TAMIL SCRIPT
Topic: Epigraphy
- The earliest inscription in the Tamil language is engraved in rock shelters and caves, mostly in Tamil Nadu, especially in the area near Madurai. They are in a script known as Tamil-Brahmi, an adoption of Brahmi for writing the Tamil Language.
- Three Southern scripts emerged in the early medieval period-Grantha, Tamil, and Vatteluttu. The first of these was used for writing Sankskrit, the second and third for writing Tamil.
- These three scripts may have emerged out of Southern Varieties of Brahmi; or they may have emerged from some other earlier southern scripts.
- The Tamil scripts first appeared in the Pallava territory in the 7th century CE.
- Something similar to the modern Telegue and Kannada script took shape in the 14th-15th centuries, while the Malayalam script developed out of Grantha at about the same time.
