Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s6.t4.8

c25.s6.t4.8

One of the most interesting aspects of Early Sinhala-Brāhmī is the complete absence of ligaturing of consonants. In this respect, Sinhala-Brāhmī is unique among the Prakrit-based variants of Brāhmī. The avoidance of ligaturing of consonants is facilitated in Early Sinhala-Brāhmī by the phonological processes of assimilation and epenthesis which are more thoroughgoing in this language than in Indian Prakrits, most probably due to the substratum influence of Tamil. This would explain how the two scripts, one for a Middle Indo-Aryan and the other for a Dravidian language, were able to avoid ligatures, a prominent feature in all other regional scripts.