Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s15.t1.1

c25.s15.t1.1

The literature on the silver portrait coins of the Sātavāhanas is extensive; I shall refer only to select publications relating to the script and the language of the legends on the reverse of the coins. Sircar³ was the first to point out the occurrence of the "Dravidian language and alphabet of about the second century A.D." in the coin-legends. According to him, the legend on the reverse is in "the Dravidian script and the Dravidian Prakrit (resembling Tamil more than Telugu)". Tamil epigraphists who have analysed the palaeographic and linguistic features of the legends have concluded that the language is Tamil and the script akin to that found in the Tamil cave inscriptions (Nagaswamy,⁴