Early Tamil Epigraphy

From the Earliest Times to the 6th

Century AD
By

Iravatham Mahadevan

--An Overview by

S. Swaminathan

Early Tamil Epigraphy

From the Earliest Times to the 6th Century
AD
By

Iravatham Mahadevan
--Published by
Cre-A, India
&
Harvard University, USA
2003

The book deals with

development of two scripts of Tamil:
Tamil-Brahmi and Early VaTTezhuttu
covering a period from
the 3rd century BC till the 6th century
AD.

First, let me provide

some background
information regarding the
scripts discussed in the book
in order to follow
My Overview

We would come across with five scripts in the

book:
Brahmi,
Tamil Brahmi,
VaTTezhuttu,
Tamil and
Grantha
Short
description of these scripts
follows.

Brahmi
Brahmi
is an ancient script of India.
The earliest writing in Brahmi is found
in the edicts of Asoka dated to the 3rd
century BC.
Brahmi is a general term and
there existed a number of regional variations,
like Southern Brahmi, Sinhala-Brahmi etc.

Brahmi
Mother script of Indian Languages
Brahmi
is the script from which
all other native Indian scripts,
except the Harappan,
are derived.

Development of
the letter N ()
in all Indian
languages
starting from Brahmi,
It may be noted
how the characters
change drastically
over the centuries!

Development of latter k () in
Devanagari, Tamil and other south Indian Scripts

BC-AD

Development
of vowels
of Tamil
from
Early Tamil-Brahmi

Development
of consonants
of Tamil
from
Early Tamil-Brahmi

Brahmi
Mother script of many Asian
Languages
Pallava Grantha, a derivative of
Brahmi,
a script developed to write
Sanskrit in the Tamil
country
was the inspiration to
most of the Asian scripts.
This happened through
the political and the cultural
conquest
by the Indian rulers
starting from the Pallava-s

Development of
letter k ( )
for the languages
of
Java,
Sumatra
Borneo,
Thai,
Laos,
Khmer,
Combodia,
Vietnam, etc
from
the Grantha script

Tamil-Brahmi
Tamil-Brahmi
is the name of the script
in which the earliest inscriptions
in Tamil are found.
Let us see how Tamil-Brahmi looks like

Tamil-Brahmi inscription
Kudumiyanmalai, 3rd century AD

[]
The hermitage (is the gift) of koRRantai of nAzhaL

VaTTezhuttu
VaTTezhuttu,
a cursive style,
was derived from Tamil-Brahmi, and
was current all over the Tamil country
from the 5th century AD.

VaTTezhuttu
Tamil script that came into use from the 7th
century
displaced VaTTezhuttu.
With the ascendancy of the Chozhas, and
the displacement was total by 13th
century.
However the script lingered on till the 19th
century
in Kerala for writing Malayalam.

VaTTezhuttu
The Pulankurichchi inscriptions (5th century)
are the earliest.
A number of hero-stones in the Dharmapuri
district
have been found inscribed
in Early VaTTezhuttu.
Let us see a specimen of VaTTEzhttu

Vattezhuttu inscription
Thirunatharkunru, 6th century AD

ai m pa t tE zha na

ca na n nO R Ra

ca na ti ra na n ti A

ci ri ka ru ni cI ti kai


The seat of penance of chantiramanti Acirikaru,
who observed the fast (unto death) for fifty-seven days

Tamil Script
The Pallava rulers created the Tamil script
out of the Grantha script by the 7th century,
adding necessary additional letters
from VaTTezhuttu.
This is the view of Mahadevan,
and is not shared by some.

Tamil Script

There are (according to Mahadevan)

no inscriptions in the Tamil script
before Mahendra Pallavan I (7th century
AD).

Tamil Script
There was a steep increase in inscriptions in
Tamil
from the 9th century onwards.
The classical phase of Tamil script starts
with the ascendancy of the Chozha-s
from the middle of the 9th century.
From the 11th century onwards
this became the main script for Tamil
throughout the Tamil country.
Here is an example of Tamil script in the early stages

Tamil inscription
Parantaka Chozha, 10th century AD

svatiShrI kOpparakEsari parma
34
Rku yANdu 34 ivANDu kAna

nATTu muniyantaik kuLattu

Kku manthiri Accan mUrti aTTi
2
Na kAcu 2 iraNDu kAcA oru kAcAl

In the 34th year of Parantaka Chozha, Achchan mUrti, a minister,

has given 2 kasu-s for the renovation of the lake

Grantha Script
Grantha,
was derived from the Southern Brahmi script
of Prakrit characters
by the Pallava-s (6th century AD)
to write Sanskrit in the Tamil country.
Let us see how Grantha script then looked like.

