants
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*k*: The simple form of *k*, a plain cross (Chart 2), remains stable with hardly any change throughout the period under study. There are, however, a few exceptional forms in Late Tamil-Brāhmī and Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu, which are influenced by the contemporary Southern Brāhmī forms (Chart 5A: *k*: *73, 83, 84, 85, 114 & 116*). These forms possess one or more of the following features of Southern Brāhmī, viz., head-marks (triangular or rectangular), drooping of the horizontal line and leftward curving of the lower end of the vertical. It is significant that these forms occur only in the northern and western districts adjoining Andhra and Karnataka. Another exceptional form is the conjunct consonant *kka* (ibid. *112*) occurring in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions at Arasalapuram (Corpus: No. *112*, ca. 5th century A.D.) and Paraiyanpattu (ibid. No. *115*, ca. 6th century A.D.)
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*ṅ*: The letter *ṅ* does not occur in Asokan Brāhmī. However, its existence in Mauryan Brāhmī is proved by the Stonemason's Alphabet found at Gaya.¹ While *ṅ* begins to appear in the North only in the Sanskrit inscriptions from about the 2nd century A.D.,² it is attested in its primitive form in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions from the earliest times (Chart 5A: *ṅ*: *8, 22*).
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¹ G. Bühler 1896 (1959 reprint): illustration at p. 53.
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² Cf. C. Sivaramamurti 1952: chart for *ṅ* (Fig. 36, p. 95). Neither he nor A.H. Dani (1963, Indian edition 1986: Pl. VIIa) notices the occurrence of *ṅ* in the Tamil cave inscriptions.
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*c*: The letter *c* remains stable in the Tamil-Brāhmī period. The only major modification in the form of the letter is the opening of the lower loop to form a hook, first seen in the Mannarkoil cave inscription of ca. 2nd century A.D. (Chart 6: *-e/-ē: 89*). Another variant form has a tail projecting below the loop (Corpus: No. *55*; Chart 5A: *c*: *105*). This form recurs in the pottery inscriptions at Arikamedu (Chart 7: AKB *28*) and Kodumanal (ibid. KDM *27*). In Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu, the drop-shaped form (Chart 5A: *c*: *115*) and the form with the 'head-mark' (ibid. *119*) are influenced by contemporary Southern Brāhmī forms.³
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³ Cf. ibid. chart for *c* (Fig. 37 at p. 97).
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*ñ*: The primitive form of *ñ* (Chart 5A: *ñ*: *1*) becomes cursive even by the end of the Early Period (ibid. *59*). The cursive form continues in Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu as at Pulankurichi (Chart 8).
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*ṭ*: The letter *ṭ*, a semicircle facing right (Chart 2), remains stable in Tamil-Brāhmī and Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu (Chart 5A).
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*ṇ*: The letter *ṇ* remains stable till almost the end of the Tamil-Brāhmī period. The form begins to change in the Arachalur cave inscription in ca. 4th century A.D. (Chart 5A: *ṇ*: *85*). In Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu, the letter resembles the numeral 3 (ibid. *106*, etc.; also in Chart 8). The contemporary Southern Brāhmī form of *ṇ* is seen in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscription at Ezhuttukallu, Kerala, situated near the border with Karnataka (Corpus: No. *120*, ca. 5th century A.D.).⁴
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⁴ See direct photograph (Pl. 53) of inscription No. *120*.
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*t*: Both the angular and cursive forms of *t* occur in Tamil-Brāhmī (Chart 5A). The forms remain stable until almost the end of the Late Tamil-Brāhmī Period. It is in the Arachalur cave inscriptions (Corpus: Nos. *85-87*, ca. 4th century A.D.) that a significant change occurs where the form resembles a left-facing hook hanging from a short vertical line (Chart 5A: *t*: *85*). This form continues in Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu (ibid. *101*, *105*), but gradually begins to look like the numeral 3 (ibid. *121*) when it becomes difficult to distinguish the letters *ṉ* and *t* which look almost alike. However, the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions at Pulankurichi (Chart 8) retain the Late Tamil-Brāhmī form of *t* even though they are somewhat later than the Arachalur inscriptions. The Southern Brāhmī form of 'looped' *t* occurs uniquely in the Late Tamil-Brāhmī inscription at Ammankoyilpatti (Corpus No. *84*, ca. 4th century A.D., Chart 6 : *e* / *ē*: *84*). The Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu form with the head-mark (Chart 5A: *t*: *115*) is influenced by the contemporary Southern Brāhmī forms.¹
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¹ Cf. C. Sivaramamurti 1952: chart for *t* (Fig. 45, p. 112).
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*n*: The primitive form of *n* looking like an inverted T remains stable in the Early Tamil-Brāhmī Period (Chart 5A: *n*: *1*). In Late Tamil-Brāhmī, the baseline to the left of the vertical becomes shorter (ibid. *73*). This change progressively leads to the L-shaped form (ibid. *83*) which continues in Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu (ibid. *102*, *121*) with cursive variants (ibid. *109*, *117*).
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*p*: The evolution of *p* in Tamil-Brāhmī runs parallel to that in Southern Brāhmī. In both the scripts, the primitive tall form (Chart 5A:*p*:*41*) becomes shorter and broader with the height of both arms progressively getting equalised (ibid. *76*, *79*). Both angular and cursive forms occur, sometimes in the same inscription (ibid. *79*). The head-mark in the Late Tamil-Brāhmī inscription (ibid. *84*) and the hook at the top left in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscription (ibid. *118*) are due to the influence of contemporary Southern Brāhmī forms.²
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² C. Sivaramamurti 1952: chart for *p* (Fig. 50, p. 122).
