Early Tamil Epigraphy

From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century c.e.

Revised & Enlarged Second Edition

Volume I
Tamil-Brāhmī Inscriptions

Iravatham Mahadevan

Central Institute of Classical Tamil, Chennai

2014
THE BOOK
This is Volume I of the revised and enlarged Second Edition
of Early Tamil Epigraphy, first published in 2003. The Volume
deals with Tamil-Brāhmī stone inscriptions discovered up to
2012. The main feature of the edition is that it is based on fresh
in situ delineation and digitisation of the cave inscriptions
included in the Corpus.

The work provides a detailed account of the discovery and

decipherment of the inscriptions and relates their language
and contents to early Tamil literature and society. Tamil-
Brāhmī inscriptions on pottery, coins, seals and rings, have
also been utilised to present a more complete picture of
early Tamil epigraphy. Two new sections deal with Prakrit
inscriptions on pottery and other inscribed objects, and
Sinhala-Prakrit pottery inscriptions, from Tamilnadu,
which bring out the interaction of Tamil-Brāhmī with other THE AUTHOR
contemporary languages and scripts of South India and Sri IRAVATHAM MAHADEVAN (b. 1930) has published widely
Lanka. on Indian epigraphy, especially on the Indus and Brāhmī
scripts. He was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship
The study deals comprehensively with the epigraphy, in 1970 for research on the Indus script and the National
language and contents of the inscriptions. The texts are Fellowship of the Indian Council of Historical Research in
given in transliteration with translation and extensive word 1992 for work on the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions.
by word commentary. The inscriptions are illustrated with
direct photographs in colour, together with delineations and His books, The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables
estampages for comparative study. Palaeography of Tamil- (1977), and Early Tamil Epigraphy (2003) are recognised
Brāhmī is described in detail with the help of letter charts. internationally as major source books for research in these
The special orthographic and grammatical features of the fields.
earliest Tamil inscriptions are also described. A glossary
of inscriptional words and several classified word lists have He has received many awards including, more recently, the
been added to aid further research. title Tamil Chemmal from the Madurai Kamaraj University
(1995), the Copper Plaque of the Tamilnadu Archaeological
Society (1998), the annual award of the Federations of Tamil
Sangams of North America (2001), V. Chelvanayakam Award,
Colombo (2004), the P.L. Gupta Medal of the Tamilnadu
Numismatic Society (2006), the Madras Sanskrit College
Centenary Award (2007), the Dravidian University Award for
research publications in Dravidian languages (2008), Padma
Sri by the President of India (2009), D. Litt degree by the
Tamil University, Thanjavur (2009), Tiruvalluvar Award by
the Government of Tamilnadu (2010), the Lifetime Literary
Achievement Award by the Tamil Literary Academy, Canada
(2010), Tolkappiyar Award (Presidential Award for Classical
Tamil) for 2009 - 10 instituted by CICT and the Campbell
Memorial Gold Medal for 2010 - 12 by the Asiatic Society
of Mumbai for distinguished service in Oriental research.

Iravatham Mahadevan joined the Indian Administrative

Service in 1954 and retired voluntarily in 1980 to devote
himself to academic pursuits. He lives in Chennai.
 CONTENTS

Foreword
Preface xi
Introduction xiii
Credits for illustrations xvi
Detailed table of contents xviii
List of tables xxxi
List of figures and charts xxxii
List of plates xxxiv
List of maps xxxv
Abbreviations xxxvi
Scheme of transliteration and diacritical marks xli
Table of conventional symbols xlii

Part One: Early Tamil Inscriptions

1. Discovery 3
2. Decipherment 93
3. Language 137
4. Polity 151

Part Two: Studies in Early Tamil Epigraphy

5. Palaeography 205
6. Orthography 265
7. Grammar 293

Part Three: Corpus of Tamil-Brāhmī Inscriptions

Corpus (with Plates) 343
Commentary 553
Appendices 649
Bibliography 693
General Index 713
 xv

INTRODUCTION

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to Sixth Century A.D. (henceforth ETE) was first
published in 2003, in separate but identical editions, by Cre-A:, Chennai in India and the Department
of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, USA. The book has been well received by scholars
and students alike, as indicated by the large number of reviews in academic publications in India
and abroad, and by the fact that the Indian Edition was sold out within a year of its publication. Two
seminars were held in 2004 on the progress in Tamil-Brāhmī studies and related areas, one by the Madras
Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai, and the other at the Tamil University, Thanjavur. An
increasing number of publications on Tamil-Brāhmī have appeared in recent years in Tamil and English
attesting to the heightened interest in this developing field. I am gratified that the main objectives of
the book to provide reliable documentation and a definitive edition of the texts of the Tamil-Brāhmī
cave inscriptions have been substantially fulfilled.

