Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s19.t2: 5.19.2 Evolution of Vaṭṭeḻuttu: the early phase (5-6 centuries A.D.)

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s19.t2

Language: English

5.19.2 Evolution of Vaṭṭeḻuttu: the early phase (5-6 centuries A.D.)

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(a) *Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions at Pulankurichi

The two rock inscriptions discovered in 1979 at Pulankurichi are the earliest and by far the longest of the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu records.¹ They are assigned to ca. 5th century A.D. on palaeographic evidence. The script employed in the inscriptions at this site is in the transitional stage between Tamil-Brāhmī and Vaṭṭeḻuttu (see Chart 8). The vowels *a*, *ā*, *e* and *o* and most of the consonants still retain the Late Tamil-Brāhmī forms. The vowels *i* and *u* and the consonants *ṇ*, *n*, *l*, *ḷ* are more advanced and have attained the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu forms. From the palaeographic point of view, the importance of the Pulankurichi inscriptions is that they have finally set at rest the controversy regarding the origin of the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script and proved conclusively its derivation from Tamil-Brāhmī.

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¹ R. Nagaswamy 1981c: pp. 2-67 to 2-71. Natana Kasinathan 1983: pp. 157-165. Y. Subbarayalu and M.R. Raghava Varier 1991: pp. 57-69. The inscriptions have not been included in the Corpus, but see Palaeographic Chart 8.

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(b) *Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions on herostones

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The remarkable discoveries made by Nagaswamy and his colleagues of numerous herostones inscribed in Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu from Chengam Taluk² and the adjoining Dharmapuri District³ in the north-west of the Tamil country have revolutionised our understanding of the position of Vaṭṭeḻuttu *vis-a-vis* the Tamil script.⁴ They have confirmed what was only suspected earlier that Vaṭṭeḻuttu was current all over the Tamil country until it was displaced by the Tamil script patronised by the Pallavas and later by the Cōḻas.⁵ The pace of displacement was, however, quite slow. The herostones within the Pallava territories bearing the names and regnal years of successive Pallava rulers from Simhavarman III to Nandivarman II (mid-sixth to mid-eighth centuries A.D.) are exclusively in Vaṭṭeḻuttu. The statistics in Table 5.3 relating to the changeover in the scripts employed in the herostone inscriptions in the Tamil country are revealing.⁶

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² *Chengam Naṭukarkaḷ*. See also K.G. Krishnan (1971-73 and 1973-74) for the earliest herostones.

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⁴ See R. Nagaswamy (ed.) 1974. R. Govindaraj 1994; 2001: pp. 27-41. K. Rajan 2000.

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⁵ "It is therefore to be presumed that the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script was in use throughout the Tamil country in the earlier days, that it fell into disuse after the introduction of the Grantha-Tamil by the Pallavas in their dominion, but that it continued to exist in the Gaṅgavāḍi, the Vāṇakappāḍi and the North Koṅgu portions which were not directly under the Pallava rule, even though the other script was slowly gaining preference." (T.N. Subramanian 1957: p. 1562).

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⁶ Abridged from K. Rajan 2000: Table 3 at p. 46.

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| Period (A.D.) | Vaṭṭeḻuttu | Tamil script |
| 400-600 | 31 | – |
| 601-800 | 91 | 9 |
| 801-1000 | 8 | 70 |
| 1001-1200 | – | 20 |

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Table 5.³. Changeover from Vaṭṭeḻuttu to Tamil script in herostone inscriptions.

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³ *Dharmapuri Kalveṭṭukaḷ*.

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The Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions included in the present Corpus (Nos. *101-121*) are mostly recent discoveries which illustrate the evolution of the script during the transitional period (5-6 centuries a.d.). The evolution of each letter from the Late Tamil-Brāhmī to the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu forms found in these inscriptions has been studied above (Palaeographic Charts 4 to 6).