Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s3.25

c25.s3.25

In recent years there have been many attempts to derive the Brāhmī/Tamil-Brāhmī scripts from megalithic and chalcolithic graffiti, and through them, ultimately from the Indus script.⁵ In so far as such research relates to the decipherment of the Indus script on the basis of comparisons with the pottery graffiti, it falls outside the scope of the present study.¹ However, the Tamil-Brāhmī script is unlikely to have been derived from the megalithic graffiti as stratigraphic evidence from the excavations, especially at Uraiyur² and Kodumanal,³ show the coexistence of the two systems (sometimes on the same pottery as at the latter site), though the origin of the graffiti goes back to a much earlier period.