The evolution of human beings
in the world proceeded with evolution of spoken languages to begin with and
subsequently of written forms of expression and communication. Written tablets
preserved from the period of Sumerian civilization bloomed in parts of northern
Africa and Mediterranean region dating back to some 6000 years suggest
the antiquity of script forms.
Since migration of human
beings across the continents for the sake of exploration or better opportunities
was a common feature, as is today, it can be argued that educated people in
other continents were aware of the writing scripts. In the Indian subcontinent,
recovery of pictorial symbols in seals confirmed the existence of scripts in
Harappa and Mohenjodaro representing the Sindhu/Indus
civilization that dated back to a period of about 2000-3000 BC, even though we are yet unable to understand what
those pictograms precisely represented.
The
preservation of composed hymns of
Rigveda followed by other Vedas, though commonly attributed to the tradition of
mouth to ear transmission across generations, do not discount the possibility of awareness and
existence of documentable contemporaneous
scripts during the Vedic period, estimated to be ensuing from about 1700 BC. The
early class of composers of hymns considered their compositions as mystic mantras
endowed with occult powers that needed to be kept secretively away from the
common populace. Apparently the natives used Prakrit and other allied forms of
languages like Munda and early forms of (proto) Dravida before the introduction
of Sanskrit in the land.
The
Vedic form of Sanskrit evolved substantially with passage of time with generous
contribution and involvement of the natives. Panini around 500 BC was able to codify norms
of grammar for the evolved classical form of Sanskrit of the period. By then, at
least several common people had access to education especially written forms of
language as evidenced by the composition of two all time great epics namely
Ramayana and Mahabharata by bards who hailed from rustic backgrounds like Vālmiki
(an ex- hunter) and Veda-Vyāsa (son of a fisher woman) respectively. It appears
that these bards compiled the epics based on the popular anecdotes oral
literature that prevailed in the folklore at that time. Thus obviously, during
the evolution of languages in India, Sanskrit and Prakrit mutually influenced
each other.
300 BC: Brāhmi Script
King Asoka as a part of good governance decided that his
message should reach his subjects in the popular and well known common language
of the people namely, the Prakrit, even though Sanskrit prevailed as language
of the elite at the time. He employed learned sculptors versed in writing
chiseling script and ordered that his message should be scripted in hard rocks
in the nook and corners of his kingdom. Brāhmi was the script used in most of
the edicts, while Kharoshti script was used in Gāndhara, the northwestern segment
of the Indian subcontinent.
The Brāhmi script, popularized by King Asoka
through his famous rock edicts distributed in different parts of India
representing key points of his kingdom, was the mother script for various
Indian scripts evolved during the next two millennia. The individual styles of
the sculptors, the hardness or softness of the rock slab and implements used
for scripting determined the progressive evolution of various Indian scripts
during the last two millennia. From a single original script of Brāhmi script,
scores of astonishing and dissimilar looking Indian scripts have evolved over
the period.
Devara Konda Reddy (2002)
has provided a lucid summary of evolution of south Indian scripts from the Brāhmi
script.
 |
| The Brahmi script |
Evolution of Kannada script
The Kannada script
evolved from the original Brāhmi script introduced by Asoka, sequentially in
stages through the royal patronage of Sātavāhana, Kadamba, Ganga, Chalukya, Rashtrakoota
and Vijayanagara kings, through the ages of 1st to 13th
century CE. The individualistic styles adopted by the designated sculptors
through the ages and the hardness of the stone/metal material used by them
decided the shape of the letters. With the result at the end of 13th
Century we have a set of Kannada alphabets astonishingly different from the original
Brāhmi alphabets popularized by King Ashoka.
 |
| Evolution of Kannada script through the ages (after Devara Konda Reddy,2002) |
Ancient Tamil literature
A voluminous set of
poetry known as Sangam literature was composed by ancient poets under the
patronage of Pallava, Chola and Chera Kings estimated to be mainly between the
period of 3rd Century BC and
3rd century CE. (The Tamil word Sangam
has been variously pronounced as Shangam,
Chankam etc. The Sangam refers to Sangha,
a religious association of Buddhist monks and bards)
Shettar
(2007) has conducted interesting analysis of the Sangam poetry data in order to
understand the nature of socio-political and lingual conditions in adjacent
Kannada and Tulu regions during the period. The Tamil poets referred to Kannada,
Tulu and Telugu neighbors in general as Vaduga
(=northern people). The northern rulers of the time included Katumba (Kadamba), Konga (Ganga), Punnata and
others.
