Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s14: 5.14 The puḷḷi: palaeographic aspects

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s14

Language: English

5.14 The puḷḷi: palaeographic aspects

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The *puḷḷi* (literally, a 'dot') is a diacritical mark placed over the consonant characters to indicate that the consonants are 'basic' and do not include the so-called 'inherent' medial vowel *-a*. The *puḷḷi* was also used to distinguish the short *e* and *o* from the respective long vowels both in initial and medial positions. The earliest description of the functions of the *puḷḷi* is found in *Tolkāppiyam* (*Eḻu.* 15-17). The *puḷḷi* is such a familiar device that its unusual function as a 'minus vowel-marker' is seldom noticed. Unlike all other medial signs which serve to add a medial vowel to a consonant to produce a consonant-vowel (*uyirmey*), the *puḷḷi* subtracts the inherent medial vowel *-a* from the unmarked consonant characters. The *puḷḷi* had to be invented in Tamil-Brāhmī to provide what the parent Brāhmī script lacked viz., markers for the basic consonants and the short vowels *e* and *o*. This explains its unusual function.

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The occurrence of the *puḷḷi* with the basic consonants is illustrated in Charts 5A & B, and with the short medial vowels *-e* and *-o* in Chart 6. The *puḷḷi* also occurs regularly with almost all the basic consonants (except *ḻ*) and rarely with the medial vowels *-e* and *-o* in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions at Pulankurichi (not marked in Chart 8). It will be noticed from the examples that the position of the *puḷḷi* varies widely with respect to the basic consonant character; it may be placed above or to the left or to the right, in the middle or even inside.

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The *puḷḷi* does not occur in the Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions included in the Corpus. It occurs for the first time in the Late Tamil-Brāhmī inscription at Anaimalai (No. *60*, ca. 2nd century A.D.). However, its use is rare in the Late Period. The frequency of the *puḷḷi* gradually increases until it occurs almost without exception with all the basic consonants in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu Period. The *puḷḷi* is, however, seldom found in the pottery inscriptions.¹ It may also be noted that, when compared with its occurrence with the basic consonants, the *puḷḷi* occurs relatively much less with the short vowels *e* and *o* (initial and medial) even in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu Period (see Table 5.1 for statistics ).¹ The *puḷḷi* marks an important stage in the development of Early Tamil orthography. The orthographic aspects of the *puḷḷi* are discussed in Chapter 6.²

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¹ See section 6.12 on medial vowel notations in pottery inscriptions.

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² See sections 6.8 and 6.9.

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| Occurrence of the *puḷḷi* (in the Corpus) | Early Tamil-Brāhmī (ca. 2nd cent. B.C.- 1st cent. A.D.) | Late Tamil-Brāhmī (ca. 2-4 cent. A.D.) | Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu (ca. 5 & 6 cent. A.D.) |
| Total No. of inscriptions in the Corpus | 59 | 30 | 21 |
| No. of inscriptions with the *puḷḷi* | – | 8 | 19 |
| No. of occurrences of the *puḷḷi* - | | | |
| (i) with basic consonants | – | 19 | 51 |
| (ii) with initial vowel *e* | – | 1 | 1 |
| (iii) with -*e* / -*o* medial vowels | – | 1 | 6 |

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Table 5.¹. Frequency of the *puḷḷi* in the Corpus.

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¹ See also Table 6.2 and Fig. 6.4 on the frequency of the *puḷḷi* and the earlier orthographic systems.

Linked texts (1)

Tolkāppiyam — Tolkāppiyar, Tamil