Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s18.t1.1

c25.s18.t1.1

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.