Grantha inscription
Mahendra Pallava, 7th century AD
33
EtadanishTamadrumamalO

4
Hamasudham vicitracittEna

3
nirmApitanRpRNabrahmE

ShvaravishNulakshitAyatanam

The (cave) temple dedicated to Brahma, Siva and Vishnu

was excavated by Vichitrachitta (Mahendra Pallava)
without using brick, timber, metal and mortar.

Discovery of inscriptions
in the Tamil country has been
eventful

Discovery
Till the end of the 19th century
only two scripts were known:
VaTTezhuttu of the Pandiya-s
belonging to 8th century and
Tamil of the Pallava-s
dated the 7th century
It was wondered why there should be
two scripts for one language.
But their descent from Brahmi was inferred.

Discovery

The complete absence of written record of

a great literary civilization of 2000 years vintage
was a puzzle.

Discovery

This was solved when cave inscriptions,

resembling closely the script of Asokan edicts,
were found in Tamilnadu
around the end of the 19th century.

Discovery

The earliest finding of cave inscription is of Mangulam

by Robert Sewell in 1882.
This is not only oldest finding,
it is oldest lithic record in Tamilnadu and
it is also of great historical significance.
And a host of discoveries followed.

Discovery
Until middle of the last century
cave inscriptions were the only source
of early Tamil writing.

Then it was presumed that Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions wer

caused to be inscribed by Jaina and Buddhist monk
who were not conversant with Tamil, and
that these inscriptions did not represent
language of the day.

Discovery

With the finding of inscribed pottery

in Arikkamedu during 1941-44 and
later from many other sites
the view has changed.

Discovery

The pottery inscriptions made it possible

to date inscriptions more accurately.
It looks that inscribing on pottery was given up
after the 3rd century AD.

Deciphering,
the Tamil-Brahmi script

Deciphering
Difficulties

Deciphering cave inscriptions posed a number of problem

Most of the inscriptions were in inaccessible locations
Inscriptions were not bold and clear
Language was mistaken for Prakrit
Clues to a correct understanding of the script
were not found.

Deciphering
Milestones
1906: Venkayya identified the script to be Brahmi.
But he thought that the language was Pali.
He read a line in Mettuppatti as anatai ariya,
attempted to seek Vedic roots
for the words.
1914: Krishna Sastri attempted to read
the bold Sittannavasal inscription.

Deciphering
Milestones
1919: Krishna Sastri
first noted
purely southern charactaristics, like
the occurrences of letter L []
which was identified earlier in Simhala-Brahmi.
He also identified the presence of
three unusual characters,
later identified as zh [], R [] and n [].

He was the first to feel that some of the consonan

must be basic ().

Deciphering
Milestones

1924: KV Subramania Iyer pointed out

the powerful misguiding factor
that
what was written in Brahmi must be in
Prakrit.

Deciphering
Milestones
1924: KV Subramania Iyer found:
- Soft consonants ( ) were absent
- sa (, ) was occasionally used;
but Sh (, ) and sh (, ) were absent.
- All vowels except
ai , au, Ri (), Lr (), M () and H ()
were used
- Conjunct consonants ()
were absent completely

Deciphering
Milestones

1924: KV Subramania Iyer

ruled out

Indo-European language
and proved it is Tamil.
He demonstrated convincingly presence of
Tamil grammatical elements
like pAkan (), vaNikan (), etc

Deciphering
Milestones

1924: KV Subramania Iyer

could not still read correc
because of his incorrect orthography (spelling),
his overestimation of the Prakrit elements, etc

Deciphering
Milestones

1938-9: Narayana Rao tried to put the clock back.

He felt that the language was Prakrit,
and actually read the inscriptions fully!

Deciphering
Milestones
1961: KG Krishnan identified pulli ( ),
a device introduced later to mark
the basic consonants ( ) and
the short e () and o () vowels.
Later pulli was also identified
in the 2nd century AD silver coin
of Satakarni.

