followed it, and if he had done so he would have plainly said காதந்திரநிறைந்த instead of ஐந்திரநிறைந்த. It is, however, believed by Tamil scholars that Sarvavarman's work was imitated by Buddha-Mitra (A.D 1075) in his Virasoliyam. And the difference in the treatment of the subject adopted by the authors of Tolkapyam and Virasoliyam, appears to favour the view that Katantra was not imitated in the former work.
Thus then the introduction of the Vatteluttu alphabet must have taken place long before the fourth or fifth century B. C., and this approximates the earliest date assigned by European scholars to the introduction of writing in India, which was the seventh or eighth century before the Christian era.
As to who first brought the alphabet from the western Semitics — whether the Southern Dravidians or the Northern Aryans — it is not quite easy to settle. On this point western scholars hold contrary opinions, Dr. Rhys Davids, the learned Bhuddhist scholar, thinks 'that all the present available evidence tends to show that the Indian alphabet is not Aryan at all; that it was introduced into India by Dravidian (Tamil) merchants in the eighth or seventh century'. And the same writer goes on to say that 'after the merchants brought the script to India, it gradually became enlarged and adapted to the special requirements of the Indian learned and colloquial dialects.' This is also the view taken by that pioneer orientalist and antiquary, Mr. E. Thomas. Dr. Burnell seems
