Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s5.1

c26.s5.1

The Brāhmī principle of the 'inherent' *-a* was given up and the consonantal symbol was regarded as basic (mute). This simple but original modification enabled the Tamil-Brāhmī script to depict basic consonants in final position and in consonant clusters without ligatures. The employment of a specific marker to depict the medial *-a* follows as the natural corollary to the abandoning of the concept of the 'inherent' *-a* in the consonantal symbol. Consequently, the first of the medial vowel markers in Brāhmī, the short horizontal stroke to the top right of a consonant, came to represent the medial *-a* in the TB-I notation.