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Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant immigrant communities in Mauritius, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and the United States.
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Brahmi is a writing system of ancient South Asia that appeared as a fully developed script in the third century BCE. Its descendants, the Brahmic scripts, continue to be used today across South and Southeast Asia.
The Indus script, also known as the Harappan script, is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley civilisation. Most inscriptions containing these symbols are extremely short, making it difficult to judge whether or not these symbols constituted a writing system used to record the as yet unidentified language(s) of the Indus Valley civilisation. In spite of many attempts, the 'script' has not yet been deciphered, but efforts are ongoing. There is no known bilingual inscription to help decipher the script, and the script shows no significant changes over time. However, some of the syntax varies depending upon location.
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Tamiḻakam, alternatively spelled Thamizhagam, refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Traditional accounts and the Tolkāppiyam referred to these territories as a single cultural area, where Tamil was the natural language and permeated the culture of all its inhabitants. The ancient Tamil country was divided into kingdoms. The best known among them were the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyans and Pallavas. During the Sangam period, Tamil culture began to spread outside Tamilakam. Ancient Tamil settlements were also established in Sri Lanka and the Maldives (Giravarus).
Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamizhi or Damili, was originally known as a variant of the Brahmi script, but new evidence proves it coexisted with Brahmi. It was used to write inscriptions in the early form of Old Tamil. The Tamil-Brahmi script has been paleographically and stratigraphically dated between the third century BCE and the first century CE, and it constitutes the earliest known writing system evidenced in many parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka. Tamil Brahmi inscriptions have been found on cave entrances, stone beds, potsherds, jar burials, coins, seals, and rings.
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The Anaikoddai seal is a soapstone seal that was found in Anaikoddai, Sri Lanka during archeological excavations of a megalithic burial site by a team of researchers from the University of Jaffna. The seal was originally part of a signet ring and contains some of the oldest inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi mixed with megalithic graffiti symbols found on the island. It was dated paleographically to the early third century BC.
Mangulam or Mankulam is a village in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Madurai. The inscriptions discovered in the region are the earliest Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions.
Keezhadiexcavation site is a Sangam age settlement that is being excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India and the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology. This site is located 12 km southeast of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, near the town of Keezhadi in Sivagangai district. It comes under the Thiruppuvanam Taluk of Sivagangai district. This is a large-scale excavation carried out in Tamil Nadu after the Adichanallur archaeological site. The settlement lies on the bank of the Vaigai River and it reflects the ancient culture of Tamil people. Epigraphist V. Vedachalam, who served as a domain expert for the excavation, dated the excavated remains between 6th century BCE and 3rd century CE.
This is a list of archaeological artefacts and epigraphs which have Tamil inscriptions. Of the approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India, about 60,000 were in Tamil Nadu
References
- ↑ Rajan, K (2008), "Situating the Beginning of Early Historic Times in Tamil Nadu: Some Issues and Reflections", Social Scientist, 36 (1/2): 40–78
- ↑ Lal, B.B. (1962), "From the Megalithic to Harappa: Tracing back the graffiti on the pottery", Ancient India: Bulletin of the Archaeology Survey of India, 16: 21–24
- ↑ Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu - Keezhadi, An urban settlement of sangam age on the banks of the river Vaigai (2019) p60-62 https://archive.org/details/keeladibookenglish18092019/page/n59/mode/2up
- ↑ Mahadevan (2001a).
- ↑ Mahadevan (2004).
- ↑ Subramanian (2006).
- ↑ Mahadevan (2006).
- ↑ Subramaniam, T. S. (1 May 2006). "From Indus Valley to coastal Tamil Nadu". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2008.