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Grantha script 𑌗𑍍𑌰𑌨𑍍𑌥
The word 'Grantha' in modern Grantha typeface
Script type	Abugida
Time period	7th century CE – present (excluding Pallava Grantha)
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Tamil and Sanskrit
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Brahmi Tamil-Brahmi Pallava Grantha script
Child systems	Malayalam Tigalari Thirke Saurashtra Dhives Akuru
Sister systems	Tamil, Old Mon, Khmer, Cham, Kawi
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Gran (343), ​Grantha
Unicode
Unicode alias	Grantha
Unicode range	U+11300–U+1137F

The Grantha script (Tamil: கிரந்த எழுத்து, romanized: Granta eḻuttu; Malayalam: ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി, romanized: granthalipi) is a classical South Indian Brahmic script, found particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Originating from the Pallava script, the Grantha script is related to Tamil and Vatteluttu scripts. The modern Malayalam script of Kerala is a direct descendant of the Grantha script. The Southeast Asian and Indonesian scripts such as Thai and Javanese respectively, as well as South Asian Tigalari and Sinhala scripts, are derived or closely related to Grantha through the early Pallava script. The Pallava script or Pallava Grantha emerged in the 4th century CE and was used until the 7th century CE, in India. This early Grantha script was used to write Sanskrit texts, inscriptions on copper plates and stones of Hindu temples and monasteries. It was also used for classical Manipravalam – a language that is a blend of Sanskrit and Tamil. From it evolved Middle Grantha by the 7th century, and Transitional Grantha by about the 8th century, which remained in use until about the 14th century. Modern Grantha has been in use since the 14th century and into the modern era, to write classical texts in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. It is also used to chant hymns and in traditional Vedic schools.

The Tamil purist movement of the colonial era sought to purge the Grantha script from use and use the Tamil script exclusively. According to Kailasapathy, this was a part of Tamil nationalism and amounted to regional ethnic chauvinism.

History

In Sanskrit, grantha is literally 'a knot'. It is a word that was used for books, and the script used to write them. This stems from the practice of binding inscribed palm leaves using a length of thread held by knots. Grantha was widely used to write Sanskrit in the Tamil-speaking parts of South Asia from about the 5th century CE into modern times.

The Grantha script was also historically used for writing Manipravalam, a blend of Tamil and Sanskrit which was used in the exegesis of Manipravalam texts. This evolved into a fairly complex writing system which required that Tamil words be written in the Tamil script and Sanskrit words be written in the Grantha script. By the 15th century, this had evolved to the point that both scripts would be used within the same word – if the root was derived from Sanskrit it would be written in the Grantha script, but any Tamil suffixes which were added to it would be written using the Tamil script. This system of writing went out of use when Manipravalam declined in popularity, but it was customary to use the same convention in printed editions of texts originally written in Manipravalam until the middle of the 20th century.

In modern times, the Tamil-Grantha script is used in religious contexts by Tamil-speaking Hindus. For example, they use the script to write a child's name for the first time during the naming ceremony, for the Sanskrit portion of traditional wedding cards, and for announcements of a person's last rites. It is also used in many religious almanacs to print traditional formulaic summaries of the coming year.

Types of Grantha

Pallava Grantha

An archaic and ornamental variety of Grantha is sometimes referred to as Pallava Grantha. It was used by the Pallava in some inscriptions from the 4th century CE to the 7th century CE, in India. Examples are the Mamallapuram Tiruchirapalli Rock Cut Cave Inscriptions and Kailasantha Inscription.

Middle Grantha

Middle Grantha first appeared in the Kuram copper plates, dating from around 675 CE, and was used until the end of the 8th century CE.

Transitional Grantha

Transitional Grantha is traceable from the 8th or 9th century CE, until around the 14th century CE. The Tulu-Malayalam script is derivative of Transitional Grantha dating to the 8th or 9th century CE, which later split into two distinct scripts – Tigalari and Malayalam.

Modern Grantha

Grantha in the present form dates from the 14th century CE. The oldest modern manuscript has been dated to the end of the 16th century CE. Two varieties are found in modern era Grantha texts: the 'Brahmanic' or square form used by Hindus, and the 'Jain' or round form used by Jains.