In
Tamilnadu, three variants of scripts, derived from the Brahmi script, were known
to have prevailed in the history, namely: (1) Vatteluttu (2) Grantha lipi and
(3) Tamil script. The modern (current) Tamil is written in Tamil script.
 |
| The Vatteluttu script |
Vattelettu
The term Vattelettu ( Vatte <Vada/Bada=northern) script
(=eluttu) suggests that it was a script
of northern origin implying derivation from the Brāhmi script. The Vatteluttu originated
as early as 4th Century CE and was in usage subsequently in southern
India consisting of present Tamilnadu, Kerala and parts of Karnataka.
 |
| The Grantha script |
Grantha Script
A evolved and modified
form of Brāhmi known as the grantha
(=book; scripture) lipi (=script) was
used by educated class (mainly Brahmins) of South India since 7th
Century CE for writing down Sanskrit
compositions, especially in the Pallava regime. The Grantha script was preferred
to express the expansive word structures of the Sanskrit instead of the
simplistic Vatteluttu script with limited alphabets.
After
11th Century Chola kings who dominated political history of the
medieval Tamilnadu encouraged the use of Grantha script and abandoned the Vatteluttu.
The
fusion of Vatteluttu and Grantha scripts during 8th century CE led
to the development of Tamil script in the Pallava regime which evolved further
during 10 and 11th centuries under the Chola rule. The Tamil script
was ultimately adapted to the Tamil pattern and style of words and
pronunciation.
Arya-eluttu
The Vatteluttu continued
to flourish in parts of Kerala even after it was abandoned in Tamil country. However,
the increasing number of Sanskrit words in routine usage of local languages necessitated
the adoption of a variant of Grantha script known as “Arya eluttu” (=script of the elite).
Further during the
history, when Hoysala and Vijayanagaar kings conquered parts of Tamil areas the
Nagari script was used for epigraphs and the utility of Grantha script was
limited for writing down in the palmyra manuscripts.
Saraju Rath (2012)
recognized five stages of evolution in Grantha script in South India.
Grantha script/language
|
Origin-Time period
|
|
1
|
Grantha with Telugu/
Kannada
|
4th to 7th
Century CE
|
2
|
Grantha with Vatteluttu
|
6th Century
CE
|
3
|
Grantha with Tamil
|
7th Century
CE
|
4
|
Grantha with Malayalam
(Arya-eluttu)
|
11th C-14th
C
|
5
|
Grantha with Tulu
Malayalam(Koleluttu)
|
10th -14th
C.
|
Tigalari script
A form of Western Grantha
script used especially in southern India
around Pallava Tamil regimes was known as
Tigulāri (or Tigalāri) script.
The script was in vogue in Kerala, Western Karnataka and parts of Maharashtra. The
usage Tigula referred to Tamil
people. (However, presently there is also a community known as Tigulas). The Tigula-Arya script was known as Tigulāri
script.
The
Tigalari script was employed by literate Brahmins of Sahyādri (Malenādu) and Karāvali region to write
down Sanskrit mantras (apart from Tulu and Malayalam). The Tigalāri script contains all the 50 characters found in
Devanagari/Sanskrit alphabet hence was used to write Sanskrit works
conveniently.
Devara Konda Reddy (2002) notes that Tigalāri is quite similar to the Tulu
script. The Tigalāri script was found
convenient and hence adopted by Tulu Brahmins to record Sanskrit slokas while they were serving in the
temples of Kerala. Possibly they found it convenient since Tigalari was akin to
the scripts (Arya-elettu, Koleluttu) already in usage in Kerala.
 |
| The Tulu-Tigalari script |
Tulu script
About three generations
of Brahmin priests from Tulunadu and Uttara Kannada were serving in the temples
of Kerala during the history. Priests from Shivalli and Kokkada were serving in
Tiruvanthapura Padmanābha temple under the titles of ‘ikkardeshi’ and ‘akkardeshi’
respectively. These priests employed variants of Grantha script such as Arya-elettu,
Koleluttu and Tigalari which were in
vogue in Kerala for routinely recording Sanskrit slokas. During
13th Century another batch of Brahmin priests from the villages Idugunji, Balkuru
, Gunavanthe (Uttara Kannada) and Shivalli (Udupi) were invited to perform in the
temples of Kerala. (Venkataraja Punimchattaya, 2007). It is said that Madhvacharya of Udupi (12th
Century) used to employ the Tulu Tigalari script for compiling his woks. It is
reported that Madhvacharya used to sign in Tulu script.