The Revised and Enlarged Second Edition is being published by the Central Institute for Classical Tamil
(CICT), Chennai, an autonomous institution functioning under the Department of Culture, Ministry
of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi. The CICT is implementing an
ambitious programme for the digitisation and preservation of Classical Tamil texts and survey of heritage
monuments. One of the projects included in this larger programme is the documentation of Tamil-Brāhmī
cave inscriptions. The CICT has entrusted the execution of the project to the Centre for Plans, People
and Ecosystems (CPPE), Chennai. The technical details of the project and consequent improvement
to the quality of documentation are described by M. V. Bhaskar, Project Co-ordinator, in his ‘Report
on the CICT Photographic Survey’ included in this volume (pp. 123 - 136). The critically important
feature of the project is replacing the Plates produced from the manual tracing of the inscriptions in
ETE 2003, with in situ delineation and digitisation. A welcome bonus is that the current Edition has an
electronic counterpart with many interactive features for the reader, facilitating an even closer study
of the inscriptions (See Plates 1 - 96).

The present publication, Volume I of the Revised and Enlarged Second Edition, deals only with Tamil-
Brāhmī inscriptions including the newly discovered stone inscriptions (Nos. 90 - 96) and, selectively,
other Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions on pottery, coins, seals and rings (Annexure A to Chapter 1). Two
new Sections have been added dealing with Prakrit inscriptions on pottery and other inscribed objects
and, Sinhala-Prakrit inscriptions on pottery, both from Tamilnadu (Annexures B & C to Chapter 1).
I hope that the additions will lead to a wider and deeper perspective on early Tamil epigraphy and its
interaction with other contemporary languages and scripts in South India and Sri Lanka.

This volume retains the basic format of ETE 2003 in the numbering of the Tamil-Brāhmī stone inscriptions
in the Corpus and of the inscriptional words in the Commentary to maintain continuity and facilitate
citation. Newly added Tamil-Brāhmī stone inscriptions are placed in the Addendum to the Corpus and
allotted new Reference Numbers in continuation of those in ETE 2003.

Early Vaṭṭteḻuttu inscriptions included in ETE 2003 have been omitted from the present volume to provide
more space for the additional material on Tamil-Brāhmī. Further, to do full justice to Vaṭṭteḻuttu will
xvi

need a separate volume. The proposed volume would also include more Early Vaṭṭteḻuttu inscriptions,
especially the two long inscriptions from Pulankurichi and herostone inscriptions up to 6th century c.e.,
which could not be accommodated in ETE 2003. However, the brief account on the origin, evolution
and decline of the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script included in the survey of early Tamil epigraphy has been retained
in the present volume to provide the link between Tamil-Brāhmī and Vaṭṭeḻuttu scripts.

I am happy to report that the delineations reproduced in the present volume have confirmed the accuracy
of the earlier tracings in ETE 2003 with but a single exception. The first two letters in an inscription (No. 27)
which were earlier traced as a'single broken letter mā', have now been corrected as ū ta in the personal name
Uttira-antai. There are some other minor variations like, for example, the addition of the medial vowel
marker -ā (No. 24), the suffix -i (No. 48), and the puḷḷi (No. 68), which do not, however, materially alter
the readings or interpretations. There are also a few cases (Nos. 10 & 15) of letters missing, wholly or
partly, due to disintegration of the rock surface by natural or manmade causes. Each such variation,
however minor, between the earlier tracings and the present delineations, has been recorded in the
footnotes under the respective inscriptions in the Corpus.

There are also a few instances of modified interpretation of words in the Tamil-Brāhmī texts in the Corpus.
These changes have been discussed in detail in the Commentary on the respective inscriptions. The
more significant revisions are briefly noticed below (Reference Numbers to the inscriptions in brackets):

piṇa(v)u (3) ‘drip ledge’.

tāraṇi (44) ‘drip ledge’ (loanword from Indo-Aryan).
iv-kuṉṟa- (60) ‘this hill’; cf. iv-muḻa-u-kai-y (90) ‘this cave’.
kuṇā- (89) A place name now identified with Trikkaṇā (Tiru-k-kuṇā) in Kerala, known in
ancient times as Kuṇavāyil. The identification leads to a re-examination of the probable date of
Cilappatikāram from an epigraphical perspective (pp. 190 - 193).

