Pallava

The Pallava script was developed in southern India during the Pallava dynasty, (ca. 3rd-5th
century AD) The Pallava script was based on the Brahmi script and consists of a matched set of
symbols for consonants, as well as ways to write consonant clusters.

At first the script was used to write Sanskrit, varieties of Prakrit, including Pali, and a number of
other languages. Later it became popular for religious and politcal inscriptions on stone
monuments and for 500 years it was used in this way, with alterations and adaptations, to write
most of the languages of Southeast Asia.

Many other scripts developed from, or were influenced by Pallava, including Telugu, Kannada,
Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhala, Burmese, Khmer, Lanna, Thai, Lao, Cham, Javanese, Balinese,
Buginese and Sundanese.

The script is also known as Southern Gupta Brahmi, proto-Kannada, Tamil Grantham, and by a
number of other names.

Notable features
 Type of writing system: Abugida / Syllabic Alphabet
 Writing direction: left to right in horizontal lines
 Script family: Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Brāhmī, Tamil-Brahmi, Pallava

Pallava script
The letter forms shown are based on inscriptions from the 7th century AD.

Consonants

Vowels and diacritics

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Other Pallava symbols

Sample text
This text comes from India and dates from the 3rd century AD.

Transliteration

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Information and images compiled by Ian James:
[Link]

Links
Information about Pallava alphabet, language and people
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 Pallava
an important ancient script from South India

Ian James
© 2008-2011

|| Introduction | Charts | Examples | Repository ||

1 Introduction
Pallava refers to a dynasty of South India, flourishing around 6th-8th century AD, and to a
beautiful writing system employed under their reign, which spawned almost all the scripts of SE
Asia. A surprising lack of accessible information about this script has prompted the creation
(and continuing development) of this page. In May 2013, I initiated the page on Wikipedia.

1.1 Historical & geographical context

The Pallava dynasty was established in the region of modern-day northern Tamil Nadu and
southern Andhra Pradesh, and centered at Kanchipuram. Official languages were Tamil, Telugu
and Sanskrit. Vedic religion was practised, and Buddhism was also supported. The Pallavas
were most reknowned for their stone architecture, but it was the attractive writing seen in rock
inscriptions and on copper plates which made its way abroad and had far-reaching
consequences.

But the Pallavas were in almost constant conflict with neighbouring regions, and in the context
of paleography there is a somewhat parallel confusion of influences and attributions, which
persists into the present. In an effort to define the relevant characteristics, it helps to ‘freeze’ and
observe the period which saw a South Indian script exported eastward to Burma, Thailand,
Malaysia, and Indonesia. (Orthographic influence was eventually felt as far away as Borneo and
the Philippines.)

So although the emerging script has also been called proto-Telugu, proto-Kannada, Kadamba, a
form of Grantha, or simply Southern Brahmi, it seems certain that during the reign of the
Pallava kings, the script in question accompanied priests, monks, scholars and traders into SE
Asia, and etched itself proudly into stone as the earliest relics of writing there. This South Indian
east-coast region was surely a major conduit for the Vedic and Buddhist influences being firmly
established in the kingdoms and cultures further east. There was even a king of the Pallava
lineage (Kadavesa Harivarma) ruling Kambujadesa (modern day Cambodia and Vietnam) in the
8th century.

1.2 Orthographic characteristics & familial associations

The Pallavas developed (or fostered) a very beautiful and influential writing script based on
ancient Brahmi, which was in turn the primary writing system of southeast Eurasia since around
the 3rd century BC. The main characteristics of the newer script are aesthetically matched and

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fuller consonant glyphs, and extending the idea of attached vowel-signs to allow consecutive
consonants or clusters to be joined in vertical ‘stacks’. In addition, long swirling tails and nice
sense of space and layout are distinctive in both South Indian and Southeast Asian examples.

But already many features which identify the Pallava script were visible in the writing systems
of earlier and nearby dynasties. In particular, the Chalukya Empire of Karnataka and Central
India (to the west and northwest) and the more local Kadamba dynasty (Canarese) within that,
centered at Banavasi; and the Vengi region to the north, at the time of the Andhra Ikshvakus.
Regions to the south and southwest of Pallava territory appear to have taken the Brahmi design
in a slightly different direction: the Chola, Pandya and Chera dynasties of what is now Tamil
Nadu and Kerala.

The exemplary feature of Pallava (as we may call the representative script) has two related
aspects. It is among the very first significant developments of Brahmi in India; and still being an
inscribed form, it takes care in combining both rounded and rectangular strokes, and adding
typographical effects such as notches (to signify the ‘head’ or attachment point) and space-
filling tails. This made Pallava eminently suitable for civic and religious inscriptions, still
having a monumental feel like the long-respected northern imperial Brahmi, yet more
decorative.

