The Grantha script (; ; ) 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 and Sri Lankan scripts such as Tigalari and Sinhalese scripts respectively, are derived or closely related to Grantha through the early Pallava script.
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.K. Kailasapathy (1979), The Tamil Purist Movement: A Re-evaluation, Social Scientist, Vol. 7, No. 10, pp. 23-27
Name 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.
History 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. 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.
Francis (2024) distinguishes the Grantha and Tamil scripts as two closely related writing systems that were used for Sanskrit and Tamil respectively, while noting that the correspondence between language and script was not absolute: Sanskrit loanwords could be written with Grantha graphemes within otherwise Tamil inscriptions, and Tamil words would rarely be written in Grantha. Lockwood (2008) uses the terms “Grantha Sanskrit” and “Grantha Tamil” for the two related scripts, and more specifically “Pallava Grantha Sanskrit” and “Pallava Grantha Tamil” for their Pallava-period forms. He notes that the two forms were closely related, with corresponding letters deriving from the same Brāhmī source forms, but that individual letters could nevertheless differ in their shapes and orthographic functions.
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 , so, for example, the letter is pronounced .
+ Consonants colspan=2 {!} colspan=2 {!} colspan=2 {!}
Consonant clusters Grantha has two ways of representing consonant clusters. Sometimes, consonants in a cluster may form ligatures.
+ Consonant cluster 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.
+ Stacked consonants
A few special cases
When , ya is the final consonant in a cluster, it is written as a ya-phala . When a cluster contains a non-initial , ra, it becomes a ra-vattu, . When a cluster begins with a , 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.
+ Consonant clusters with , , and reph.
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 , for example, is pronounced ka. Adding a vowel diacritic modifies the vowel sound, so plus the diacritic , gives the syllable , ko. The absence of a vowel is marked with a virāma , for example, plus creates an isolated consonant k.
+ Short vowels, vocalics, half vowels, diacritics, and examples with , ka.
+ Long vowels, their diacritics, and examples with , ma. scope=col {!} scope=col {!} scope=col {!} scope=col {!} scope=col {!} scope=col {!} scope=col {!}
There are a few ligatures of consonants with vowel diacritics and of consonants with virāma.
Numerals
Sample text Below is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Sanskrit language: Sanskrit in Grantha Script
IAST transliteration
English
Comparison with other South Indian and Sri Lankan scripts
+ Comparison of some Grantha letters with Malayalam, Sinhalese, and TamilGranthaMalayalamSinhaleseTamil
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;Sharma, Shriramana. (2010a). Proposal to encode characters for Extended Tamil.Sharma, Shriramana. (2010b). Follow-up to Extended Tamil proposal L2/10-256R. however, the proposal triggered discontent by some.Eraiyarasan, B. (2011). Dr. B.Eraiyarasan’s comments on Tamil Unicode And Grantham proposals.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 Considering the sensitivity involved, it was determined that the two scripts should not be unified, except for the numerals.Government of India. (2010). Unicode Standard for Grantha Script.
Notes
References
References Grünendahl, Reinhold. (2001). South Indian Scripts in Sanskrit Manuscripts And Prints. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag. 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