Deciphering
Milestones

1964: Kamil Zwelebil published

the first formal study of cave inscriptions.

1967: TV Mahalingam published the first book-length

study of cave inscriptions.

Deciphering
Mahadevans attempts
1961:

Mahadevan took up study of inscriptio

1962-66:

First round of visits to the caves

1966:

Corpus of 74 Tamil-Brahmi inscription

2 Early VaTTezhuttu inscriptions
from 21 sites published

1987:

Mahadevan proposed a tentative mod

1991-96:

Second field expedition

2003: Publication of Early Tamil Epigraphy

Deciphering
Mahadevans attempts

Mahadevan made field visits to the sites and

prepared tracings direct from stones and
made use of computer enhancement of
photos.
He made chronological classification.

Let us have a look at

some important inscriptions

Mangulam inscription

Mangulam inscription was discovered

by Robert Sewell in 1882,
and was rediscovered
by KV Subramania Iyer in 1906

Mangulam inscription

This Tamil-Brahmi inscription is important, because

this is the earliest inscription to be found and
in this inscription Nedunchezhiyan,
a Sangam king, is mentioned.

Mangulam inscription

Mangulam inscription

The inscription is in Tamil-Brahmi and

is dated to the 2nd century BC

Mangulam inscription
A line from the inscription is given
to compare the Tamil script 2000 years ago
with the present day script.

ka Ni
y
y
i

na

n
ta
a

si

ri

It may be noted that a non-Tamil letter s ( ) is used

Mangulam inscription
The text of the inscription is given
along
meaning
with

in
present
day
Tamil

3

kaNiy nantaasiriyI kuvankE

dammam ittAa

neTuncazhiyan

paNaan kaDalan vazhuttiy koTuppittaa paLiy

This is the charity to nanta-siri kuvan, the kaNi; the bed was caused to
be carved by kaTalan vazhuti, the servant of neTunchezhian.

Edakkal inscription
Inscription in Edakkal, Kerala
was discovered by Fawcett in 1894.
He made careful drawing and took photos and
submitted to Hultzsch.
Hultzsch took estampages and
published a brief note to Fawcett.
Fawcett published a paper in 1901.
Hultzsch made an attempt to decipher,
but could not.
For a century no further was action taken

Edakkal inscription

Mahadevan made two expeditions in 1995 and 1996.

Unfortunately, these Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
have been obliterated
due to graffiti by tourists

Edakkal inscription
During the 1996 expedition, Mahadevan found
two other Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
dated to the 3rd century AD.
In one of them there was a mention of
kaTummiputa chEra, a ChEra king.
This is also another important inscription
for it belongs to the age of a Sangam king

Pugalur inscription

In Pugalur, near Karur, the ancient Chera capital

a number of inscriptions were discovered.
One of them is important for
it is a record of a Chera king of the Irumporai line
which ruled from Karur in the Sangam age.

Pugalur inscription
The text of the inscription

mutA amaNNan yARRUr senkAyapan uRaiy

kO Atan cellirumpoRai makan
{}
perunkaTunkOn makan (i)Lan
{}
kaTunkO(i)LankO Aka aRutta kal

Pugalur inscription
The meaning of the inscription
The abode of the senior Jaina monk, senkAyapan of yARRUr.
The rock (shelter) was carved
when (i)LankaTunkO,
the son of perunkaTunkOn,
the son of King Atan sel irumpoRai,
became the heir apparent.

Jamabai inscription
Inscription in Jambai, in Villuppuram district,
is one among the most outstanding discoveries.
Dated to the 1st century AD
the inscription records the grant of a cave shelter
by atiyan neTumAn anchi,
identified as the famous chieftain of Takatur
(modern Dharmapuri),
celebrated in Purananuru.

Jamabai inscription
The text of the inscription is given
along
with its meaning

satiyaputO atiyan neTumAn anci

Itta paLi

The hermitage was given by

atiyamaAn neTumAn achi, the satiyaputta

Jamabai inscription

Atiyan neTumAn anchi,

has the title of satiyapitO;
a title found in the Second Rock edict of Asoka
along with Cheras, Chozhas and Pandyas,
thus establishing conclusively Asokas connection
with the Tamil country.

