Editing Malayalam script (section)

==History==
Malayalam was first written in the [[Vattezhuthu]] script, an ancient script of [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]] languages. However, the modern Malayalam script evolved from the [[Grantha alphabet]], and [[Vattezhuthu]], both of which evolved from the [[Tamil-Brahmi]], but independently.

Vatteluttu ({{langx|ml|വട്ടെഴുത്ത്|Vaṭṭeḻuttŭ|translit-std=ISO|round writing}}) is a script that had evolved from [[Tamil-Brahmi]] and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-day [[Tamil Nadu]] and in [[Kerala]]. The [[Vazhappally]] inscription issued by [[Rajashekhara Varman]] is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE.<ref name="Omniglot">{{Cite web|title=Malayalam alphabet, pronunciation and language|first=Simon|last=Ager|work=Omniglot|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm|year=1998|access-date=2009-09-08}}</ref><ref name="Vazhapally Temple">{{Cite web|title=Vazhapally Temple|url=http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|publisher=Vazhappally Sree Mahadeva Temple|access-date=2009-10-31|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109014543/http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|archive-date=2011-01-09}}</ref> During the medieval period, the [[Tigalari script]] that was used for writing [[Tulu language|Tulu]] in [[South Canara]], and [[Sanskrit]] in the adjacent [[Malabar District|Malabar region]], was very similar to the modern Malayalam script.<ref name="Tulu Unicode 2017"/> In the Tamil state, the modern [[Tamil script]] had supplanted Vattezhuthu by the 15th century, but in the [[Malabar Coast|Malabar]] region, Vattezhuthu remained in general use up to the 17th century,<ref name="Ref_b">Burnell (1874), p. 39.</ref> or the 18th century.<ref name="s">{{Cite web|title=The Script|url=http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/evol_lang.htm#The%20Script|access-date=2009-11-20|publisher=Malayalam Resource Centre|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725044626/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/evol_lang.htm#The%20Script|archive-date=2011-07-25|url-status=dead}}</ref> A variant form of this script, [[Kolezhuthu]], was used until about the 19th century mainly in the [[Malabar District|Malabar]]-[[Kingdom of Cochin|Cochin]] area.<ref name="l">{{Cite web|title=Alphabets|publisher=Government of Kerala|url=http://www.kerala.gov.in/language%20&%20literature/alphabets.htm|access-date=2009-10-29|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091109222758/http://www.kerala.gov.in/language%20%26%20literature/alphabets.htm|archive-date=2009-11-09}}</ref> Another variant form, [[Malayanma]], was used in the south of [[Thiruvananthapuram]].<ref name="l"/>

According to [[Arthur Coke Burnell]], one form of the Grantha alphabet, originally used in the [[Chola dynasty]], was imported into the southwest coast of India in the 8th or 9th century, which was then modified in course of time in this secluded area, where communication with the east coast was very limited.<ref name="b35">Burnell (1874), p. 35.</ref> It later evolved into Tigalari-Malayalam script was used by the [[Malayali]], Havyaka Brahmins and Tulu Brahmin people, but was originally only applied to write [[Sanskrit]]. This script split into two scripts: Tigalari and Malayalam. While Malayalam script was extended and modified to write vernacular language Malayalam, the Tigalari was written for Sanskrit only.<ref name="b35"/><ref name="Ref_2009a">{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Grantha alphabet|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Online|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc|Encyclopædia Britannica]]|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/241814/Grantha-alphabet|year=2009|access-date=2009-10-28}}</ref> In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu ({{lang|ml|ആര്യ എഴുത്ത്}}, ''Ārya eḻuttŭ''),<ref name="Ref_c">{{Cite web|title=EPIGRAPHY - Inscriptions in Grantha Script|url=http://www.tnarch.gov.in/epi/ins3.htm|access-date=2009-11-11|publisher=Department of Archaeology, [[government of Tamil Nadu]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111183842/http://www.tnarch.gov.in/epi/ins3.htm|archive-date=2010-01-11|url-status=dead}}</ref> meaning "Arya writing" (Sanskrit is [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language]] while Malayalam is a [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian language]]).

