Grantha script
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| Grantha | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type | Abugida | |
| Spoken languages | Sanskrit, Manipravalam | |
| Time period | 6th Century CE to 16th Century CE [1] | |
| Parent systems | Brahmi → Southern Brahmi → Pallava → Grantha |
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| Child systems | Malayalam script, Sinhala script, Tulu Script, Tamil script | |
| Sister systems | Vatteluttu | |
 John 3:16 - written in the Grantha script |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
| The Brahmic script and its descendants |
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Grantha (Tamil: கிரந்த ௭ழுத்து, Bengali: গ্রন্থলিপি, Malayalam: ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി, Sanskrit: ग्रन्थ) grantha meaning "book" or "manuscript") is an ancient script that was prevalent in South India. It is generally supposed to have evolved from Brahmi, another ancient Indic script. It has influenced the Malayalam, Tulu and Sinhala scripts. A variant of this script used by Pallavas is called Pallava Grantha, which is also known as Pallava script. Several South-East Asian script like Khmer script developed from this variant.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Sanskrit and Grantha
Although Sanskrit is now almost exclusively written in the Devanagari script, the Grantha script was used to write Sanskrit in the Tamil-speaking parts of South Asia until the 19th century. Scholars believe, that the Grantha script was used to write the first Vedic books in 5th century.[2]In the early 20th century, it began being replaced by the Devanagari script in religious and scholarly texts, and the normal Tamil script (with the use of diacritics) in popular texts.
The Grantha script was also historically used for writing Tamil-Sanskrit Manipravalam, a blend of Tamil and Sanskrit which was used in the exegesis of Sanskrit texts. This evolved into a fairly complex writing system which required that Tamil words be written in the Tamil vatteluthu 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 vatteluthu. 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 Grantha script is mainly used in certain religious contexts by orthodox Tamil-speaking Hindus. Most notably, they use the script to write a child's name for the first time during the nāmakarṇa naming ceremony, and to write the Sanskrit portion of wedding invitations and announcements of a person's last rites. It is also used in many religious almanacs to print traditional formulaic summaries of the coming year.
Erstwhile Tulu script, was called Grantha Lipi.
[edit] Dhives and Grantha
Eveila Akuru which was used to write the Divehi language from 12th to 17thAD has strong connections with the Grantha script.
[edit] Tulu-Malayalam script
It is called Transitional Grantha, from about 1300 AD on, the modern script has been in use. Currently two varieties are used: Brahmanic, or square, and Jain, or round. The Tulu-Malayalam script is a variety of Grantha dating from the 8th or 9th century AD. The modern Tamil script may also be derived from Grantha, but this is not certain.[2]
[edit] Malayalam and Grantha
The origin of Malayalam script can be traced back to Grantha script. Malayalam scripts possess much resemblance with Grantha scripts.
[edit] Tamil and Grantha
It is suggested that Tamil was also written using the Grantha script at some point in time, but currently Tamil has its own script system.
There have been attempts to mix Sanskrit words into Tamil in the past. Even though there are well-defined rules for writing foreign loan words in Tamil. These letters help to compensate for sounds that are nonexistent in original Tamil. These grantha characters are becoming more widely used, although many scholars are unwilling to adopt the Sanskrit sounds for historical and cultural reasons.
The current Tamil scripts and the Grantha script have commonness, with the signs for voiceless aspirated (such as /kh/), voiced (/g/), and voiced aspirated stops (/gh/) left out.
See also: Tamil alphabet
[edit] Grantha Alphabet
A Unicode encoding for Grantha does not yet exist. The font used in the following tables is e-Grantamil taken from INDOLIPI.
The below glyps denote the late form of Grantha Script, which can be noticed by its similarity with the Modern Tamil Script
[edit] Vowels
[edit] Consonants
As with other Abugida scripts Grantha consonant signs have the inherent vowel /a/. Its absence is marked with Virāma:
For other vowels diacritics are used:
Sometimes ligatures of consonants with vowel diacritics may be found, e.g.:
There are also a few special consonant forms with Virāma:
[edit] Consonant Ligatures
Grantha has two types of consonant ligatures. The "northern" type is formed by fusion of two ore more consonants as in northern scripts like Devanāgarī (but also in some instances in the Malayāḷam script in the south). With the "southern" type consonants are stacked one above the other as in the southern scripts used for Kannaḍa and Telugu (and to some extend also for Malayāḷam and Oṛiya scripts).
Northern type ligatures
Southern type ligatures
Their components are easy to recognize. Therefore only a few examples are given here:
Special forms:
‹ya› and 
‹ra› as noninitial components of a ligature become 
and 
respectively.
‹ra› as initial component of a ligature becomes 
(called Reph as in other Indic scripts) and is shifted to the end of the ligature.
[edit] Grantha Numbers
[edit] Text Samples
The Grantha text of each sample is followed by a transliteration into Latin (ISO 15919) and Devanāgarī scripts.
Example 1: Taken from Kālidāsa's Kumārasambhavam
अस्त्युत्तरस्यां दिशि देवतात्मा हिमालयो नाम नगाधिराजः।
पूर्वापरौ तोयनिधी वगाह्य स्थितः पृथिव्या इव मानदण्डः॥
Example 2: St. John 3:16
Rendering of the facsimile given on top of this page. By comparing the old print from 1886 with the modern version given below one may see the difficulties the typesetter had with Grantha.
यत ईश्वरो जगतीत्थं प्रेम चकार यन्निजमेकजातं पुत्रं ददौ तस्मिन् विश्वासी सर्वमनुष्यो यथा न विनश्यानन्तं जीवनं लप्स्यते।
[edit] Comparison of Grantha with other Cognate Scripts
[edit] Vowel signs
Note: As in Devanāgarī ‹e› and ‹o› in Grantha stand for [eː] and [oː]. Originally also Malayāḷam and Tamiḻ scripts did not distinguish long and short ‹e› and ‹o›, though both languages have the phonemes /e/ /eː/ and /o/ /oː/. The addition of extra signs for /eː/ and /oː/ is attributed to the Italian missionary Constanzo Beschi (1680 - 1774).
[edit] Consonant signs
The Tamiḻ letters ஜ ஶ ஷ ஸ ஹ and the ligature க்ஷ ‹kṣa› are also called "Grantha letters", as they were introduced from Grantha into the Tamiḻ script to render Sanskrit words. The letters ழ ற ன and the corresponding sounds occur only in Dravidian languages.
[edit] References
Reinhold Grünendahl: South Indian Scripts in Sanskrit Manuscripts and Prints, Wiesbaden (Germany) 2001, ISBN 3-447-04504-3
K. Venugopalan: A Primer in Grantha Characters.
[edit] External links
- Quick facts about Grantha at AncientScripts.com
- Article at Omniglot
- more about Grantha Script
- Software package with Grantha OpenType font and typewriter for Grantha and Manipravalam for Win XP, 95, 98
