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Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s17: 6.17 Doubling of consonants in Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s17

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6.17 Doubling of consonants in Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions

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One of the characteristic orthographic features of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions is the employment of a single consonant in writing to represent the doubled consonants in the language. This feature is due to the influence of Prakrit inscriptional orthography which seldom permits doubled consonants in writing. However, unlike in Prakrit inscriptions, doubling of consonants is present as an optional feature in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions from the earliest times.¹ The presence or absence of doubled consonants in any particular inscription is unpredictable. The same inscription or even the same word is found to employ or avoid doubled consonants at random. However, a survey of the inscriptions in the Corpus shows a clear trend towards increasing use of doubled consonants approximating to the linguistic norms. The main features of this development which may be interpreted as due to the waning influence of Prakrit inscriptional orthography and the growing influence of the local language, are summarised below.

6.17.1 Doubling of consonants in loanwords

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As may be expected, avoidance of doubling of consonants is more pronounced in loanwords from Prakrit.² (In the following examples, the basic consonant not in the original is shown within brackets.)

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(e.g.) *a(s)sutaṉ* (3.7.b), *āy(c)ca-* (55.5.a), *upa(c)caṉ* (9.¹), *ka(s)sapaṉ* (45.²), *ta(c)caṉ* (73.8),
*-pu(t)ta* (80.1.b), *-pu(t)tō* (59.1.b), *vi(s)suvaṉ* (27.2.b), *sa(p)pami(t)tā* (41.1);
(cf. also) **ū ti rā ṇa** for *u(t)tiraṉ* (legend on a coin from Sri Lanka).³
**mi ti rā ṇa** for *mi(t)tiraṉ* (legend on a gold ring from Karur).⁴

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¹ See, for example, Nos. *1, 8, 9, 12, 13, 24*, etc., in the Corpus for the occurrence of doubled consonants in the Early Period. Subrahmanya Aiyer's observations that "doubling of consonants came into later use in the Tamil language" and that its absence "is a telling feature of (the) records" (1924: p. 288) are incorrect. He did not read the longest inscription at Mangulam (No. *1* in the present Corpus) which contains no fewer than five of the earliest instances of doubled consonants. His own reading of the Anaimalai inscription (No. *60* in the present Corpus) has two more instances. He missed two more instances in the Kongarpuliyankulam inscriptions (Nos. *12* and *13* in the present Corpus).

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² See Appendix V for the word list in Indo-Aryan and Appendix VI for a few more doubtful items.

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³ See No. 5, Table 1.6.

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⁴ See No. 3, Table 1.8 and Fig. 1.23 E.

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Loanwords are sometimes written with doubled consonants, no doubt reflecting the influence of the local language:

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(e.g.) *attuvāyi* (read *attavāyi*) (60.6), *atiṭṭāṉam* (63.6), *cāttaṉ* (85.⁴.b), *dhammam* (1.³), *viyakkaṉ* (84.4.a).

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There are occasional hypercorrect doubling of consonants in loanwords reflecting the unsettled orthographic convention:

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(e.g.) *atiṭṭāṇṇam* (for *atiṭṭāṉam*) (64.¹), *vāṇṇikaṉ* (for *vāṇikaṉ*) (70.1.c).

6.17.2 Doubling of consonants in Tamil words

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There are numerous examples, especially in the Early Period, of Tamil words written with single consonants in lieu of doubled consonants:¹

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(e.g.) *aṟu(p)pi(t)a* (62.14), *u(p)pu* (39.¹.a), *ko(ṭ)ṭiy-avaṉ* (4.³), *ko(ṭ)ṭi-ōr* (6.3), *ko(ṟ)ṟi* (65.⁴.b), *to(ṭ)ṭa* (84.⁵), *tai(t)ta* (101.²), *pa(ḷ)ḷi-* (1.9), *ma(l)laṉ* (42.2.b), *vai(k)ka* (16.2);

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(cf. also) pi ṭā ṇa for *pi(ṭ)ṭaṉ* (13.2.c and in a legend on a coin from Sri Lanka²).

