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INDIAN BRANCH
385
to Burnell, it was formed in the eighth or ninth century A.D. There were two varieties: (a) the neater one of the Tulu country, which has preserved its form up to the present; and (b) a very irregular sprawling hand, extant in MSS. from Malabar, where it was termed Arya-eluttu. The latter has, since the seventeenth century, supplanted the Vatteluttu character (see below) for writing Malayalam. This modern Malayalam writing is, however, according to Burnell, a mixed script, being influenced by the old Vatteluttu and by the Tamil character. The Malayalam script has some local varieties; the most important is the Travancore hand, which is more angular than the others.
Tamil Character
The origin of this script (Fig. 154, col. 42, and Fig. 176, 2) is still uncertain. According to Buehler, it derived from a Brahmi alphabet of the fourth or fifth century A.D., which in course of time was strongly
ഒരു മനുഷ്യ രണ്ടു മക്കൾ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. അതിൽ ഇളയവൻ അപ്പനോടു, അപ്
1
அவனுடைய மூததகுமாரன் வயலிலிருந்தான. அவன் திரும்பி வீடகெகுச்சமீபயாய் வருகிறபோது,
2
Fig. 176
Specimens of Malayalam (1) and Tamil (2) scripts
influenced by the Grantha, used in the same districts for writing Sanskrit. But according to Burnell, it was a Brahmanic adaptation of the Grantha to Tamil speech, replacing the old Vatteluttu, from which the Tamil character retained the last four signs, the Grantha not possessing equivalents. Thus in his view, the Tamil character represents the later Brahmanic Tamil culture as opposed to the older civilizations of the Jains of Tanjore and Madura, and of the Buddhists of Tanjore.
The relationship between the ancient "Dravidi" script (p. 341) and the Tamil character is still uncertain; so is also the exact nature of the language of the "Dravidi" inscriptions, "but they appear to be in Early Tamil (as distinguished from the Tamil found in the early Tamil literature, as well as modern Tamil), with a sprinkling of Prakrit." (R. E. Wheeler, "ANCIENT INDIA," 1946).
In the fifteenth century, the modern Tamil script was already fully formed, although there was a certain graphic development of the single signs in the nineteenth century owing to the increased use of writing and to the introduction of printing.
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