Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s18: 5.18 Symbols in cave inscriptions

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s18

Language: English

c25.s18.t1 5.18.1 Juxtaposition of script and symbols on pottery from Kodumanal — 12 parts
c25.s18.t2 5.18.2 Symbols in the cave inscriptions of Sri Lanka — 3 parts
c25.s18.t3 5.18.3 The Anaikoddai Seal — 4 parts
c25.s18.t4 5.18.4 Cave symbols and signs of the Indus script — 7 parts

5.18 Symbols in cave inscriptions

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Symbols which do not form part of the script occur with some of the cave inscriptions (the main variants A to D are illustrated in Fig. 5.11).

**Symbol A:** This is the most frequent symbol occurring ten times in nine inscriptions from three sites.⁵ The symbol is mostly placed at the end of the inscriptions except once when it occurs also in the middle.⁶ The symbol looks somewhat like a 'crab' with a pair of 'claws'; in one of the variants, the 'feet' are not shown;¹ but the other would appear to have six 'feet', three on either side, though the incompletely preserved symbols in the inscriptions have only three to five 'feet'.² Symbol A occurs paired with symbol B in two inscriptions (Nos. *12* & *13*) at Kongarpuliyankulam. It is remarkable that these two symbols also occur together in the same sequence (although separated by another symbol in the middle) on a potsherd from Kodumanal (Fig. 5.12).³ Symbol A also occurs paired with yet another symbol on a potsherd from Uraiyur.⁴

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⁵ Symbol A occurs once at Vikkiramangalam (**No. *19***), twice at Kongarpuliyankulam (**Nos. *12* & *13***) and seven times at Alagarmalai (**Nos. *36*, *40-43* & *46***).

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⁶ Symbol A occurs once in the middle and again at the end of No. *40* at Alagarmalai.

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¹ Symbol A occurs only with 'claws' and without 'feet' in Nos. *12*, *13*, *19* & *40-43*. It is likely, especially at Alagarmalai, that some of the occurrences are incompletely preserved. However, clear examples occurring in the pottery inscriptions from Uraiyur and Kodumanal confirm the existence of the variant without the 'feet'. See Fig. 5.12.

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² Variants of symbol A in Nos. *36* and *40* have three 'feet' each and in No. *46* five 'feet'.

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³ From a colour photograph, courtesy Y. Subbarayalu.

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⁴ K.V. Raman (ed.) 1988: Pl. 22.10.

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**Symbol B:** The symbol is a square divided into four quadrants. As stated above, it is associated with symbol A in two cave inscriptions at Kongarpuliyankulam and in the graffiti on a potsherd from Kodumanal. Symbol B also occurs in the middle of a pottery inscription from Alagankulam.⁵

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⁵ Natana Kasinathan 1997: Pl. III. 4.

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**Symbol C:** The symbol is probably a stylised representation of a tree or plant. It occurs once with the Cēra inscription at Edakal (No. *80*). I have tentatively identified the symbol from the context as the palm tree, an insignia of the Cēra dynasty (Commentary, No. *80*). However, the significance of the symbol occurring elsewhere in other contexts may not be the same. Symbol C occurs on megalithic pottery at Sanur,⁶ Uraiyur⁷ and other sites and on the Anaikoddai Seal (Fig. 5.14).

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⁶ B. B. Lal 1960: Pl. XXXI B.

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⁷ K. V. Raman (ed.) 1988: Pl. 21.4.

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**Symbol D:** The symbol can be identified as the bow with arrow. It occurs once in the middle of an Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscription at Sittannavasal-B (No. *101*). The bow with arrow is the insignia of the Cēra dynasty; but there is nothing in this inscription to suggest a connection with the Cēras. The symbol is attested on megalithic pottery.⁸

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⁸ B. B. Lal 1960: Pl. XXIII: Symbol 32: 1, 4 and 5.