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*m*: The Asokan Brāhmī form of *m* looks like a crescent mounted on a circle.³ The Tamil-Brāhmī form, though morphologically related to the Asokan, is characteristically distinct, looking like a tube with a crossbar in the middle (Chart 5A: *m*:*1*). The same form occurs also in Early Sinhala-Brāhmī, but is replaced by the Southern Brāhmī form in Late Sinhala-Brāhmī.⁴ In Late Tamil-Brāhmī and Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu, the crossbar in the middle becomes shorter and does not meet the left side of the tube (ibid. *85* & *101*) and tends to project a little outside the tube at the right (ibid. *108* and Chart 8). In Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu, the shortened crossbar becomes a curve (Chart 5A: *m*: *119*) and finally a loop around the right top of the tube (ibid. *116*) leading to the later Vaṭṭeḻuttu forms.⁵
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³ C.S. Upasak 1960: Appendix No. 31 (1).
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⁴ S. Karunaratne 1984: p. 28 and Fig. 26.
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⁵ Cf. C. Sivaramamurti 1952: chart for *m* (Fig. 54, p. 131).
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The pottery inscriptions have some special forms of *m*. Among them may be mentioned the rectilinear box-like form at Kodumanal (Chart 7: KDM 12), the triangular form of Southern Brāhmī and the fish-like form of Bhattiprolu (but inverted here) both from Arikamedu (ibid. AKB: *11* & *13* respectively). The triangular Southern Brāhmī form occurs intrusively in the letter *mā* (Chart 6 : -*ā*: *73*) in the Mamandur cave inscription.
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*y*: The earliest form of *y* looks like an anchor with a tall vertical and a baseline with a double curve (Chart 5B: *y: 1*). Other variants also occur from the beginning in which all the three verticals may be of more or less equal height (ibid. 2) and the baseline may consist of a single smooth curve (ibid. 3). In an unusual variant, the line at the left (or sometimes at the right) is joined to the middle of the central line (ibid. 55, 65). This development is due to writing the character with two successive strokes. This variant is seen more often in the pottery inscriptions at Arikamedu (Chart 7: AKW: 13,5 and 15; AKB: 23,17 & 24), Kodumanal (ibid. KDM 3) and Karur (ibid. KRR: 2 with three different forms in same inscription¹). In extreme cases, the letter is almost unrecognisable, the earlier investigators mistaking it for *pe* or *pi*. The letter occurs with the head-mark (Chart 5B: *y: 83 & 85*) in the Nekanurpatti and Arachalur cave inscriptions betraying Southern Brāhmī influence. In Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu, the form of the letter does not change much (ibid. *101, 104*; and Chart 8).
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¹ See No. 6, Table 1.5 and Fig. 1.20C.
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*r*: The standard form of *r* in Tamil-Brāhmī and Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu is a straight vertical line (Chart 5B: *r: 6 & 111*). Another variant, aptly described as 'serpentine', occurs rarely in the Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions (ibid. *8, 9 & 56*). In some of the Late Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions from the border regions, the letter occurs with intrusive features influenced by Southern Brāhmī viz., the head-mark (as in *ru* in Corpus: Nos. *83* and *85*) or the curving of the lower end of the vertical (Chart 5B: *r: 84*). The addition of the *puḷḷi* to the basic consonant *r* in the Kunnakkudi cave inscription (ca. 3rd century A.D.) is one of the earliest instances. Note that in this case the *puḷḷi* is placed to the right of the letter in the middle (Chart 5B: *r: 74*).
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*l*: The letter *l* develops from a tall and narrow form (Chart 5B: *l:1*) to a broader form with more or less equal sides (ibid. 7) and in Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu as a smooth horizontal curve (ibid. *121*), sometimes with the addition of a curl at the left end (ibid. *101*). At this stage, the direction of the letter changes and is written from the left. The angular form of the letter (Chart 7: KDM: 30) is a local characteristic seen in several other letters in pottery inscriptions at Kodumanal.
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*v*: The earliest form of the letter *v* is a tall vertical line with a small circle attached to its lower end (Chart 5B: *v: 1*). Even in the Early Period, the vertical tends to get shorter and the circle bigger (e.g., *ve* in Chart 6: *-e /-ē : 7*). The lower circle is sometimes attached to the left of the vertical, when the letter becomes almost indistinguishable from *c* (e.g., Corpus: Nos. *4, 28, 29, 31, 35, 43, 49, 101, 119*). In order to avoid such confusion, the lower circle is sometimes placed to the right of the vertical (e.g., Corpus: Nos. *3 & 12*). In some of the Late Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions from the border regions, intrusive features influenced by Southern Brāhmī are seen viz., a triangular form with the apex pointing upwards (Chart 5B: *v: 67*) and a 'fat' circle with the head-mark almost completely replacing the vertical (ibid. *84*). The triangular forms also occur in the pottery inscriptions from Arikamedu (Chart 7: AKW 5, 19; AKB 18) and Kodumanal (ibid. KDM 63). At the latter site a couple of exceptional forms occur viz., a square form (ibid. KDM 62) and a triangular form with the apex pointing down (ibid. KDM 12).