The Grantha Script

     A few days ago, I had been to one of the oldest temples in the world, the Virudhagireeshwarar temple, which sits on the banks of the river Manimuthar in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. The shrine was renovated and the Kumbhabhishekham was done recently. One of the things about the temple, besides that it has survived for over three millennia, are the carvings on its walls and footsteps which are in Grantha script. Inscriptions on old Hindu temples isn't uncommon as such. I've mentioned this specifically because it's the latest that I've visited.

    The Grantha is a south Indian script, a fusion of Tamil and the Pallava script (closely resembles Telugu). Both Tamil and Grantha are related to the Vatteluthu (Vattezuthu), a derivative of the Southern (Tamil) Brahmi script. Modern Malayalam script is a direct descendant of the Grantha script. The modern-day Thai, Javanese and Sinhala scripts are either direct descendants of Grantha or closely related to it. The Grantha was widely used to write Sanskrit texts on copper plates and monument walls. It is also used in the Manipravalam script, a macaronic language of Sanskrit in Tamil. This evolved into a fairly complex system of writing, which required Tamil words/letters to be written in Tamil and the Sanskrit ones in Grantha. That is one of the argued reasons why Tamil and Sanskrit have a lot of words in common.

     The Grantha continued to be in wide use till the 15th century. Although the usage steadily dwindled over the years, the printing of editions of the texts originally in Manipravalam continues to be in customary practice. The pure Tamil movement sought to purge the Grantha script from usage and emphasised using the Tamil script exclusively. The Grantha is still being used by Tamil Hindus in chanting hymns in Vedic schools, in the naming ceremony of newborns, in parts of traditional marriage invitations and while performing the last rites of a person.

    There are different forms of the Grantha script; Pallava Grantha, Modern Grantha to name a few. Further details on them are beyond the scope of this article. It is a matter of fact that the original, raw Tamil script is no more in usage, the Grantha and the Manipravalam are two among the many modifications to the Tamil language and script which has evolved to what we use in modern days.

    From being one of the widely used South Indian scripts to having a small minority of people who could actually read and write this, the Grantha has come a long way in the process of evolution. The photograph that you see in between the texts here was captured by me during my visit. You can find it on the left side wall of the Raja Gopuram at the Virudhagireeshwarar temple. Similar carvings may be found throughout the temple on its walls, steps and gopurams.