Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s3.10

c26.s3.10

The Brāhmī notational system described above is unsuitable for Tamil which abounds in final consonants (e.g., *kaṇ* 'eye', *maram* 'tree', *tāy* 'mother', *nīr* 'water', *kal* 'stone', *yāḻ* 'lute', *nāḷ* 'day', *avaṉ* 'he', etc.). Tamil which has much fewer consonant clusters than Indo-Aryan (mostly geminates and nasal-homorganic clusters) does not also need the *samyuktākshara* system of writing. Those who were responsible for the adaptation of the Brāhmī script for Tamil must also have decided to modify the notation for medial vowels to suit Tamil phonetics. A period of bold and innovative experimentation followed during which no less than four alternative systems of vowel notations were evolved, all different from one another and from that of the parent Brāhmī script.