Modern Grantha

The Grantha script has evolved over time, and shares similarities with the modern Tamil Script.

Consonants

As in other Brahmic scripts Grantha consonant signs have an inherent vowel, typically corresponding to /a/, so, for example, the letter ⟨𑌕⟩ is pronounced /ka/.

Consonant clusters

Grantha has two ways of representing consonant clusters. Sometimes, consonants in a cluster may form ligatures.

Ligatures are normally preferred whenever they exist. If no ligatures exist, "stacked" forms of consonants are written, just as in Kannada and Telugu, with the lowest member of the stack being the only "live" consonant and the other members all being vowel-less. Note that ligatures may be used as members of stacks also.

A few special cases

• When ⟨𑌯⟩, ya is the final consonant in a cluster, it is written as a ya-phala ⟨𑍍𑌯⟩.
• When a cluster contains a non-initial ⟨𑌰⟩, ra, it becomes a ra-vattu, ⟨𑍍𑌰⟩.
• When a cluster begins with a ⟨𑌰⟩, ra, it becomes a reph and is shifted to the end of the cluster.
• If a cluster contains both a reph and a ya-phala, the ya-phala is written last.

Vowels and syllables

Grantha includes five long vowels, five short vowels, two vocalic consonants, ṛ and ḷ which are treated as vowels and may be short or long, and two part-vowels, anusvara ⟨◌𑌂⟩ ṁ and visarga, ⟨◌𑌃⟩ ḥ. Independent vowel letters are used for word-initial vowels. Otherwise, vowels, vocalics, and part-vowels are written as diacritics attached to consonants. Each consonant in Grantha includes an inherent vowel a, so the letter ⟨𑌕⟩, for example, is pronounced ka. Adding a vowel diacritic modifies the vowel sound, so ⟨𑌕⟩ plus the diacritic ⟨𑌓⟩, gives the syllable ⟨𑌕𑍋⟩, ko. The absence of a vowel is marked with a virāma ⟨◌𑍍⟩, for example, ⟨𑌕⟩ ka plus ⟨◌𑍍⟩ creates an isolated consonant ⟨𑌕𑍍⟩ k.

1. The virama has no independent form because it is not a vowel. It is a diacritic that suppresses a letter's inherent vowel, leaving an isolated consonant.
2. ^ The anusvara and visarga have no independent forms because they can only modify a syllable's vowel.
3. The vowel a has no corresponding diacritic since every consonant carries an inherent a.

There are a few ligatures of consonants with vowel diacritics and of consonants with virāma.

Numerals

Sample text

Sanskrit in Grantha Script

𑌸𑌰𑍍𑌵𑍇 𑌮𑌾𑌨𑌵𑌾𑌃 𑌸𑍍𑌵𑌤𑌨𑍍𑌤𑍍𑌰𑌾𑌃 𑌸𑌮𑍁𑌤𑍍𑌪𑌨𑍍𑌨𑌾𑌃 𑌵𑌰𑍍𑌤𑌨𑍍𑌤𑍇 𑌅𑌪𑌿 𑌚, 𑌗𑍌𑌰𑌵𑌦𑍃𑌶𑌾 𑌅𑌧𑌿𑌕𑌾𑌰𑌦𑍃𑌶𑌾 𑌚 𑌸𑌮𑌾𑌨𑌾𑌃 𑌏𑌵 𑌵𑌰𑍍𑌤𑌨𑍍𑌤𑍇। 𑌏𑌤𑍇 𑌸𑌰𑍍𑌵𑍇 𑌚𑍇𑌤𑌨𑌾-𑌤𑌰𑍍𑌕-𑌶𑌕𑍍𑌤𑌿𑌭𑍍𑌯𑌾𑌂 𑌸𑍁𑌸𑌮𑍍𑌪𑌨𑍍𑌨𑌾𑌃 𑌸𑌨𑍍𑌤𑌿। 𑌅𑌪𑌿 𑌚, 𑌸𑌰𑍍𑌵𑍇𑌽𑌪𑌿 𑌬𑌨𑍍𑌧𑍁𑌤𑍍𑌵-𑌭𑌾𑌵𑌨𑌯𑌾 𑌪𑌰𑌸𑍍𑌪𑌰𑌂 𑌵𑍍𑌯𑌵𑌹𑌰𑌨𑍍𑌤𑍁।

