Vatteluttu


Vatteluttu, also transliterated as Vattezhuthu, was an alphasyllabic or syllabic writing system of south India and Sri Lanka formerly employed for writing the Tamil and Malayalam languages. The script is a sister system of the Pallava-Chola alphabet. The script was patronized by the Pallava, Pandya and Chera rulers of southern India.
Vatteluttu belonged to the "southern group" of Brahmi derivatives. The script was used in inscriptions and manuscripts of south India for centuries. It is closely related to the Tamil script. The direction of writing in Vatteluttu is from left to right. It notably omits the virama vowel muting device.

Etymology

Three possible suggestions for the etymology of the term 'Vatteluttu' are commonly proposed. The term is literally 'written form' in this context; and affixed here it means 'writing system' or 'script'.
The three suggestions are:
  • Vatte + eluttu; 'rounded script'
  • Vata + eluttu; 'northern script'
  • Vette + eluttu; 'chiseled script'

    Alternate names

The Vatteluttu script was also known as "Tekken-Malayalam" or "Nana-mona". The name "Nana-mona" is given to it because, at the time when script is taught, the words "namostu" etc. are begun, which are spelt "nana, mona, ittanna, tuva", and the writing system therefore came to be known as the "nana-mona" alphabet.

History

Early

Vatteluttu script started developing from Tamil-Brahmi Script, from around the 4th or 5th century AD. This early form is thus sometimes described as a "a transitional variety" of the Tamil-Brahmi Script.
The Vatteluttu script of 5th–6th centuries AD is called "Early Vatteluttu" script. The earliest forms of the script have been traced to memorial stone and rock inscriptions from this period. These include, among others, the famous Pulankurichi rock inscriptions, and numerous inscribed hero stones from Chengam Taluk and the nearby Dharmapuri District in northern Tamil Nadu. Vatteluttu is unambiguously attested in a number of inscriptions in Tamil Nadu from the 6th century AD.

in the middle phase

By the 7th to 8th centuries, Vatteluttu had developed into a completely separate script from the Tamil-Brahmi Script. Some of the inscriptions associated with Pallava rulers from Simhavarman III to Nandivarman are exclusively in Vatteluttu script. It was also employed by the Pandya and Chera rulers.
Its use is also attested in north-eastern Sri Lankan rock inscriptions, such as those found near Trincomalee, dated to between c. the 5th and 8th centuries AD.

Replacement in the Tamil country

Vatteluttu was systematically replaced by the Pallava-Grantha script from the 7th century AD in the Pallava court and territory. However, it continued to exist in the Ganga country, the Vanakapadi, and the North Kongu country, even though the Grantha-Tamil script was slowly gaining precedence.
The Tamil script supplanted the Vatteluttu in the northern Tamil country from the middle of the 8th century AD. It persisted in the southern Pandya country up to the end of the 10th century. From the 11th century AD onwards the Tamil script displaced the Pallava-Grantha as the principal script for writing Tamil language.
In what is now Kerala, Vatteluttu continued for a much longer period than in Tamil Nadu by incorporating characters from Pallava-Grantha Script to represent Sanskrit or Indo-Aryan loan words in early Malayalam. Early Malayalam inscriptions of the medieval Chera rulers are mostly engraved in Vatteluttu. The script went on continuously evolving in Kerala during this period and from c. the 12th century onwards.
Vatteluttu, in its standard form, is attested in Kerala as late as the 14th century AD. The modern Malayalam script, a modified form of the Pallava-Grantha script, later replaced Vatteluttu for writing the Malayalam language.

Legacy

  • Vatteluttu gradually developed into a variant script known as "Koleluttu" in Kerala. This script was more commonly used in north Kerala. It continued in use among certain Kerala communities, especially Muslims and Christians, even after the 16th century and up to the 19th century AD.
  • Another script derived from Vatteluttu was the "Malayayma" or "Malayanma". This script was more commonly used in southern Kerala. The script is not, however, the one that is ancestral to the modern Malayalam script.
  • Some records of the state of Travancore are written in later forms of the Vatteluttu script as late as the 19th century AD.

    Letters

The script continuously went on evolving during its period of existence.
  • Last quarter of the 8th century – the difference between two similar letters, such as for instance between 'p' and 'v'; and 'ṅ' and 'l' etc., was very markedly shown.
  • A few centuries later – difficult to distinguish between 'k' and 'c', 'ṅ' and 'l', 'p' and 'v' and so on.
  • 17th-18 centuries – letters 'p', 'v', 'y', and 'n' and sometimes 'l' also, are alike.

    Unicode

Vatteluttu script is not yet added to the unicode standard.