Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c28.s5.1

c28.s5.1

The Commentary is a detailed word-by-word study of the inscriptions included in the Corpus, supplementing the translation and notes with additional information on the language and contents. The purpose of the Commentary is to situate the Early Tamil inscriptions in the mainstream of Indian epigraphy by showing that their style and contents are similar to those of the contemporary religious and votive inscriptions elsewhere in the country, and that their language, when correctly understood, is no different in its basic features from the more familiar inscriptional Tamil of the succeeding periods or even Literary Tamil.