Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s18: 6.18 Analytical writing in Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s18

Language: English

c26.s18.t1 6.18.1 Consonant followed by vowel: — 8 parts
c26.s18.t2 6.18.2 Vowel followed by vowel — 6 parts

6.18 Analytical writing in Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions

c26.s18.1

One of the characteristic orthographic features of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions, especially in the Early Period, is what may be called 'analytical' writing in which non-initial word-segments and grammatical suffixes commencing with vowels occur separately without sandhi or the glides *y* or *v* in between. This style of writing in which segmentation occurs at the junction of words, or words and suffixes, cannot be described as alphabetic as suggested by Subramanian.¹ His theory is not borne out by the evidence,² though it has been repeated in later publications.³ The Tamil scripts have remained basically syllabic (as the parent Brāhmī) with the exception of free-standing basic consonants.

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¹ "The vowelled consonants (are) sometimes written not as one letter, but as two separate letters, with the consonant and the vowel side by side". (T.N. Subramanian 1957: p. 1509).

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² Ibid. Figs. 7a & b. The first example *y ū* is probably from the Karungalakkudi inscription (No. 34) in which the place name *eḷaiy-ūr* is written as two words. His second example *ṭ ā* (sic) is probably taken from *atiṭ-aṇam* (read *atiṭ-āṇam*) in the Sittannavasal-A inscription (No. 49) in which the pause serves the same function as doubling of consonants (*atiṭṭāṇam*). These are not cases of alphabetic writing.

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³ E.g., K.A. Nilakanta Sastri 1955 (4th edn. 1975): p. 90.

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Two types of segmentation through analytical writing are illustrated below, each involving non-initial word-segments and grammatical suffixes commencing with vowels.⁴