Jamabai inscription

The identification of Satiyaputo

with with Atiyaman was
on the linguistic grounds
by Sesha Iyer and
improved upon by Burrow.

Jamabai inscription
According to Burrow the developments are:
satiya [] to atiya []
(with the loss of the initial consonant),
and
putO [] meaning son [makan, ]
then makan [] to mAn []
like chEramAn []
corresponding to kEraLaputO
[].

Now let us go through

the contents of the book

Mahadevans Book
Mahadevans book deals with
Early Tamil-Brahmi
(2nd century BC to 1st century AD)
Late Tamil Brahmi
(2nd to 4th centuries AD)
Early Vattezhuththu
(5th & 6th centuries AD)
and does not include
Later Vattezhuththu and Tamil
(both from 7th century AD)

Mahadevans Book
Contents

Part One:

Early Tamil Inscriptions

Part Two:

Studies in Early Tamil Epigraphy

Part Three: Corpus of Early Tamil Inscriptions

Part One

Early Tamil Inscriptions

Chapter 1

Discovery

Discovering cave inscriptions have been uneven and

the book discusses important discoveries.
The contemporary inscriptions on
potteries, coins, seals and rings
are included in the appendix to this chapter.

Chapter 2

Decipherment

The exciting story of deciphering is a very important chap

The early attempts like the path-breaking paper by
KV Subramania Iyer in 1924,
and the discovery of pulli, and
important researches from 1970,
including Mahadevans work, and
finally, a chronology of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
that includes pottery and other inscriptions.

Chapter 3

Language

This chapter discusses the unsolved problem of

the language of the cave inscriptions:
how much and what kind of Tamil,
explains the Dravidian and Indo-Aryan elements

Chapter 4

Polity
The chapter shows how cave inscriptions
portray life in early Tamil society:
state and administration;
religion, particularly Jainism;
society agriculture, trade, professions,
social organisations, personal names,
place names, flora & fauna and culture

Chapter 5

Palaeography (Study of ancient

writing)
Review of earlier theories,
listing evidences to support his theory of
origin of Tamil-Brahmi from Brahmi
supported by 8 palaeographic Charts
Brief discussion on other Brahmi variants.

Chapter 5

Palaeography (Study of ancient

writing)
Detailed discussion on palaeography of
Tamil-Brahmi and early VaTTezhuttu:
vowels, consonants, the pulli, numerals
punctuation, symbols used in caves
Short discussion on evolution of VaTTezhuttu
Notes on emergence of Tamil script

Chapter 6

Orthography (Study of spelling)

The most important chapter.
Different orthographic models studied,
especially for denoting medial vowels,
which among other things,
provides insight
into the relationship of
Tamil-Brahmi and other Brahmi variants and
their relative chronology

Chapter 6

Orthography (Study of spelling)

Orthographic peculiarities of inscriptions
Evolution of alternate models:
Tamil-Brahmi I, II and III
Medial vowel notations
in cave and pottery inscriptions
Assimilation of loan-words
Voicing of consonants

Chapter 7

Grammar

Phonology (study of sounds) with detailed inventory o

vowels, consonants and consonant-vowels
and sound variations,
Morphophonemics, study of changes
that occur, during Sandhi etc,
Morphology (study of forms of changes of words)
in early Tamil and
Syntax (arrangement of words in a sentence)

Part Two

Corpus of Early Tamil Inscriptions

Corpus of Early Tamil Inscriptions

Contents

Inscriptions
Early and late Tamil-Brahmi
Early vattazhuttu
Tracings and estampages
Commentary

Corpus of Early Tamil Inscriptions

Inscriptions

110 inscriptions from 52 sites

arranged chronologically,
with text containing
Literal transcript as engraved on stone,
Text organised into words,
Translation into English,
Essential data specific to individual inscriptions,
Date,
Publication and most importantly,
Notes
This is an authoritative Corpus for researchers.

