[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Archaeology, epigraphy and coins](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy) › [Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D.](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.mahadevan-2003) › c25.s3.30 # Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s3.30 Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s3.30 - **Language:** English ### [c25.s3.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.mahadevan-2003.c25.s3.30) Just as there have been attempts to prove the Brāhmī script to be an artificial creation not derived from any pre-existing source,⁴ there have also been similar attempts in respect of the Tamil script. In 1917, Manickam Naicker, an engineer by profession and learned Tamil scholar, published a monograph⁵ which attempted to prove with the help of detailed diagrams that the letters of the Tamil script and the mystic symbol \*aum\* (\*ōm\*) can be derived by cutting and pasting segments of the first letter \*a\*. The fact that he employs the modern forms of the Tamil letters and of the symbol for \*ōm\* does not seem to have bothered him. - [Previous: c25.s3.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.mahadevan-2003.c25.s3.29) - [Next: c25.s3.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.mahadevan-2003.c25.s3.31) - [Up: c25.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.mahadevan-2003.c25.s3) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.mahadevan-2003.c25.s3.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.mahadevan-2003.c25.s3.30) · Pramāṇa