Review Article (Indian script)

[nas_ng at lms420.jsc.nasa.gov]

   Re: Review Article (Indian script)
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Two recent articles are relevent here.

1) Iravatham Mahadevan, 
Ancient Tamil contacts abroad: Recent epigraphical evidence,
Jl. of the Institute of Asian Studies, Madras,
p. 136-155, XII, 1, Sep. 1994.
(Earlier delivered as Father X. S. Thani Nayagam Memorial Lecture,
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1994)

2) Iravatham Mahadevan, 
Recent trends in early Tamil epigraphy: An overview,
Jl. of the Institute of Asian Studies, Madras,
p. 1-32, XIII, 1, Sep. 1995.

Tamil Brahmi is a linguistic variant of the Brahmi script adapted to
tamil phonetic pattern. Short Tamil Brahmi inscriptions
on potsherds with letters special only to tamil/dravidian have been found
in Poonagari and Kantarodai regions of Northern Sri Lanka.
Photographs are given in Dr. Mahadevan's papers. His conclusions
are in line with Prof. Falk's statement earlier:
"The developments of Brahmi regarding the shape of characters, 
the orthography, layout of text etc. all point to North India, 
followed by the adaptation in Tamil/Telugu speaking areas  to the 
needs of Dravidian languages, and then the adapted forms come to Ceylon."

I heard that Dr. I. Mahadevan is writing a book on early
tamil epigraphy. He is National Fellow, Indian Council of Historical
Research and his reading of Pukalur inscriptions fixed the dates of
Tamil Sangam era.

N. Ganesan
nas_ng at lms420.jsc.nasa.gov