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Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c27.s30: 7.27 Case

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c27.s30

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7.27 Case

c27.s30.1

Case expresses the semantic relation of a noun or a pronoun to the other words in the sentence. There are eight cases (*vēṟṟumai*) in Tamil numbered first to eighth. Case relations are indicated by the addition of suffixes (*urupu*) or postpositions. The first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh cases occur in the Corpus.

7.27.1 First case (nominative)

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The stem without any case-marker is deemed to be in the nominative case. The vast majority of nouns in the Corpus are in the nominative case; e.g.,

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*makaṉ* 'son' 20.2

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*makaḷ* 'daughter' 66.3

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*kal* 'stone' 61.15

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*aṟam* 'charity' 76.4

7.27.2 Second case (accusative)

c27.s30.t2.1

There is only one occurrence of the accusative, which has *-a* as the case-suffix:

c27.s30.t2.2

*itta* 'this' (in accusative case) 13.3
Cf. LT *itai* / *ittai* < *itu* / *iḫtu* 'this one'
*-ai* is the accusative suffix in LT, though *-a* is also mentioned as such in *Tol.* (*Col.* 109-110). See Commentary for discussion.

7.27.3 Fourth case (dative)

c27.s30.t3.1

The dative case suffix is *-ku* with the meanings 'to, for'. The following are the occurrences in the Corpus:

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*kuv-aṉ-kē* 'to Kuvaṉ' 1.2.c (-*kē* < *ku* + *ē*, emphatic particle).

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*ko(ṭ)ṭal-ku* 'for carving' 12.2

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*mēṟcēri-ku* 'for Mēṟcēri' 112.2

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*teṉ-ku* 'southern' (lit., 'to the south') 49.5.a

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Cf. *teṟku* 'south' where the dative suffix *-ku* denoting direction gets fused with the stem .

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*mattirai-kē* 'of Matirai' 38.1

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The dative suffix *-ku* occurs in the possessive-locative sense; the emphatic particle *-ē* indicates that all the persons belong to the same place. See Commentary (38.1).

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Tamil legends on the Sātavāhana portrait coins employ the dative suffix *-ku* for the genitive. See section 5.15.3 for discussion.

7.27.4 Sixth case (genitive)

c27.s30.t4.1

Three suffixes of the genitive case occur in the Corpus: *-a*, *-ā* and *-iṉ*.

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**-a:** This is the most frequent genitive suffix in the Corpus occurring seven times. It is also attested in LT, but with much less relative frequency. See Commentary (19.3).

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*ciḻivaṉ-a* 'of Ciḻivaṉ' 19.3

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*cēnta-a* 'of Cēntaṉ' 28.1.b

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*ti(ṭ)ṭi-il-a* 'of Tiṭṭi-il' 33.1

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*pāṉkā(ṭ)ṭa* (*pāṉkāṭu* + *a*) 'of Pāṉkāṭu' 8.1

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*vira* (*vīra*)-*a* 'of Vīraṉ' 79.1.c

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*veṇ*(*veṇ*) *-a* 'of Veṇ' 20.3

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*vēḷ-a* 'of Vēḷ' 32.1.c

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Cf. also *nanta-a-siri-* (1.2.a-b) and *mācakōṭu* (*mācu* + *a-*) (120.1) where *-a* appears to be an attributive suffix.

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**-ā:** This genitive suffix occurs thrice in the Corpus

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*kuvirā* (*kuviraṉ* + *ā*) 'of Kuviraṉ' 23.1

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The PNG suffix *-aṉ* is elided and the genitive suffix *-ā* is joined to the stem.

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*na(l)li-y-ūr-ā* 'of Nalliyūr' 65.1

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*nalli-y-ūr-ā* 'of Nalliyūr' 66.1

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The genitive suffix *-ā* is not attested in LT. However, it occurs in Old Kannada where it is considered to be older than *-a*. See Commentary (66.1).

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Cf. also *mutā* (61.1) and *mūtā* (62.1) (*mutu* / *mūtu* + *ā*) 'senior, elder' where *-ā* appears to be an adjectival suffix.

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*-iṉ*: This occurs as the genitive suffix thrice.

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| *aritiṉ* (*ariti* + *iṉ*) | 'of Ariti' | 34.2 |
| *kuṇāviṉ* (*kuṇā* + *v* + *iṉ*) | 'of Kuṇā' | 89.1 |
| [*kō*\*]*viṉ* (*kō* + *v* + *iṉ*) | 'of the chief' | 88.4 |

c27.s30.t4.20

Cf. also *patiṉ-ūr* (*pat-iṉ-*) (30.1) where *-iṉ* is an attributive suffix.

7.27.5 Zero-genitive

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The so-called zero-genitive construction also occurs in the Corpus in cases where the mere juxtaposition of nouns indicates genitive or possessive case relation.

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| (e.g.) *neṭuñcaliyaṉ paṇa-aṉ* | 'servant of Neṭuñcaliyaṉ' | 1.5-6 |
| *neṭiñcaliyaṉ sālakaṉ* | 'sister-in law's husband of Neṭiñcaliyaṉ' | 2.5-6 |
| *iḷañcaṭikaṉ tantai-y* | 'father of Iḷañcaṭikaṉ' | 2.7-8 |

c27.s30.t5.3

Place names occur before personal names mostly without an overt genitive-possessive suffix.

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| (e.g.) *veḷ-aṟai nikama(t)tōr* | 'the members of the merchant guild of Veḷḷaṟai' | 6.1-2 |
| *pākaṉ-ūr pēr-ataṉ* | 'Pērataṉ of Pākaṉūr' | 13.1-2 |

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Exceptional cases of place names followed by the genitive suffix *-ā* have been noted above.

7.27.6 Seventh case (locative)

c27.s30.t6.1

There are no occurrences of locative case suffixes in the Corpus. However, nouns are added as postpositions with locative signification in the following cases:

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*-il*: *ti(t)ti-il-a* 'of Tiṭṭi-il' 33.1.b

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Even though *-il* is a locative case suffix with the meaning 'in', it is clearly a noun here as indicated by the genitive suffix *-a* following it. It is probable that *tiṭṭi-il* 'in Tiṭṭi (a place name)' coalesced into a single word *tiṭṭi-il* which then became capable of taking a case-suffix. Cf. *vēmpi(ṟ)r-ūr* (*vēmpu* + *il* + *tt* + *ūr*) 'a place name' (35.1). The place name Vēmpil is attested in later Tamil inscriptions. See Commentary (33.1 & 35.1).

c27.s30.t6.4

*-uḷ*: *uṟaiyuḷ* 'in the abode (of ascetics)' 60.2.b

c27.s30.t6.5

Cf. *uṟai* (n.) 'abode'; *uḷ* (n.) 'in, inside'. The compound coalesces into a single word *uṟaiyuḷ* 'abode of ascetics' in LT.