Early South Indian Palaeography c17: Appendix III: Inscribed Potsherds from Alagarai and Uraiyur

Early South Indian Palaeography c17

Language: English

Appendix III: Inscribed Potsherds from Alagarai and Uraiyur

c17.2

Besides the caverns which contain a number of inscriptions in the Brāhmī script in South India mentioned in the foregoing pages, there have been found a number of potsherds with such inscriptions in the course of archaeological excavations conducted at a few places in the Tamil country. The first among such sites is Arikamedu near Pondicherry where the excavations conducted by Mortimer Wheeler in 1944 yielded as many as eighteen potsherds with Brāhmī inscriptions. They have been already deciphered and published.¹ The excavations conducted by the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology of the University of Madras recently at Alagarai (1964) and at Uraiyur (1965 and 1966) have yielded a number of potsherds with inscriptions in the Drāviḍi Brāhmī script. Two potsherds were found at Alagarai and five with clearly inscribed inscriptions at Uraiyur.

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¹ *Ancient India*, No. 2, pp. 109-14. See also P. Z. Pattabiramin, *Les Foulles d’ Arikamedu*, pp. 33-34; K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, *Journal of the University of Madras*, Vol. XIV, No. 1.

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As in the case of the Brāhmī inscriptions found in the caverns, the language of these potsherd inscriptions is also Tamil. From the levels from which they have been got, the other finds unearthed along with them and the palaeography of these inscriptions, they may probably be assigned to the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century A. D. The inscriptions are written on a pottery which is usually called the black-and-red ware and assigned to a period roughly from the first century B. C. to the fourth or fifth century A. D. as gleaned from the excavations at these sites. They are found at comparatively low levels in the trenches suggesting that they belong to a fairly early period. Besides, the letters found in some of the inscriptions such as *a*, *ka*, *ma*, *ta* and *pu* closely resemble the letters of the Arikamedu potsherd inscriptions and therefore these inscriptions may be assigned roughly to the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century A.D. as the Arikamedu ones.

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The two potsherd inscriptions from Alagarai read as follows :

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The first one contains three letters namely *kū ta ta*. The potsherd is a broken piece and the last letter *ta* in it is at the very end of the piece. Therefore it is an incomplete inscription and by supplving the word *ṉ* the inscription may be read as *kūttaṉ*, which in Tamil means dancer. The second inscription which is well carved contains only one letter and reads *ka*.

c17.10

The most important of the potsherd inscriptions got in the course of the excavations at Uraiyur is written below the rim portion of a big pot which is unfortunately broken and contains thirteen letters on the whole. The length of each letter is about ¾ of an inch and the first ten letters of the inscription can be easily read as *mū la na pē ḍu a na ta ṇa na*. It is then followed by three more letters, the reading of which is little difficult. The first among them looks very much like *ra* or *ū* the second *ma* and the third *ṇai*. Thus it may read as *ramaṇai* or *ūmaṇai*. Obviously it refers to one Anthanan of Mūlanpēḍu. But the real interpretation of the whole inscription is difficult on account of the broken nature of the sherd in which the last letter itself is not seen fully.

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Another inscription which is engravd on a second potsherd contains four letters clearly incised which may be read as :

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*pū ṇa ka ṇa*

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The last three letters *ṇa ka* and *ṇa* are obviously a suffix to a name. Since during the early centuries of the Christian era the Nagas were one of the important tribal people who lived in the area and the names of some of the Saṅgam poets end with the suffix *nakaṇ*, the word *nakaṇ* may be taken as a suffix to a name. *Pū* stands for the name of the person or it is the last letter in his name.

c17.14

The next potsherd contains eight letters including the first letter which is broken. The other seven letters are *ka ta a ṇa a ra ī*. One interesting thing about this inscription is that of the seven letters the first, second, fourth and the sixth are vowelless consonants namely *k*, *t*, *n*, *r* followed respectively by the vowels *a*, *a*, *a* and *ī*. If each of the vowels is added to the previous vowelless consonant we get the word *katanarī*. Though the inscription is fairly clear, it is difficult to interpret it because of its incomplete nature.