5.18.1 Juxtaposition of script and symbols on pottery from Kodumanal

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The excavations at Kodumanal have yielded pottery from the megalithic levels, on which characters of the Tamil-Brāhmī script occur side by side with megalithic symbols. Words like *kōṉ* 'chief', parts of words like *kōvē* and *taṇ*, and single syllables like *a*, *ta* and *ma* occur with preceding and/or succeeding megalithic symbols⁹ (Fig. 5.13). While the precise significance of these megalithic symbols is unknown, the evidence indicates that they must be meaningful and have some sort of connection with the expressions in the script which they accompany. This should also be true of the cases of similar juxtaposition of script and symbols in the cave inscriptions studied above.

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⁹ K. Rajan 2001: pp. 14-15.

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Figure 5.11. Symbols in cave inscriptions.

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Figure 5.12. Pottery graffiti from Kodumanal with cave symbols.

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Figure 5.13. Juxtaposition of script and symbols in pottery graffiti from Kodumanal.

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Figure 5.14. Seal with script and symbols from Anaikoddai. Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

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Figure 5.15. Signs of the Indus script resembling cave symbols.

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Figure 5.16. Pallava Grantha and Tamil inscriptions. Sendalai (ca. 8th century A.D.). Lines 1 and 3 are in Tamil and lines 2 and 4 are in Grantha scripts.

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The evidence of pottery inscribed with megalithic symbols and letters of the Brāhmī script from sites like Vallam,¹ Uraiyur² and especially Kodumanal³ indicates clearly that megalithic symbols which coexist with the Brāhmī script and also found at preceding and succeeding levels in the excavations cannot be the source for the script.⁴

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¹ Y. Subbarayalu 1984: Fig. 26 and Pl. XII.

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³ K. Rajan 2001: pp. 1-13.

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⁴ P. Shanmugam 1983: pp. 31-36.

5.18.2 Symbols in the cave inscriptions of Sri Lanka

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Symbols not forming part of the script occur in greater numbers and with higher frequency in the cave inscriptions of Sri Lanka.⁵ According to Paranavitana, these 'non-Brāhmī' symbols appear to have some connection with the contents of the inscriptions.⁶ The four symbols occurring with the Tamil-Brāhmī cave inscriptions do not appear in the cave inscriptions of Sri Lanka.

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⁵ S. Paranavitana 1970: pp. xxv-xxvi; 43 non-Brāhmī symbols occurring in the cave inscriptions of Sri Lanka are illustrated by him at p. xxvi.

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⁶ Ibid. for Paranavitana's identification of symbol No. 2 in his list as a 'phonogram' for the name Gamaṇi Tiśa.

5.18.3 The Anaikoddai Seal

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A square metal seal found during the excavations of a megalithic burial complex at Anaikoddai, Jaffna District, Sri Lanka, has two lines of writing, the upper line consisting of three 'megalithic' symbols and the lower lines three characters of the Brāhmī script (Fig. 5.14).⁷ Attempts have been made by Indrapala and others to decipher the symbols on the basis of their reading of the lower line in Brāhmī as the clue,⁸ but the results are inconclusive.⁹

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⁷ See No. 1, Table 1.7.

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⁸ K. Indrapala, P. Raghupathy and K.V. Ramesh (in) P. Raghupathy 1987: pp. 199-204.

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⁹ See criticism in I. Mahadevan 1994b: pp. 137-138.

5.18.4 Cave symbols and signs of the Indus script

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In the preceding discussion, attention has been drawn to the occurrence of the cave symbols in the graffiti on megalithic pottery. There is also a remarkable resemblance between these cave symbols and signs of the Indus script (Table 5.² and Fig. 5.15).

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² K.V. Raman (ed.) 1988: chapter 5 and Fig. 25 at p. 76.

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Lal has demonstrated that many symbols are common to the megalithic pottery on the one hand, and to the Harappan and chalcolithic on the other. He suggested that the commonness of the symbols was perhaps due to the commonness of ideas between cultures but refrained from suggesting any phonetic values for the symbols.¹⁰ While there are close similarities between some of the megalithic symbols and the signs of the Indus script, they are more likely to share similar significance but not necessarily the same phonetic values, considering the enormous time and distance separating them.

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¹⁰ B.B. Lal 1960: pp. 4-24. See especially his comments on symbol No. 47 illustrated by him with parallels from the megalithic and Indus graffiti. I. Mahadevan 2001: pp. 379-385 (drawing attention to the Indus-like graffiti on the megalithic pottery from Sulur).