Vatteluttu


Vatteluttu was an abugida of South India and Sri Lanka used for writing the Tamil and Malayalam languages.
The earliest forms of Vatteluttu have been traced to memorial stone inscriptions from the 4th century AD. It probably developed from Tamil Brahmi around 4th-5th century AD. Vatteluttu is distinctly attested in a number of inscriptions in Tamil Nadu from the 6th century AD.
Vatteluttu characters are marked by a more cursive appearance than the modern Tamil script. The script is written left to right, as is typical for Indian scripts. Like the Tamil script from the 11th and later centuries, the script omits the virama V muting device.
Vatteluttu was the common script for writing Tamil in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala till c. 9th century AD. The modern Tamil script displaced Vatteluttu as the principle script for writing Tamil in c. 9th-10th century AD. Vatteluttu use is also attested in north-eastern Sri Lankan rock inscriptions, such as those found near Trincomalee, dated c. 5th and 8th centuries AD.

Etymology

Three possible hypotheses for the etymology of the term 'Vatteluttu' are commonly accepted. Eluttu/ezhuthu is lit. 'written form' in this context; and affixed here it means 'writing system' or 'script'. The three hypothesised meanings for the name are:
In what is now Kerala, Vatteluttu continued for a much longer period than in Tamil Nadu.
Early Malayalam inscriptions related to the Chera Perumals, kings of Kerala between c. 9th and 12th century AD, are composed mostly in Vatteluttu. The script went on evolving during this period and in the post-Chera Perumal period.
The modern Malayalam script, a modified form of the Grantha/Southern Pallava Grantha script, gradually replaced Vatteluttu for writing Malayalam in Kerala. It gradually developed into a script known as "Koleluttu" in Kerala.

Characters

Evolution of the Tamil and the scripts

The image shows the divergent evolution of the Tamil and the Vatteluttu scripts. The Vatteluttu script is shown on the left column, Tamil Brahmi in the middle column, and the Tamil script is shown on the right column. The earlier is near the centre and that later is towards the sides.