Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s15.t1.1

c26.s15.t1.1

Another orthographic peculiarity of the Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions is the apparently 'unnecessary lengthening' of the short vowel *u* (initial and medial) as *ū* in certain positions. The present Corpus records 16 instances of this special usage in 12 inscriptions from 8 sites, far too many to be dismissed as scribal errors. All the inscriptions except one belong to the Early Period (ca. 2nd century b.c.-1st century a.d.) and occur in association with TB-I or mixed TB-I and II notations.¹¹ All of them are clustered around the Madurai region (see Map I, detail). The frequency and distribution of this peculiar usage justify the search for a rational explanation.¹²