Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s7: 5.7 Tamil-Brāhmī: general characteristics of writing
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s7
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5.7 Tamil-Brāhmī: general characteristics of writing
c25.s7.1
Before we take up a detailed palaeographic study of the Tamil-Brāhmī script, we may note some of the general characteristics of writing especially of the cave inscriptions.
c25.s7.2
(1) An important feature of Tamil-Brāhmī is the relatively slower pace of evolution especially in the Early Period when compared with the contemporary Northern and Southern Brāhmī scripts of the post-Mauryan era. This is strikingly illustrated at Arikamedu by the occurrence of a pottery inscription in Hybrid Sanskrit³ in the Northern Brāhmī characters of ca. 1st century A.D. along with pottery inscriptions in Tamil-Brāhmī of about the same date but in which the characters look much earlier when judged in terms of Brāhmī palaeography. The slower pace of evolution is also shared by the Early Sinhala-Brāhmī script of the same period (ca. 2-1 centuries B.C.).⁴
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³ R.E. M. Wheeler *et al.* 1946: Pl. XLI, No. 3.
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⁴ See the palaeographic charts (chronologically arranged) in Karunaratne 1984: Figs. 1-35.
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(2) The direction of evolution of Tamil-Brāhmī is markedly different from those of the Northern and Southern Brāhmī scripts. This has resulted in different shapes for the common letters of the same period. This is strikingly illustrated by the bilingual coin-legends on the silver portrait coins of the Sātavāhanas, with the letters on the obverse in the Southern Brāhmī script looking different from those on the reverse in the Tamil-Brāhmī script.⁵
c25.s7.6
⁵ See section 5.15 for discussion on these coin-legends.
c25.s7.7
(3) Two general trends in the evolution of the letters are:
(a) reduction in height and equalisation of the arms of the letters, and
(b) conversion of angular and rectilinear letters and medial vowel signs into cursive shapes, which ultimately resulted in the emergence of Vaṭṭeḻuttu (lit., 'the rounded script'). This tendency, a peculiarly southern characteristic, may be traced to the practice of writing on palm leaves with iron stylus.
c25.s7.8
(4) The letters of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions of the Early Period, especially those engraved on the brow over the entrance to the caves, are relatively much larger⁶ and more crudely cut than in the later inscriptions, reflecting an early stage of literacy and also lack of experience in engraving on extremely hard and rough rock surfaces.
c25.s7.9
⁶ E.g., the cave inscription at Marukaltalai (No. **14**) in which some of the letters reach almost 40 cm. in height. The scribe apparently used the cubit (*muḻam*) for measuring, which is ' the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger' (*TL*).
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(5) The inscriptions of the Early Period are written in single lines irrespective of their length.¹ The changeover to compact writing in multiple lines of manageable length took place only in the Late Period.²
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¹ E.g., the long single-line inscription at Alagarmalai comprising several segments (Nos. **38-45**) measuring more than 850 cm. (excluding spaces between the segments and damaged passages).
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² Compare the long single-line inscriptions (Nos. *1-3*) at Mangulam in the Early Period with the four-line inscriptions (Nos. *61 & 62*) of about the same length at Pugalur in the Late Period.
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(6) Changes in style due to 'pressure of writing' resulting in smaller, well-formed letters in a flowing manuscript 'hand', begin to appear from ca. 1st century A.D. and become more pronounced in the Late Period.³
c25.s7.14
³ E.g., the neat and uniform engraving of the inscription at Jambai (No. **59**) of ca. 1st century A.D. Some of the inscriptions (e.g., Nos. *67 & 69*) of ca. 3rd century A.D. at Pugalur are in a flowing manuscript 'hand'.