Tamil-Brahmi

History glossary

Also called: Tamili · Topic: Sangam Age and Early South India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Tamil-Brahmi (also called Tamili) is the earliest script used to write the Tamil language. It is a form of the Brahmi script, changed to fit Tamil sounds. It is found mainly in cave inscriptions, on potsherds (broken pieces of pots) and on coins from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka.

It matters because it is the oldest written proof of the Tamil language. It lets historians check the claims of Sangam poetry against real, physical writing from the same period.

Explanation

Background: where the script came from

  • Brahmi was the main script of early India. It is best known from Ashoka's inscriptions (3rd century BCE).
  • Ashoka's edicts name the Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras (Cheras) and Satiyaputras as peoples outside his empire. This shows the south was in touch with the north but was not ruled by it.
  • The south took up writing through this contact. But Brahmi was made for Prakrit (the everyday languages of north India), not for Tamil.
  • So the Tamils changed the script to fit their own language. The result was Tamil-Brahmi.

Main features

  • Dropped letters Tamil did not need. Prakrit had many aspirated sounds (kh, gh, th, bh) and voiced sounds. Tamil did not use them as separate sounds, so most of these letters were left out.
  • Added letters for sounds only Tamil has. New signs were made for sounds like ḻ (the "zh" in Tamizh), ḷ, ṟ and ṉ.
  • Short words, mostly short records. Most inscriptions are a line or two long. They name a donor and what was given.
  • Mixed vocabulary. The language is mostly Tamil, but it has some Prakrit loanwords (borrowed words). These show contact with the north and with Jaina and Buddhist monks.
  • The pulli (dot). In later stages a dot called the pulli was placed over a letter to cancel its built-in vowel. The Tolkappiyam, the Tamil grammar text [1], describes the pulli. This links the script to the literary tradition.

How it was used

  • Cave inscriptions. Most of them are cut in natural rock shelters, usually above stone beds carved for Jaina (and some Buddhist) monks.
  • Chiefs, kings and merchants paid for these beds as religious gifts.

  • This fits the Pandyas' early link with Jainism. They later moved from being Jains to Shaivas [1].

  • Potsherds. Names written on pots, often the owner's name, have been found at settlement sites. This suggests that ordinary people such as traders and potters could read and write, not only kings.

  • Coins. Some early Chera and Pandya coins carry legends (written names) in Tamil-Brahmi.

Later history and results

  • Over the centuries Tamil-Brahmi slowly changed into Vatteluttu (a rounded script) and the Tamil script.
  • Results:
  • It gives dated, written proof that the Sangam kings were real people.
  • It shows that reading and writing had spread widely in early Tamilakam.
  • It shows Tamil was a written language in the same period as early Sangam poetry.

Time, place and evidence

  • Period. Most scholars place the cave inscriptions from about the 2nd century BCE (some say the 3rd century BCE) to the early centuries CE. That is roughly the Sangam Age (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE).
  • Where it is found:
  • Hill caves around Madurai, in the Pandya country.
  • Sites in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
  • Sri Lanka.

  • Potsherds at trading sites, because Tamil traders carried pots overseas.

  • Key inscriptions (as usually read by epigraphists, the scholars who study inscriptions):

  • Mangulam (near Madurai) names a Pandya king, Nedunjeliyan.
  • Jambai names "Satiyaputo Atiyan Neduman Anji". This matches the Satiyaputras of Ashoka's edicts, who lived in northern Tamil Nadu.

  • Pugalur names several generations of Chera rulers.

  • Potsherd sites:

  • Kodumanal has many inscribed potsherds.

  • Keezhadi (Keeladi), in the Vaigai river basin [3], has also yielded them.

    • ASI dug there in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 [3].
    • The Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology has run the work since 2018 [3].

  • The dating debate. Scientific dates from Keezhadi and Porunthal have been claimed to push Tamil-Brahmi back to about the 6th–5th century BCE. That would make it older than Ashoka's Brahmi. These claims are still debated and are not yet accepted by all scholars.

  • Scholarship. The standard study of these inscriptions is by the epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan (Early Tamil Epigraphy).

Don't confuse with

  • Ashokan Brahmi. Used for Prakrit in Ashoka's edicts. Tamil-Brahmi is Brahmi changed to fit Tamil: it drops many aspirated letters and adds signs for ḻ, ḷ, ṟ and ṉ.
  • Vatteluttu. A later, rounded script that grew out of Tamil-Brahmi. It is not the same script.
  • Grantha script. A later script used in the Tamil country to write Sanskrit, not early Tamil.
  • Kharosthi. Written right to left and used in the north-west. Tamil-Brahmi, like all Brahmi, is written left to right.

Prelims Hooks

  • Tamil-Brahmi = the earliest script of the Tamil language, adapted from Brahmi.
  • Most Tamil-Brahmi cave inscriptions record stone beds gifted to Jaina monks, mainly in the hills around Madurai.
  • Jambai inscription names "Satiyaputo Atiyan Neduman Anji". This confirms the Satiyaputras of Ashoka's edicts.
  • Mangulam inscription names the Pandya king Nedunjeliyan.
  • Keezhadi (in the Vaigai basin) and Porunthal: finds there are claimed to date Tamil-Brahmi to the 6th–5th century BCE. These claims are debated [3].
  • Trap: Tamil-Brahmi is found outside Tamil Nadu too, in Kerala and Sri Lanka. A statement that it was "confined to Tamil Nadu" is wrong.

Mains Points

  • Inscriptions test the poetry. Sangam poems praise kings but give no dates. Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions at Mangulam, Jambai and Pugalur name real Pandya, Chera and Satiyaputra rulers.
  • Read together with Ashoka's edicts, they prove these were real kings with real states.

  • This is the right method for a history answer: check literary claims against outside, dated and physical evidence.

  • Reading and writing spread beyond the court. Names scratched on everyday pots at Kodumanal and Keezhadi suggest that traders and craftspeople could write.

  • This fits a society tied to Indian Ocean trade, with ports such as Muziris named in the Periplus [2].

  • The dating debate is about more than one script. If the Keezhadi and Porunthal dates hold, writing in the south may be as old as, or older than, Ashokan Brahmi.

  • That would challenge the view that writing simply spread from north to south.
  • Scholars still disagree, so a balanced answer should present the claim, the scientific dates behind it, and the doubts about it.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1Sangam Literature / Tamilakam / Chera, Chola, Pandya dynastiesbritannica.com · tier 3
  2. 2Roman Contacts with Tamilnadu (South Eastern India) — Recent Findings / Periplus and the Persian Gulf, UNESCO Silk Roads Programmeen.unesco.org · tier 2
  3. 3Keezhadi Excavation Findings — Press Information Bureaupib.gov.in · tier 1