Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s20.t2: 5.20.2 Evidence for earlier Tamil inscriptions re-examined
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s20.t2
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5.20.2 Evidence for earlier Tamil inscriptions re-examined
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The present understanding of the origin and evolution of the Tamil script has led to a re-examination of the reported evidence for the existence of the Tamil script before the turn of the 7th century A.D.
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(a) *Paḷḷaṉkōvil Plates
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The Paḷḷaṉkōvil Plates of Simhavarman III (ca. 540-550 A.D.) have been regarded as the earliest known inscription in the Tamil script. The Plates¹ record the grant of land to Vajranandi, a senior Jaina monk at Paruttikkuṉṟil (near Kanchipuram). The first part of the inscription is in Sanskrit in the Grantha script and the second part in Tamil in the Tamil script. The Plates are engraved beautifully in a masterly hand and the palaeography of both Grantha and Tamil scripts is well-developed. Notwithstanding the elaborate arguments advanced by Subramanian in support of the early date, it is difficult to accept his contention in the complete absence of any inscriptions in the Tamil script before the 7th century A.D.; the few Tamil inscriptions belonging to the period up to the middle of the 8th century A.D. are palaeographically much less advanced than the Paḷḷaṉkōvil Plates. Govindaraj has re-examined the palaeographic evidence, pointing out such advanced features like detached medial vowel signs and the developed forms of letters like *ṇ*, *v* and *ṉ*, which suggest that the Paḷḷaṉkōvil Plates are later than the Kūram Plates (late 7th century A.D.) and of the same period as the Paṭṭattāḷmaṅgalam Plates ( 8th century A.D.).² On the basis of an independent re-examination of the palaeographic evidence, I consider that the Paḷḷaṉkōvil Plates are a later copy made not earlier than late 7th century A.D.³
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¹ T.N. Subramanian 1959: pp. 41-83 (with Plates).
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² R. Govindaraj 1994: pp. 16-17. An additional reason for an earlier date for the Kūram Plates is the occurrence of the earlier form of *-ai* (e.g. *-lai* in Lines 61,67, etc.) mistaken for *-e* and its absence in the Paḷḷaṅkōvil Plates. (Cf. *-malai* in No. ***119*** in the present Corpus.) See *Pallavar Ceppēṭukaḷ* (1999 edn.) for the Plates.
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³ I have cited the linguistic data from the Paḷḷaṅkōvil Plates in the Commentary as relating to the 6th century A.D., the date of the original grant, since the fact of recopying of the Plates at a later date is not relevant for linguistic study. Recopying of earlier grants seems to have been very common in the case of Pallava copper-plate charters. T. V. Mahalingam (1988: Appendix II) cites 5 such cases viz., Ōṅgōḍu I & II Plates, Udayēndiram I & II Plates and Cūra Plates.
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(b) *Presence of Tamil characters in Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions
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The presence of Tamil characters in Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions and *vice versa* in the records dated between 650-900 A.D. has been pointed out by Subramanian.⁴ This is of course an expected development during the transitional period of the changeover from Vaṭṭeḻuttu to the Tamil script. However, it is anachronistic to talk about a 'mixed script' before the Tamil script was created in the 7th century A.D. The appearance of 'Tamil-like' letters (e.g., *tē* and *to* at Ammankoyilpatti, No. **84**, ca. 4th century A.D.) is due to the influence of Southern Brāhmī in the border regions.
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⁴ T.N. Subramanian 1938 (1996 reprint): pp. 90-93 & Fig. 6; 1957: pp. 1559-1562 and Pl. 6.