Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s22.t10.2

c26.s22.t10.2

¹ It is relevant in this context to refer to the dual system followed for romanised transliteration of Tamil. The *Tamil Lexicon* and linguistic publications strictly follow the phonemic method, using only one set of stops ( *k*, *c*, *ṭ*, *t* and *p*). The official epigraphical publications follow the phonetic method indicating voicing in medial position with the use of voiced stops (*g*, *j*, *ḍ*, *d* and *b*) imposing modern Tamil pronunciation on ancient inscriptional language. The transliteration is, however, not always quite consistent. In practice, the official epigraphical publications follow the phonemic transcription for the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions, but switch over to the phonetic transcription for the later inscriptions in Vaṭṭeḻuttu and Tamil scripts.