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The number of native words employing doubled consonants is more than that of such loanwords, especially in the Late Period and in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions. Of special interest are pairs with and without doubling of consonants in adjoining inscriptions proving conclusively that the doubled consonants were present in the spoken language:

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(e.g.) *koṟi*/*koṟṟi* (65.⁴.b & 66.4.b), *nali-*/*nalli-* (65.¹.a & 66.1.a), *paḷi-*/*paḷḷi* (89.4 & 88.1).

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A few of the numerous Tamil words written with doubled consonants are given below:

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(e.g.) *aṟaṭṭa* (60.7.a), *īttavaṉ* (12.³), *koṭṭupitta-* (1.8), *koṟṟantai* (67.¹.a), *ceyvittāṉ* (88.²), *nōṟṟa* (116.3), *peruṅkūṟṟaṉ* (88.6), *muṭitta* (115.8), *yāṟṟūr* (61.3);

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² See No. 6, Table 1.6.

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(cf. also) *cāttaṉ āvi*, *tevvaitattu* and *uttiraṉ* (pottery inscriptions from Arikamedu).³

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³ R.E.M. Wheeler *et al.* 1946: Figs. 46-47: Nos. 9 & 19; I. Mahadevan 1996a: No. 5.30 respectively. See also Table 1.5, Nos. 1 & 2 and Figs. 1.19A & B in this vol.

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*atiṇṇaṉ* (coin from Andippatti).⁴

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⁴ See No. 13, Table 1.6.

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*tittaṉ* (silver ring from Karur).⁵

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⁵ See No. 12, Table 1.8 and Fig. 1.24 D.

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There are also a couple of hypercorrect forms with doubled consonants in lieu of single consonants in Tamil words in the Early Period before the orthographic conventions settled down.

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(e.g.) *vaḷutti-* for *vaḷuti* (1.7.b), *mattirai-* for *matirai* (38.¹).

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¹ See Appendix IV for the word list.

6.17.3 Doubling of consonants as a grammatical feature

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Doubling of word-initial and word-final consonants in sandhi are well-known morphophonemic features in Tamil (*mikutal* and *iraṭṭittal* respectively). These are represented in the Late Period and in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions.¹

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¹ See sections 7.15.3 & 7.15.4.

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(e.g.) *mikutal*: *tiṭi-kkāttāṉ* (58.1-2), *cē-kkanti* (83.². a-b).
*iraṭṭittal*: *cell-irumpoṟai* (61.7.b-c)

6.17.4 A special orthographic convention for doubling of consonants

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Doubling of consonants in the inscriptions does not follow the rules of grammar in some cases.² As such usage is also seen in later Tamil inscriptions,³ they should not be dismissed as 'scribal errors', but regarded as an orthographic convention of the inscriptional language:

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(e.g.) *amaṇṇaṉ* (for *amaṇaṉ*) (61.²),
*kuṟṟaṉ* - *aṟupitta* (for *kuṟṟaṉ aṟuppitta*) (63.4-5).

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² Ibid.

6.17.5 Doubled consonants in Early Tamil inscriptions: a statistical study

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As mentioned earlier, the inscriptions represent doubled consonants with increasing frequency in the Late Period and in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions, moving closer to the linguistic usage. This trend is brought out in Table 6.³. The overall trend is quite clear. While avoidance of doubled consonants was the norm in the Early Period, the employment of doubled consonants became dominant in the Late Period and almost the exclusive orthographic convention in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions.

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| | Early Ta. Br. | | Late Ta. Br. | | Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu | |
| | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % |
| No. of times doubling of consonants is avoided | 77 | 83.70 | 25 | 37.31 | 4 | 13.33 |
| No. of times doubling of consonants is present | 15 | 16.30 | 42 | 62.69 | 26 | 86.67 |
| Total No. of times doubling of consonants is expected | 92 | | 67 | | 30 | |

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Table 6.³. Frequency of doubled consonants in the Corpus.

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³ See Commentary (63.4). See also A. Velu Pillai 1976: pp. 35-36 for examples from later inscriptions.