The Tigalari script was also
popular among the Brahmins of Uttar Kannada.
Ramesh (2007) reported a
historical Tulu inscription from Ananthadi in Kasaragodu district. Recently, it
has been reported that Prof Murugesh unraveled a Tulu –Kannada inscription from
the premises of Kota temple in Udupi district.
”Shri Bhagavato”
attributed to poet Vishnu Tunga has been considered as the first available independent
creative work in Tulu language, composed ca.1630 CE and recopied around
ca.1670.
Devara
Konda Reddy (2002) suggests that the script used in this work (Shri Bhagavato)
though popularized as Tulu script is actually is a variant of Arya-eluttu, a type of Grantha script.
The Arya-eluttu script was in use in
Tamilnadu and Kerala since 14th century CE onwards.
Devara
Konda Reddy also suggests that what is popularized as Tulu script now is a variant
of Tigalāri script. There are very little differences between the Tigalāri and
the Tulu script. He notes that Tigalāri is more roundish than Tulu script. The
numeral system in Tigalāri is borrowed from Kannada script. Similarly, the shakatarefa (rha- lha) adopted in Tulu script has been borrowed from the Kannada
script.
A standard
or widely accepted script may look slightly dissimilar visually in different
documents because of the individualistic handwriting style adopted by the
writers of the manuscript.
Modern scripts
The modern printing
technologies have favored and facilitated standardization of various Indian
scripts. However in the process some of the less known/less used scripts like
Tulu- Tigalari have receded to the backdrop or even to anonymity.
Modern
Tamil printing script was set up in 1712 by Tranquebar (Tarangambadi) for
publishing Christian evangelical literature in Tamil. To counter the religious
propaganda Kalvi Vilakkam in 1834 published Hindu religious literature in
modern Tamil script. Thus utility of Grantha script for Tamil declined
completely thereafter. Benjamin Baileys CMS Press (1821) introduced modern
Malayalam printing script derived from Malayanm script.
Samuel
Hebich of Basel Mission Press in Mangaluru standardized the modern Kannada
script from the then existing Halegannada script in the year 1841. Basel Mission Press utilized the modern
Kannada script for printing Tulu and Kodava languages also, leading unknowingly
to the suppression of Tulu-Tigalari script.
Vavila
Sastrilu of Adi Saraswati Nilayam (1854) finalized modern Telugu script for
print form from the Eastern Halegannada script existing at that time. Modern
Devanagari script was adapted for mass printing of Sanskrit books by printers
and publishers like Gita Press of Gorakpur.
REFERENCES
Devara
konda Reddi, Dr
(2002,2009) Lipiya Huttu mattu
belavanige.(Origin and evolution of script).Kannada Pustaka Pradhikara.
348+xii.p. (Kannada).
Prabhu,
Govindaraya, S and Pai, Nithyananda, M. (2006)The Alupa
coins: Coinage and History. Sanoor, Karkala, 200p.
Ramesh,
K.V. (2007) Anantapurada
Tulu shasana. In: In: “Tulu Sahitya
Charitre”, .(Kannada). Chief Editor
Dr B. A. Vivek Rai. Kannada University, Hampi.
pp.105-106.
Saraju
Rath, Dr. (2012) (Editor).
Aspects of manuscript culture in South
India. Indian Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden,Nethrlands.(summary in Google
books).
Shettar,
S, Dr. (2007) Shangam Tamilgam and Kannada Naadu, NuDi.
Arambha kaalada dravida sambhandada chintane (Kannada). Abhinava Bengaluru,
2010, 320 p.
Venkataraja
Punimchattaya (2007) Tulu lipiya moola mattu vikaasa.” In: “Tulu Sahitya Charitre”, .(Kannada). Chief Editor Dr B. A. Vivek Rai. Kannada
University, Hampi. pp.160-162