Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c5.2

c5.2

As the Brāhmī script has been studied extensively in several standard publications, the present work has concentrated on the less familiar aspects of the Tamil-Brāhmī script. The origin of Brāhmī itself is not considered in this study; but the origin of Tamil-Brāhmī from Brāhmī is studied in detail. The gradual evolution of Tamil-Brāhmī into Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu is traced with the help of palaeographic charts based on the Corpus of Early Tamil Inscriptions included in this volume. The Tamil script which begins to appear from the commencement of the seventh century A.D. and from which the modern Tamil script has evolved, is outside the chronological limit of the study.