The newly added Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions include four on herostones (Nos. 91 - 94), marking a
major turning point in the history of early Tamil epigraphy. K. Rajan and his colleagues in the Tamil
University, Thanjavur, discovered the inscribed herostones in 2006 in megalithic urn-burial fields in two
villages in the upper Vaigai valley. This important discovery extends the Tamil-Brāhmī period into the
late megalithic age linking the latter with the succeeding early historical period attested in the Tamil
Caṅkam poetry. The inscriptions, especially the one (No. 93) mentioning a cattle raid (ā-kōḷ), corroborate
the vivid accounts of erecting herostones in Tolkāppiyam and the Caṅkam anthologies. It is significant
that the language of the Tamil-Brāhmī herostone inscriptions has no Prakrit element and the contents
do not reveal any association with Jainism.

The newly discovered Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscription (No. 95) in a cave on the Samanarmalai hill
at Kilkuyilkudi near Madurai is also of exceptional interest. The location forms part of the extensive
complex of caves marking the earliest settlement of Jaina monks in the Pāṇṭiya country. Samanarmalai
is also associated with the famous Jaina monastery (no longer extant) at Tirukkāṭṭāmpaḷḷi, which was
considered to be the central seat of authority for the Jainas of the Tamil country (p. 172).
 xvii

Yet another interesting Tamil-Brāhmī inscription (No. 96) from Edakal in Kerala, was discovered most
recently (2012) by M. R. Raghava Varier. This is a brief label inscription affixed to an anthropomorphic
figure forming part of the prehistoric rock art in the cave. I have read the inscription as i paḻama ‘this
(is) ancient’, and identified it as the earliest known inscription in Malayalam, dated in the 4th or 5th
century c.e.

Among the newly discovered Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions included in the present volume
(Catalogue AI, Chapter 1), the most significant are those from the recent excavations at Pattanam in
Kerala, identified with Muciṟi, the ancient seaport of the Cēra rulers and main entrepôt for trade with
the West in classical times. Kodumanal (ancient Koṭumaṇam) in Tamilnadu continues to be a veritable
cornucopia of Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions, yielding hundreds in each session of excavation, but
represented in this volume only by a few examples for want of space. The extraordinarily high numbers
of Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions offer the most conclusive evidence for widespread and popular
literacy in the Tamil society of the Caṅkam Age.

More Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions have been found from recent excavations outside India. Pride
of place among them must be given to the inscription reading tiraḷi muṟi ‘written agreement (by)
the assembly’ found at Tissamaharama in southern Sri Lanka, which has been assigned to 200 b.c.e.
(No. 20, Catalogue AI, Chapter 1). The evidence it provides for the existence of a trade guild of Sri Lankan
Tamil merchants at this site known for its prolific yield of gemstones, is noteworthy. Perhaps it is this
trade guild which issued the lead coins or tokens with Tamil-Brāhmī legends found earlier near this site
(Nos. 7 - 10, Catalogue AII, Chapter 1). Other ancient sites abroad which have yielded Tamil-Brāhmī
pottery inscriptions from recent excavations are Queseir al-khadim and Berenike on the Red Sea Coast
of Egypt, Oman in the Southern Arabian Peninsula and Thailand in South East Asia (Catalogue AI),
providing new evidence for the extensive maritime trade by the Tamils of the Caṅkam Age.

Special mention must also be made of the discovery of a gold ring at Karur with a Prakrit legend assigned
to 1st century b.c.e. on palaeographic evidence (Fig. 5.2A, p.212). The most remarkable feature of the
legend on the ring is the occurrence of the special -ā medial vowel marker, the diagnostic feature of
the Bhattiprolu script, for the first time outside the Stupa site in Andhra Pradesh. The unexpected find
coming more than a century after the discovery of the casket inscriptions at Bhattiprolu offers good
evidence for the connection between the earlier TB-I orthographic convention of Early Tamil-Brāhmī
inscriptions and the later orthographic convention of the Bhattiprolu script (see discussion pp. 266 - 269).

Even as the manuscript of the present volume was getting ready for the press, more discoveries
of Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions have been reported including yet another caveside inscription from
Tirupparankunram, another herostone inscription at Porpanaikkottai near Pudukkottai and further
quantities of Tamil-Brāhmī pottery inscriptions from the inexhaustible trenches at Kodumanal. It has not
been possible to include these recent discoveries in the present volume. I hope Early Tamil Epigraphy
will develop into an open-ended, multi-volume series, arranged thematically and updated periodically,
to keep abreast of the ever increasing number of discoveries in this field.