''Vatteluttu,'' popularly romanised as ''Vattezhuthu'' ( ta, வட்டெழுத்து, ' and ml, വട്ടെഴുത്ത്, ', ), was a syllabic alphabet of
south India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
(
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
and
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
) and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
used for writing the
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
and
Malayalam languages
The Malayalam languages are the
group of Dravidian languages most closely related to Malayalam. In addition to Malayalam itself, they are:
*Paniya, Ravula, Beary, Aranadan, Judeo-Malayalam, Arabi Malayalam, Suriyani Malayalam, Kadar, Malapanda ...
.
belonged to the group of Tamil-Malayalam scripts among the
Southern Brahmi
Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' o ...
derivatives.
The script was used for centuries in inscriptions and manuscripts of south India.
Etymology
Three possible suggestions for the etymology of the term
'' are commonly proposed. ''Eluttu'' (''ezhuthu)'' is literally 'written form' in this context; and affixed here it means 'writing system' or 'script'.
The three suggestions are:
* ''Vatte'' + ''eluttu''; 'rounded script'
* ''Vata'' + ''eluttu''; 'northern script'
* ''Vette'' + ''eluttu''; 'chiseled script'
The script was also known as Tekken-Malayalam or Nana-mona.
The name "Nana-mona" is given to it because, at the time when it is taught, the words "namostu" etc. are begun, which are spelt "nana, mona, ittanna, tuva" (that is, "na, mo and tu"), and the alphabet therefore came to be known as the "nana-mona" alphabet.
History
probably started developing from
Tamil-Brahmi
Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamizhi or Damili, was a variant of the Brahmi script in southern India. It was used to write inscriptions in the early form of Old Tamil.Richard Salomon (1998) ''Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscription ...
from around the 4th or 5th century AD.
The earliest forms of the script have been traced to memorial stone inscriptions from the 4th century AD.
It is distinctly attested in a number of inscriptions in Tamil Nadu from the 6th century AD.
By the 7th to 8th centuries, it had developed into a completely separate script from Tamil-Brahmi.
Its use is also attested in north-eastern
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
n rock inscriptions, such as those found near
Trincomalee, dated to between c. the 5th and 8th centuries AD.
was replaced by the
Pallava-Grantha script from the 7th century AD in the
Pallava
The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as fe ...
court. From the 11th century AD onwards the
Tamil script
The Tamil script ( , ) is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil language, Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere to write the Tamil language. Certain minority languages such as Saurasht ...
displaced the Pallava-Grantha as the principal script for writing Tamil.
In what is now
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, continued for a much longer period than in
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
by incorporating characters from Pallava-Grantha to represent Sanskrit loan words in early
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
.
Early
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
inscriptions (c. 9th and 12th century AD) are composed mostly in .
[Veluthat, Kesavan. "History and Historiography in Constituting a Region: The Case of Kerala." ''Studies in People’s History'', vol. 5, no. 1, June 2018, pp. 13–31.] The script went on evolving in Kerala during this period and from c. the 12th century onwards.
Replacement
* gradually developed into a script known as "
Koleluttu" in Kerala. This script was more commonly used in north Kerala. It continued in use among certain Kerala communities, especially Muslims and Christians, even after the 16th century and up to the 19th century AD.
*Another script derived from was the "Malayayma" or "
Malayanma
Malayanma script was a writing system used in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. It was used to write the Malayalam language. Malayanma belongs to the same script family like Kolezhuthu and Vattezhuthu
''Vatteluttu,'' popularly romanise ...
". This script was more commonly used in southern Kerala. The script is not, however, the one that is ancestral to the modern Malayalam script.
*The modern
Malayalam script, a modified form of the Pallava-Grantha script, later replaced for writing the Malayalam language.
Letters
![Evolution of Vatteluttu (script)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Evolution_of_Vatteluttu_%28script%29.gif)
The script continuously went on evolving during its period of existence (in such a way that the date of a record may be fixed approximately by reference to the script alone).
* Last quarter of the 8th century – the difference between two similar letters, such as for instance between 'p' and 'v'; and 'ṅ' and 'l' etc., was very markedly shown.
* A few centuries later – difficult to distinguish between 'k' and 'c', 'ṅ' and 'l', 'p' and 'v' and so on.
* 17th-18 centuries – letters 'p', 'v', 'y', and 'n' and sometimes 'l' also, are alike.
File:8th Century Grantha and Vatteluttu Scripts Velvikudi Grant in Sanskrit and Tamil, with labels.jpg, Velvikudi Grant (8th century AD, Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
)
File:Quilon Syrian copper plates (849 CE) plates 1 and 4.jpg, Quilon Plates (9th century AD, Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
)
File:Jewish copper plates of Cochin - (plate I, side I) (early 11th century AD).jpg, Jewish Plates (11th century AD, Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
)
See also
*
Tamil script
The Tamil script ( , ) is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil language, Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere to write the Tamil language. Certain minority languages such as Saurasht ...
*
Pallava script
The Pallava script or Pallava Grantha, is a Brahmic scripts, Brahmic script, named after the Pallava dynasty of South India, attested since the 4th century AD. As epigrapher Arlo Griffiths makes clear, however, the term is misleading as not all o ...
*
Malayalam script
References
External links
Tamil Nadu Government: Archaeology Department
{{Kawi family
Linguistic history of India
Brahmic scripts
Tamil language
Malayalam language
Javanese language