- Vatteluttu
Vatteluttu ("ISOtranslit|vaṭṭeḻuttu") or "rounded writing" is an
abugida writing system originating from the Dravidian peoples of Southern India andSri Lanka . The generic term of Vatteluttu, known as the "Pallava script", was mentioned by scholars ofSoutheast Asian studies such asGeorge Coedes and D.G.E. Hall. ThePallavas were a Tamil dynasty who reigned in the early centuries of the Common Era (c. 275 to 500 CE). Vatteluttu, or the Pallava script forms the basis for several writing systems of Southeast Asia and beyond :Myanmar ,Thailand ,Laos ,Cambodia ,Malaysia ,Indonesia and thePhilippines . [cite book | last = Steever| first = Sanford B.| title = The Dravidian Languages| year = 1998| publisher = Routledge| location = London; New York]South Asia
.
Inscriptional records in the
Tamil language date from 300 BCE to 1800 CE and have undergone varying changes through history. [cite book | last = Agesthialingom| first = S. & S.V. Shanmugam| title = The Language of Tamil Inscriptions | year = 1970| publisher = Annamalai University| location = Annamalainagar, India] The Grantha Tamil was an alphabet in which extra letters were created specifically for Sanskrit words. It was also a modified form of Tamil script to write Sanskrit granthas, or books. In Tamil many of the alphabets or letters which are found in Sanskrit are missing.Mainland Southeast Asia
The
Mon alphabet, from which theBurmese script is derived, and theKhmer script , from which theLao andThai script s are derived, were derived from the Pallava script. Fact|date=August 2008Insular Southeast Asia
The Pallava script is thought to be the the earliest writing system in insular Southeast Asia.Fact|date=August 2008
Its use is found on "
yupa " (stone poles) inMuara Kaman , betweenMahakam River andKedang Kepala , around 125 km upstream ofTenggarong inEast Kalimantan , Indonesia. The "yupa" were found by a topography worker fromNetherlands in1879 . They are estimated to date400 . They bear inscriptions written inSanskrit that narrate a story about the achievements of a king calledMulawarwan , grandson ofKudungga . The "yupa" are now in theIndonesia n National Museum inJakarta .Fact|date=August 2008An inscription found at Tugu in northern
Jakarta onJava Island , Indonesia, is also written in Pallava script and also in the Sanskrit language. It mentions a kingPurnawarman ofTarumanagara who built a canal to the sea for the sake of irrigation. It is estimated to date450 .Fact|date=August 2008ee also
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Tamil copper-plate inscriptions
*Indian copper plate inscriptions
*Laguna Copperplate Inscription
*Tamil script References
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