Vatteluttu was in general use, but was not suitable for literature where many Sanskrit words were used. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was originally used to write [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and as such, did not have letters for voiced or aspirated consonants used in Sanskrit but not used in Tamil. For this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha alphabet were sometimes mixed, as in the [[Manipravalam]]. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, ''Vaishikatantram'' ({{lang|ml|വൈശികതന്ത്രം}}, ''Vaiśikatantram''), dates back to the 12th century,<ref name="Ref_d">Nampoothiri, N. M. (1999), [http://malabarandkeralastudies.net/downloadingfiles/pdffiles/culturaltraditionsinmedeivalkerala.pdf "Cultural Traditions in Medieval Kerala"]{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (PDF) in Cherian, P. J., ''Perspectives on Kerala History: The Second Millennium'', Kerala Council for Historical Research, {{ISBN|81-85499-35-7}}, retrieved 2009-11-20.</ref><ref name="Ref_e">{{Cite web|title=Development of Literature|url=http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/devliterature.htm|access-date=2009-11-20|publisher=Malayalam Resource Centre|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130704044944/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/devliterature.htm|archive-date=2013-07-04|url-status=dead}}</ref> where the earliest form of the Malayalam script was used, which seems to have been systematised to some extent by the first half of the 13th century.<ref name="Omniglot"/><ref name="s"/>

It is [[Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan]] who is also credited with the development of Malayalam script into the current form through the intermixing and modification of the erstwhile scripts of ''[[Vatteluttu]]'', ''[[Kolezhuthu]]'', and [[Grantha script]], which were used to write the inscriptions and literary works of Old and Middle Malayalam.<ref name="mlm"/> He further eliminated excess and unnecessary letters from the modified script.<ref name="mlm">{{cite book |title=A Short History of Malayalam Literature |author=K. Ayyappa Panicker |url=https://archive.org/details/ASHORTHISTORYOFMALAYALAMLITERATURE |year=2006 |location=Thiruvananthapuram |publisher=Department of Information and Public Relations, Kerala}}</ref> Hence, Ezhuthachan is also known as ''The Father of modern Malayalam''.<ref name="mlm"/> The development of modern Malayalam script was also heavily influenced by the [[Tigalari script]], which was used to write the [[Tulu language]], due to the influence of [[Tuluva Brahmin]]s in Kerala.<ref name="mlm"/>

Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan, a poet from around the 16th century,<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|title=The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism|publisher=Blackwell Publishing, Wiley India|year=2003|isbn=9780470998694|editor-last=Flood|editor-first=Gavin|location=New Delhi|pages=173–74|chapter=The Literature of Hinduism in Malayalam|doi=10.1002/9780470998694}}</ref> used Arya-eluttu to write his Malayalam poems based on Classical Sanskrit literature.<ref name="b35"/> For a few letters missing in Arya-eluttu (''ḷa'', ''ḻa'', ''ṟa''), he used Vatteluttu. His works became unprecedentedly popular to the point that the Malayali people eventually started to call him the father of the Malayalam language, which also popularised Arya-eluttu as a script to write Malayalam. However, Grantha did not have distinctions between ''e'' and ''ē'', and between ''o'' and ''ō'', as it was as an alphabet to write a Sanskrit language. The Malayalam script as it is today was modified in the middle of the 19th century when [[Hermann Gundert]] invented the new vowel signs to distinguish them.<ref name="b35"/>

By the 19th century, old scripts like Kolezhuthu had been supplanted by Arya-eluttu – that is the current Malayalam script. Nowadays, it is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala.<ref name="Ref_f">Andronov, Mikhail Sergeevich. ''A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in Historical Treatment''. Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1996.</ref>