Note 33 — INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
In his ‘Elements of South Indian Palæography,’ Mr. Burnell, the last and best authority on the subject, divides the South Indian alphabet into Chera, Chalukya, and Vengi. The first, he states, appears in Mysore in the second half of the 5th century. The oldest specimen of the second he dates from the first half of that century. The third is more modern.