Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Tamil Epigraphy

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Epigraphy or incision of text on a hard surface like clay tablet,metal plate or a rock was a common practice for keeping literary records in all popular civilisations from Indus valley in the east to the Mayan civilisation in the west. Ever since the beginning of the human history, literary sources are considered to be the most valuable and reliable sources of information. Although in Indian subcontinent, there are evidences of written manuscripts which dates back to 1000BCE, but some archeologist believes that the languages used in these manuscripts are derivates of an older, much simpler parent language. While the ancient manuscripts from Indus valley is still to be decoded properly, the two oldest recognisable language from Indian subcontinent are Sanskrit and Tamil, written in various scripts like Dravidian, Devanagari, Brahmi and Prakrit. While Sanskrit was dominant in the North- Western part of the Indian subcontinent, Tamil dominated the South-Eastern part of it. Tamil is the oldest subcontinental language which is spoken till date. It has evidences to be found at around 300 BCE.

After the Vedic era, the Indian subcontinent was divided into various small kingdoms based on their clans. South India was predominantly ruled by three major clans, the Chola, The Chera and the Pandyas. All three of them were Tamil speaking warrior clans and ruled the entire South India from 300 BCE to 11th century AD. The Cholas were the largest kingdom of south India and were excellent artisans, architects and traders; but they were the Pandyas who patronised “Sen Thamizh” or pure Tamil as their official language for all their literature and accounts. Unlike the Cholas who used Tamil -Brahmi as their writing scripts, Pandyas incorporated “vattezhuthu” or cursive writing in their script which had an Jain aesthetic to it. This gave them an upper hand in exploring to write on various new materials such as clay tablets and metal plates as it became easier to write without damaging the surface. Also it made their writings last much longer.

During the Pandyan rule of around 1200 years, the Thamizh script had changed drastically and is still going through a lot of of changes. The city of Madurai, which has long been the Pandyan capital is the best place to visit, to know the evolution of Tamil script. The inscription at Samanar malai has from 4th century AD in “vattezhuthu” has Jain aesthetic where as the inscription on the walls of eastern gate of Meenakshiamman temple has inscriptions which is from 12th century AD is quite similar to modern Tamil.
These Tamil epigraphs showed us how a script can play an major role in evolving a language over a course of time. These manuscripts also made us realise how important the art and skill of epigraphy was. Epigraphy is currently no longer practiced but this skill based art is the reason why we know what we know about our history.

Documented by Kritarth Ghosh

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