Part Three

Corpus of Early Tamil

Inscriptions
Commentary on Inscriptions

Commentary on Inscriptions
A detailed word-by-word study of inscriptions,
with a view to situate them
in the main stream of Indian epigraphy:
deals with
Meaning, literal and interpretation
Grammatical notes
Citations from literary and inscriptional parallels
Loan words
Contents, relating to the development of
Tamil language and society

Let us follow some important

discussions

Different Requirements of
Prakrit and Tamil
Many Asokan edicts are in Prakrit
and the script is Brahmi.
This Brahmi script cannot be used
directly for Tamil,
because there are no symbols
to represent basic consonants and
short e and o

Attempts to adapt Brahmi for

Tamil
At least three different methods
Tamil-Brahmi I, II and III were tried
for medial vowel notation, that is,
to represent
basic consonants like (),
consonants with medial a, like ()
and A, like ().

Pulli in Tamil-Brahmi

Pulli came to be used in Tamil-Brahmi later

as a negative vowel marker
to provide what the parent Brahmi script lacked.
to represent basic consonants (), and
to represent short e () and o ().

Pulli in Tamil-Brahmi

Pulli occurs only from the 2nd century AD onwards

But it is seldom found in the pottery inscriptions.
Even later, it was avoided in palm leaf writing

A short summary of
Mahadevans findings

Mahadevans findings
Stages of Development

According to Mahadevan
there were three stages of
development of medial vowel notation
Tamil-Brahmi I
- 2nd century BC to 1st century BC
Tamil-Brahmi II

- 1st century BC to 5th century AD

Tamil-Brahmi III

- 2nd century AD to 6th century AD

Mahadevans findings
Stages of Development

The figure that follows attempts to show,

through an example,
the basic consonants and medial vowel notations
as depicted in these stages.
Possible ambiguity is indicated by
pointing out alternate readings.

Mahadevans findings
Stages of Development

cannot write

Alternate
readings

Alternate
readings

No
alternate
reading

Mahadevans findings
Stages of Development

In the light of finding TB-II style of writing

in the Arikamedu potteries dated to 2nd century BC
Mahadevan is expresses his inability
to explain how
two parallel, mutually exclusive, competing system
appear at the same time, and
within a small, homogenous linguistic community.

Mahadevans findings
Stages of Development

Since most of the Early Brahmi inscriptions are

found near Madurai,
Tamil-Brahmi script must have been created
in the Pandya kingdom
around the end of 3rd century BC,
and then spread to other parts of the Tamil country

Mahadevans findings
Language

The language is Old Tamil,

not materially different from
the language of later Tamil inscriptions or
even literary texts,
in its basic phonological,
morphological and syntactical features.

Mahadevans findings
Language
All loan-words are nouns.
Most of the loan-words are adapted
to the Tamil phonetic pattern:
gaNaka to kaNaka
gOpa to kOpan
rAjA to irAsar
dAnam to tAnam
adhiTThAna to atiTTAnam

Mahadevans findings
Comparison with Situation in Upper
South India

The earliest Tamil inscriptions are from 3rd century BC,

whereas of Kannada-Telugu appear 8 centuries late
Sangam literature is dated to the beginning of Christian
while literature of Kannada and Telugu
appear a millennium later.

Mahadevans findings
Comparison with Situation in Upper
South India

The earliest inscriptions in the Tamil country are

almost exclusively in Tamil.
In contrast, for the same period, inscriptions
in stone, seals, pottery etc,
in the Upper South India are
exclusively in Prakrit.

Mahadevans findings
Widespread literacy in Tamilnadu

Literacy in the Tamil country

when compared with the situation
in contemporary Upper South India,
commenced much earlier.
Tamil, the local language, was used
for all purposes from the beginning;
democratic character in society existed.

Mahadevans findings
Widespread literacy in Tamilnadu

Literacy in the Tamil Country

seems to have been widespread
in all the regions in the Tamil country,
both in urban and rural areas,
in all strata of Tamil society.
Primary evidence for this comes from
inscribed pottery.

Mahadevans findings
Widespread literacy in Tamilnadu
A number of reasons are contributed to this:
In Upper South India the spoken languages
were Kannada and Telugu,
but Prakrit was the language of the rulers.
But the Tamil country was
politically independent and
the rulers were Tamils.

Mahadevans findings
Widespread literacy in Tamilnadu

It had the presence of a strong bardic tradition

Priestly hierarchy that could have vested interest
in maintaining oral tradition or
discouraging writing after its advent
was not present

Mahadevans findings
Widespread literacy in Tamilnadu

A strong tradition of local autonomy,

through self-governing villages councils and
merchant guilds.
The spread of Jainism and Buddhism and
extensive foreign trade.

