Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s6.t2.1

c25.s6.t2.1

There were close cultural, religious and commercial contacts between the Deccan and the Tamil country from the earliest times. However, Southern Brāhmī and Tamil-Brāhmī, both arising from the Mauryan Brāhmī script at about the same time, appear to have evolved independently of each other as shown by the characteristically different forms of letters with common sounds. The Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions (ca. 2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.) included in the present Corpus do not have any forms influenced by Southern Brāhmī.