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Vatteluttu Script: History and Usage

The Vatteluttu script was a syllabic alphabet used in southern India from the 6th to 14th century CE to write Tamil and Malayalam languages. It developed from the southern form of the Brahmi script, eliminating unnecessary signs. While it was used alongside the Tamil script from the 8th century CE, by the 15th century the Vatteluttu script had been mostly replaced by the Tamil script in Tamil areas and the Malayalam script in Kerala which was better suited to their respective languages.

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152 views1 page

Vatteluttu Script: History and Usage

The Vatteluttu script was a syllabic alphabet used in southern India from the 6th to 14th century CE to write Tamil and Malayalam languages. It developed from the southern form of the Brahmi script, eliminating unnecessary signs. While it was used alongside the Tamil script from the 8th century CE, by the 15th century the Vatteluttu script had been mostly replaced by the Tamil script in Tamil areas and the Malayalam script in Kerala which was better suited to their respective languages.

Uploaded by

Kalyani Moorthy
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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  • Vatteluttu Script Basics

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Quick Facts
Type Syllabic Alphabetic
GenealogyBrahmi
Location South Asia
Time 6th to 14th century CE
Direction Left to Right

The Vatteluttu (or Vattezhuttu) script was a syllabic alphabet used in the southern part India,
in what is now the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It grew from the southern form of
Brahmi script from around the 6th century CE, and was employed to write Tamil and
Malayalam languages. One historical development is that the signs inherited from Brahmi
unnecessary to represent the Tamil language were eliminated from the Vatteluttu script, a
feature also found in the Tamil script and most likely was an influence from Vatteluttu.

The following is the list of basic signs in the Vatteluttu script.

From the 8th century CE onward, the Tamil language was written with both the Vatteluttu
script as well as the Tamil script, a situation facilitated by political fragmented nature of
southern India in which different kingdoms employed different scripts. However, by the 15th
century CE the Vatteluttu script has all but been supplanted by the Tamil script in Tamil-
speaking areas. Similarly, in 12th-century CE Kerala the Malayalam script developed from
the older Grantha script and therefore phonetically suited the Malayalam language better.
This also led to the disuse of Vatteluttu in favor of the Malayalam script.

http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html Quick Facts Type Syllabic Alphabetic Genealogy Brahmi Location South Asia T

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