a great advance towards the Nƒgari, while Danti-durga's inscription of about 750 A.D. exhibits a complete set of symbols very similar to the Nƒgari now in use. It is noteworthy, however, that the first manuscript in really modern Nƒgari is not older than the eleventh century A.D.”¹

     One of the twelve aspects of Tamil Orthography is alphabetical order which was first conceived by the Tamil grammarians. Promiscuity of letters is characteristic of all the Western alphabets, whether Aryan or Semitic or otherwise. The Vedic Aryans entered India without any literature or written character. The Sanskrit alphabet was formed only in imitation of Tamil, after the Vedic Aryans came in contact with the Tamils. Then the Dravidian alphabets were formed one after another in imitation of Sanskrit after the ninth century A.D.

     Not only the order of letters, but also the inclusion of syllables and syllabic consonants among vowels, and regular aspirating of all surds and their sonants clearly point to the lateness of the Sanskrit alphabet in camparison with Tamil.

     Dr. Caldwell entirely misunderstood the case system of the Tamil grammar, as an erroneous imitation of Sanskrit.

     He writes, “On proceeding to analyse the case-formation of the Dravidian languages, we shall follow the order in which they have been arranged by Dravidian grammarians, which is the same as that of the Sanskrit. The imitation of Sanskrit in this particular was certainly an error; for whilst in Sanskrit there are eight cases only, the number of cases in Tamil, Telugu &c., is almost indefinite. Every postposition annexed to a noun constitutes, properly speaking a new case, and therefore the number of such cases depends upon the requirements of the speaker and the different shades of meaning he wishes to express. In particular the “inflexion” or inflected form of the base, or oblique case, as it is sometimes called, which has sometimes a possessive, sometimes a locative, and sometimes an adjectival signification, ought to have had a place of its own. So also the social and conjunctive case.