New discovery in Tamil Nadu

[Jean-Luc Chevillard]

It is possible that other interpretations will be put forward.

In the issue 19 of the journal Āvaṇam (july 2008)
there is, on pp.137-138, an article by V. Vedachalam,
one of the scholars who are mentionned by The Hindu.

The abstract (on p.xvi) reads:

"47. V. Vedachalam, /Discovery of Tamil Brahmi inscribed pottery in a 
Red Sea port/. A team of British Archaeologists have recently discovered 
a broken pottery with Tamil Brahmi letters at Quseir-al-Qadim, near Red 
Sea, in Egypt.
Earlier the Brahmi letters were deciphered as /paanai ori/ {பானை ஒறி / 
pāṉai oṟi}, 'a pot which hangs down in a chain or rope'.
But it is now found that it should be a name of a person 'Panai ori' 
{பனை ஓறி / paṉai ōṟi} as the other potsherds with Brahmi letters, found 
earlier, in the 1st century A.D., in the same region, also bear the 
names of persons. ...."

I suppose it is not impossible
that it will be later suggested
that the string "va-ya-ra" (vayra?)
stands for the name of a person
and does not mean "diamond".

The same issue of Āvaṇam-19 (july 2008)
contains a very interesting article by Professor Y. Subbarayalu
on pp.189-221
which has for its title: "மண்கல தமிழ்பிராமி எழுத்துப் பொறிப்புகள்". [maṇ kala 
tamiḻ pirāmi eḻuttup poṟippukaḷ]
(i.e. "Tamil-Brahmi script scratches found on pots")

In this article (which was the T.N. Subramaniyan Endowment lecture for 
the year 2007),
Professor Subbarayalu examines in a very detailed way 270 "script scratches"
found on broken pottery and many photographs are provided.

Best wishes

-- Jean-Luc Chevillard



George Hart a écrit :
> [...] It's not clear from the article why the word "diamond" would 
> appear on the ring stand.  George Hart
>
>