1.3 Later developments

In India, the basic Kadamba-Pallava script evolved almost directly into early forms of both the
Kannada and Telugu scripts. There is some similarity with early forms of Grantha and Tamil,
but these already have many different consonant bases. In each case, the glyphs become more
rounded and incorporate loops, things which the later advent of relatively rapid writing upon
leaves and paper allowed.

Pallava traders and travelers introduced their writing to Southeast Asia, and it was by all
accounts much admired, appreciated and emulated. Earliest exported texts are in Sanskrit and
Pali, but soon local languages adopted forms of the script. It was the parent of:

 Pyu (Burma)
 Mon – Burmese
 Kawi – Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, Buginese and others (Indonesia, Philippines,
Borneo)
 Lanna, Tham (Thailand)
 Khom (Thailand)
 Khmer – Cambodian
 Thai and Lao
 Tai Lue and other Tai language scripts (Burma, South China, Thailand, Vietnam)
 Cham (Vietnam)

2 Charts
The forms shown here are based on examples from around the 7th century AD, but should
enable recognition of both earlier forms and those which started to appear in SE Asia from this
time. The glyphs shown here (from a font of my own design) are also under development, as I
search for more generic or representative forms. Those labeled * are a little uncertain, having
very little representation in the SE Asian region.

2.1 Consonants

Each consonant has an inherent /a/, which will be sounded if no vowel sign is attached. If two
consonants follow one another without intervening vowel, the second is made into a subscript
form, and attached below the first.

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2.2 Initial vowels, and dependent vowels, liquids etc.

Most vowels have a special form when at the beginning of a word. Otherwise, vowel signs will
attach in various ways around the body of the consonant (here using /dh/). There is also a mark
for final (vowel-less) consonant, a glyph for final /h/, and a mark for vowel nasalization (usually
of the consonant’s /a/ or /u/).

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2.2.1 Vowel variants. There are some variations, all familiar to some extent from later
descendants. Sometimes several forms of the same vowel are displayed in a single example of
text. Mostly the variations seem to be practical (for example, avoiding collision with consonant
parts) or purely aesthetic.

2.3 Special forms

Vowels attach to the ‘head’ of the consonant if available, and sometimes this means a change of
shape. Also, when clusters of consonants are assembled, some subscript forms are made
different to their regular form; this usually makes the combination both more legible and more
aesthetic. [more to come]

2.4 Subscripts and other ligatures

3 Examples
Unlike many students of paleography, I have less interest in the content and exact historical
context of inscriptions, than on the aesthetics and stylistic evolution. And given the many claims
to ownership of the script, and the many claims to what constitutes the ideal of Pallava, I am
satisfied to stand aside, to just admire and preserve good examples.

3.1 Indian forms

3.1.1 Vengi inscription, 3rd century AD. Shows elaborations upon the ancient Brahmi script,
and consonant forms which appear in the later Pallava. Assembled from several partial images
of the one inscription:

3.1.2 Vengi copper engraving, 4rd century AD (source Burnell, Elements of South-Indian
Palaeography, 1878):

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3.1.3 Chalukya copper engraving, 622 AD. Many features more confidently expressed in Pallava
script are noticeable here (source Burnell):

3.1.4 Classic Pallava forms of 640 AD, showing large /i/ vowel overhead, and consonantal
stacking:

3.2 Exported forms

3.2.1 Sra Kaeo in central Thailand, 7th century AD (reproduced using my own font):

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3.2.2 Nakhorn Pathom in central Thailand, 7th century AD (reproduced using my own font):

3.2.3 South Kedah in Malaysia, 5th-7th century AD (source Laidlay, Note on the Inscriptions
from Singapur etc, 1848):

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3.2.4 Fang in North Thailand, estimated late 7th century AD, showing a quote in Brahmi below
the Pallava (my own photograph):

[more examples to come, hopefully]

4 Repository
4.1 Neigbouring scripts

The first three glyph charts come from a Google-scan of Burnell, Elements of South-Indian
Palaeography; I have cleaned and re-assembled them into a more useful format.

 Plate I, Vengi forms of 4th century AD

 chart of ancient Pyu script by Mattias Persson (assembled from a Unicode proposal by
Anshuman Pandey)
 Kawi script in the Laguna Copperplate found in the Philippines (with my transliteration)

4.3 Thai research

 Consonants 6th-7th century AD (from สังคมและวัฒนธรรนในประเทศไทย, Bangkok 1999)

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All material on this page © Ian James, unless otherwise stated.

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