Latin script transliteration

Sarvē mānavāḥ svatantrāḥ samutpannāḥ vartantē api ca, gauravadr̥śā adhikāradr̥śā ca samānāḥ ēva vartantē. Ētē sarvē cētanā-tarka-śaktibhyāṁ susampannāḥ santi. Api ca, sarvē´pi bandhutva-bhāvanayā parasparaṁ vyavaharantu.

English

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Comparison with other South Indian scripts

Unicode

Grantha script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0. The Unicode block for Grantha is U+11300–U+1137F:

Unification with Tamil

Some proposed to reunify Grantha and Tamil; however, the proposal triggered discontent by some. Considering the sensitivity involved, it was determined that the two scripts should not be unified, except for the numerals.

Notes

1. Mirza, Amna; Gottardo, Alexandra (2019). "Learning to Read in Their Heritage Language: Hindi-English Speaking Children Reading Two Different Orthographies". Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography. Springer International Publishing. pp. 329–351. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-05977-4_17. ISBN 978-3-030-05977-4. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
2. ^ Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 40–42. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.
3. ^ "Grantha alphabet for Sanskrit". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
4. J. G. de Casparis (1975). Indonesian Palaeography: A History of Writing in Indonesia from the Beginnings to C. A.D. 1500. BRILL Academic. pp. 12–17. ISBN 90-04-04172-9.
5. Patricia Herbert; Anthony Crothers Milner (1989). South-East Asia: Languages and Literatures : a Select Guide. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 127–129. ISBN 978-0-8248-1267-6.
6. Pierre-Yves Manguin; A. Mani; Geoff Wade (2011). Early Interactions Between South and Southeast Asia: Reflections on Cross-cultural Exchange. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 283–285, 306–309. ISBN 978-981-4311-16-8.
7. ^ Arlo, Guy (2014). "Early Indic Inscriptions of Southeast Asia". In guy, john (ed.). Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early South east Asia. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9781588395245. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
8. ^ Diringer, David (1948). Alphabet a key to the history of mankind. p. 411.
9. ^ "Grantha alphabet (writing system) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
10. Giovanni Ciotti; Hang Lin (2016). Tracing Manuscripts in Time and Space through Paratexts. Walter De Gruyter. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-3-11-047901-0.
11. Singh, Upinder (1 January 2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India. ISBN 9788131711200.
12. K. Kailasapathy (1979), The Tamil Purist Movement: A Re-evaluation, Social Scientist, Vol. 7, No. 10, pp. 23-27
13. Macdonell, Arthur Anthony (31 December 1997). A History of Sanskrit Literature. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 15. ISBN 978-81-208-0035-9. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
14. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Sanskrit (Grantha)". UDHR in XML Project. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
15. "Grantha alphabet for Sanskrit". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
16. Sharma, Shriramana. (2010a). Proposal to encode characters for Extended Tamil.
17. Sharma, Shriramana. (2010b). Follow-up to Extended Tamil proposal L2/10-256R.
18. Eraiyarasan, B. (2011). Dr. B.Eraiyarasan’s comments on Tamil Unicode And Grantham proposals.
19. Nalankilli, Thanjai. (2018). Attempts to "Pollute" Tamil Unicode with Grantha Characters. Tamil Tribune. Retrieved 13 May 2019 from https://web.archive.org/web/20200306030655/http://www.tamiltribune.com/18/1201.html
20. Government of India. (2010). Unicode Standard for Grantha Script.

References

• Grünendahl, Reinhold. (2001). South Indian Scripts in Sanskrit Manuscripts And Prints. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 3-447-04504-3
• Venugopalan, K. (1983). A primer in Grantha characters.

External links

• Quick facts about Grantha at AncientScripts.com
• Article at Omniglot
• Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department – Grantha Webpage
• Digitised Grantha Books
• Online Tutorial for Grantha Script
• Learn Grantha Basics

• Brahmic scripts
• Tamil language
• Tamil script