Vatteluttu script

E86783

The Vatteluttu script is an ancient South Indian writing system historically used to write early Dravidian languages, especially Tamil and Malayalam, before being replaced by later regional scripts.

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Statements (45)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Brahmic script
abugida
historical script
writing system
alternativeName Vattezhuthu
Vattezhuthu
surface form: Vatteḻuttu
associatedWith Kerala history
Malayalam
surface form: Malayalam language

Tamil Nadu history
Tamil
surface form: Tamil language
characteristic rounded letter shapes
derivedFrom Tamil-Brahmi script
developedIn early centuries CE
etymology name means ‘rounded letters’ in Tamil
hasGlyphStyle curvilinear forms
hasUnicodeStatus not yet encoded as a separate Unicode block (as of mid-2020s)
historicalUsageStatus extinct as a living script
influenced early Malayalam script
regional scripts of Kerala
region South Asia
surface form: Indian subcontinent
replacedBy Grantha script
Malayalam script
Tamil script
scriptCategory South Indian script
scriptCodeISO15924 Vatk
scriptFamily Southern Brahmi
scriptType alphasyllabary
timePeriod circa 4th century CE to 14th century CE
usedBy Chera dynasty
surface form: Chera kingdom

medieval Tamil polities
usedFor copper plate grants
inscriptions
manuscripts
usedIn Kerala
surface form: Kerala region

South India
Sri Lanka
Tamil region
usedUntil late medieval period
writingDirection left-to-right
writingMedium palm-leaf manuscripts
stone inscriptions
writingSystemOf Malayalam
surface form: Old Malayalam

Tamil
surface form: Old Tamil

early Dravidian languages
early Malayalam

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Malayalam script derivedFrom Vatteluttu script
Pallava script relatedTo Vatteluttu script
Dravidian languages writingSystem Vatteluttu script