Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s15.t5: 5.15.5 Language of the coin-legends on the reverse
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s15.t5
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5.15.5 Language of the coin-legends on the reverse
c25.s15.t5.1
There can hardly be any doubt that the language of the legends on the reverse of the coins is not Prakrit. The only question for consideration is whether the language is Old Telugu or Tamil. *Prima facie*, the case for Old Telugu would seem stronger. The Sātavāhanas were Andhras; most of the silver portrait coins are found in the northern and northwestern regions of their dominions far away from the Tamil country. Telugu was the spoken language of Andhra from very ancient times, certainly much before the invention of the Brāhmī script. In spite of these considerations, there are formidable objections from the linguistic point of view to identify the language of the coin-legends as 'Old Telugu'. The terms *aracaṉ*, *makaṉ*¹ and *tiru* are not found in Old Telugu. The prothetic prefix *a-* in *aracaṉ* is a characteristic Tamil grammatical usage. The pronominal ending *-aṉ* as in *aracaṉ* and *makaṉ* is in Tamil; the corresponding Old Telugu ending *-(a)nṟu* is conspicuously absent from the coin-legends. The employment of the dative *-ku* as the genitive case suffix in certain contexts is sanctioned by Tamil grammatical tradition.² One has to conclude from the linguistic evidence that the language of the legends on the reverse of the coins is Tamil and not Old Telugu.
c25.s15.t5.2
¹ *magaṇṟu* with the meaning 'son' occurs rarely in Old Telugu inscriptions (K. Mahadeva Sastri 1969: Word Index), but not the form *makaṉ* seen in the Sātavāhana coin-legends.
c25.s15.t5.3
² *Tol. Col.* 94 cited in R. Panneerselvam 1969: pp. 285-286, n. 15.