The picture shows the urn with the rudimentary Tamil-Brahmi script, and a
human skeleton and miniature pots at the Iron Age urn burial site at
Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu. The inset with the arrow mark depicts how the
script has been written inside the urn. — Photo courtesy: ASI, Chennai Circle.
CHENNAI,
FEB. 16. A piece of writing has been discovered inside an urn at the Iron Age
burial site at Adichanallur, 24 km from Tirunelveli town in Tamil Nadu. The
script has six letters. The urn has a human skeleton in it along with miniature
pots. What is unusual is that the script was inscribed inside the urn after it
was baked. Normally, scripts are inscribed on the outer surface of urns.
The
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Chennai Circle, made this discovery when
it resumed its excavation at Adichanallur after about 100 years. Dr. T.
Satyamurthy, Superintending Archaeologist and Director of the excavation, first
noticed the script. He has proposed that the piece of writing is in very
rudimentary Tamil-Brahmi. M.D. Sampath, retired Director, Epigraphy, ASI,
Mysore, also "suggested that the writing is in Tamil-Brahmi in a
rudimentary form." Dr. Sampath says he has "tentatively read"
the script as "Ka ri a ra va [na] ta." He says the script has seven
letters.
"Might date back to 500 B.C."
Dr.
Satyamurthy has proposed, on the basis of "preliminary thermo-luminescence
dating," that the pottery found at the site, including the pots found in
the urn along with the script, might date back to circa 500 B.C. This date is,
however, subject to confirmation by carbon-14 dating, which is the more
reliable method.
The
claim on the date of the script and the assertion that it is in Tamil-Brahmi
will be subjected to the scrutiny of scholars in the field.
The
term `Tamil-Brahmi' is used when the script is in Brahmi but the language is
Tamil. The Brahmi script was predominantly used for Prakrit from the Mauryan
(Asokan) period. The Brahmi script was brought to the Tamil country in the third
century B.C. by the Jain and Buddhist monks during the post-Asokan period.
According
to Iravatham Mahadevan, one of the foremost authorities on the Tamil-Brahmi
script: "The Brahmi script reached Upper South India (Andhra-Karnataka
regions) and the Tamil country at about the same time during the 3rd century
B.C. in the wake of southern spread of Jainism and
Buddhism."
In his magnum opus, Early
Tamil epigraphy, From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D., Mr.
Mahadevan says that "the earliest Tamil inscriptions in the Tamil-Brahmi
script may be dated from about the end of 3rd century or early 2nd century B.C.
on palaeographic grounds and stratigraphic evidence of inscribed pottery. The
earliest inscriptions in the Tamil country written in the Tamil-Brahmi script
are almost exclusively in the Tamil language."
While
Upper South India was under the sway of the Nanda-Maurya domain, the Tamil
country was politically independent. As a result of political independence,
Tamil was the language of administration in the Tamil country. "When
writing became known to the Tamils, the Brahmi script was adapted to suit the
Tamil phonetic system. That is, while the Brahmi script was borrowed, the Prakrit
language was not allowed to be imposed along with it from outside," says
Mr. Mahadevan.
Dr.
Satyamurthy, however, proposes that the script found inside the urn may belong
to circa 5th century B.C. According to him, this was based on "preliminary
thermo-luminescence dating," which "takes the site to the period from
1500 B.C. to 500 B.C. So the script is also likely to be dated to 5th century
B.C. even if we take the latest date into consideration."
Name of hero?
He
pointed out that the Tamil-Brahmi script had been found in Sri Lanka too. The
script found at Adichanallur could be the name of the hero whose skeleton is in
the urn. "The associated pottery including the thin black and red ware
[found in the urn] indicate the importance given to the dead person," he
said. The denture has been sent to the Anthropological Survey of India for
examination.
Delivering
the T. Balakrishna Nair Memorial Lecture on "The geneses and features of
Brahmi scripts," organised on January 12 by the Department of Ancient History
and Archaeology, Madras University, Dr. Sampath said: "It may be suggested
that the writing is in Tamil-Brahmi script in a rudimentary form. Attempts were
made to blow up the writing so as to decipher it. It may be tentatively read
as, `Ka ri a ra va [na] ta'. The reading is subject to improvement."
"A rare occurrence"
Estampages
of the script could not be taken because it was inside the urn. So eye-copies
were taken. Although the exact meaning of the script was not clear, it was
quite likely to be the name of the engraver or the maker of the urn or the
person whose skeletal remains were interred inside, he said. He described the
script found inside the urn as "a rare occurrence."
Six
trenches dug by the ASI, Chennai Circle, at the Iron Age urn burial site
Adichanallur in 2004 yielded a cornucopia: 157 burial urns, 50 of them intact
and 15 with human skeletons. The urns with skeletons had exquisite miniature
pots inside along with paddy and husk. Around the urns were ritual pots and
iron implements, including daggers, broken swords, a spearhead, celts and so
on. One of the urns had the script inside it and this urn had a big lid too. It
is called "twin pot."
From 'The Hindu'
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
