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 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 were caused to be inscribed by Jaina and Buddhist monks 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 problems:

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 consonants 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 correctly 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: 1962-66: Mahadevan took up study of inscriptions First round of visits to the caves

1966:

Corpus of 74 Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and 2 Early VaTTezhuttu inscriptions from 21 sites published
Mahadevan proposed a tentative model Second field expedition

1987: 1991-96:

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 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 with meaning 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:
Part Three:

Studies in Early Tamil Epigraphy

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 chapter. 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 of 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 Tamil-Brahmi III - 1st century BC to 5th century AD - 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 systems 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 later. Sangam literature is dated to the beginning of Christian era 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 liquids. 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 Tamil-Brahmi?
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