Mahadevans findings
Origin of Tamil-Brahmi

Tamil-Brahmi was derived from Brahmi:

All but 4 of the 26 letters in Tamil-Brahmi are
identical or nearly so with the corresponding
Brahmi letter and
have the same phonetic value.

Vowels

Brahmi

Tamil-Brahmi

Consonants

Brahmi

Tamil-Brahmi

Medial vowel signs

Medial vowel signs are identical
along with phonetic values.

Brahmi

Tamil-Brahmi

Development of additional
letters
The additional letters,
zh,
L,
R and
n
were adapted from letters
with the nearest phonetic
value
in Brahmi.

Development of additional
letters

Mahadevans findings
Evolution and Chronology of South
Indian Scripts
3rd century BC

2nd century BC
1st century BC
5th century AD
6th century AD

7th century AD
14th century AD

Mahadevans findings
Origin of Tamil-Brahmi

Tolkappiyam places
the four letters zh [], L [],R [] and n []
at the end of the series of stops, nasals and liqui
This arrangement deviates from the order
based on articulatory phonetics.
This small, but significant detail, indicates that
the four special letters were originally regarded
as additions to the alphabet taken from Brahmi.

Possible issues for discussion in

the future

Issues
Which came first Brahmi or TamilBrahmi?
Mu Va (1972) says that
the Tamils used a script of their own, and
Tamil-Brahmi has developed
under the influence of VaTTezhuttu.
TN Subramanian (1957), KG Krishnan (1981)
and a few others argue
that Brahmi was a Tamil creation, and
came to be adapted all over India
with regional modifications.

Mahadevan says Tamil-Brahmi is a derivative of Brahmi

Issues
Was there a script for Tamil before?

Mayilai Seeni Venkatasamy (1981) says that

there was one
in which classical works were written and
was supplanted by Tamil-Brahmi.
Mahadevan says that Tamil was not written before.

Issues
What kind of Tamil?

Mayilai Seeni Venkatasamy (1981) says

the inscriptions are full of errors engraved
by people with inadequate knowledge of
Tamil.
Mahadevan says it is Old Tamil,
not very different from contemporary literary Tamil.

Issues
Dating Tolkappiyam

Mahadevan says that

Tolkappiyam must have been composed
not earlier than 2nd century AD
for it describes the use of puLLi
to denote basic consonants, and
to denote short vowels e and o

Issues
Voicing in Tamil
Today we write murukan and read it as murugan
k is called unvoiced and g as voiced.
The present use follows
Caldwell law of convertibility:
It is K in the beginning (KaN) and
when doubled (makkaL), and
it is G when it occurs in the middle (murugan) or
follows the nasal consonant (mangai)
There has been controversy whether
in the past also it was so in the past too.

Issues
Voicing in Tamil
One view is:
Voicing existed from the beginning
from the pre-Tamil stage.
It is present in all Dravidian languages.
Hence must have existed in early Tamil also
but not provided for in the spelling.
Originators were aware
of the principle of phoneme, and
did not feel necessary to borrow
voiced consonants from Brahmi.

Issues
Voicing in Tamil

Mahadevan says
There was no voicing in Tamil, in early Tamil.
If voicing was present the adaptors of the script
for Tamil from Brahmi
would have borrowed the corresponding letter.

Issues
Voicing in Tamil

Mahadevan continues:
Even in the loanwords from Prakrit
voicing has been systematically replaced
by the corresponding unvoiced consonants like,
kaNi (PKT: gani), utayana (PKT: udayana),
nanta (PKT: nanda),
kiTumpikan (PKT: kuTumbika) etc.

Issues
Voicing in Tamil

Mahadevan continues:
There is negative evidence in Tolkappiyam,
which devotes a whole chapter to
articulatory phonetics
( - )
would have dealt with voicing
if the feature was present in the language.

Mahadevan does not discuss

The origin of Brahmi.

His research on the Indus script and
the possibility of Brahmi originating from it.
Effect of writing medium and tools
on the development of scripts.
Reason for the disappearance of VaTTezhuttu.

Now the stage is set for a serious study

of the development of Tamil scripts.

Thank you

S. Swaminathan