Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s14.1

c26.s14.1

Subrahmanya Aiyer thought there was an exchange of values between the letters *i* and *ī* in the cave inscriptions.¹ The present evidence does not support this generalisation. He himself reads the letter *i* with the normal value in the Anaimalai inscription.² Out of the five occurrences of *i* in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions,³ it has the normal value in four, and hence the lone exception with the value *ī* noticed by Subrahmanya Aiyer in the Tirupparankunram inscription⁴ is best explained as a scribal error. It is, however, true that the symbol for the initial vowel *ī* (a vertical line flanked by a pair of dots) stands for the sound *i* in most places. The symbol occurs 26 times in the Corpus, all in the Early Period. It has the normal value *ī* in only 4 places (in *Nos. 2, 12, 16 & 59*), and has to be read as *i* in all others to suit the context (e.g., *iḻañcaṭikan*, 'a personal name' in *No. 2*).⁵