Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c5.5

c5.5

The most significant result of the present study is that the cave inscriptions of Tamil Nadu which have generally been regarded as obscure, can now be read. They turn out to be in simple and intelligible Tamil with only a small proportion of loanwords from Prakrit, and are not too different in language and contents from the later inscriptions in Vaṭṭeḻuttu and Tamil scripts. What had stood in the way of a more complete understanding of the inscriptions earlier was the lack of reliable texts and unfamiliarity with the orthographic rules governing the inscriptions.