Early South Indian Palaeography c17.4

c17.4

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.