Aspects of Manuscript

Culture in South India

Edited by

Saraju Rath

BRILL

LEIDEN BOSTON
2012

CHAPTER TEN

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT: THE DATE AND

PLACE OF ORIGIN OF MANUSCRIPTS
Saraju Rath
1.

INTRODUCTION
1

1.1 The development and, eventually, wide-spread use of grantha

script in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent form a constitutive part of the extensive manuscript culture in the Indian world and
in Asia, especially South and South-East Asia. The beginnings of
grantha script around one and a half millennium ago are no more
directly accessible but impressive fragments of its material basis and
traces of its vibrant life history are still visible. Although the available
material, in the form of inscriptions and even more in the form of
manuscripts, is abundant, its detailed examination has hardly begun.
Early works on Indian scripts such as the one by Burnell (1878) provide the basics only on grantha next to several other scripts of South
2
India. Recent publications specifically devoted to grantha do not
intend to be more than introductions and study aids for beginners. In
this article it is my aim to clarify, in the framework of a synthetic overview, distinctive characteristics of varieties and stages of development
of the grantha script that have so far not been noted or that have
remained vague and ambiguous. For this I will not rely on tables of
hand-drawn characters (as is mostly done in recent publications on
grantha) but on characters that are directly taken from manuscripts
from different periods.
1.2 Texts in the Sanskrit language, transmitted and often also produced in South India, appear in different scripts such as telugu, kannac;l.a, grantha, nandinagari and malayalam. Among these scripts,
' Because I have to refer to a few scripts that have the same names as the language to which they primarily belong, script names in this article will start in small
case and language names in capital : telugu script-Telugu language.
2
Grlinendahl2001, Visalakshy 2003.

188

SARAJU RATH

grantha occupies a major position as this is the only script specially

designed to write Sanskrit (and Vedic) texts, including royal records
and documents in the southern states of the Indian subcontinent.
Here, grantha is the transregional script employed for texts in the
Sanskrit language next to other scripts which are preferably used for
other languages and vernaculars: tamil for Tamil, telugu for Telugu,
etc. Some of these scripts, for instance telugu, are suitable for writing
Sanskrit and have actually been employed for that purpose next to the
writing of the corresponding regional language. Other scripts such as
tamil, are incapable of distinctively representing all sounds ofSanskrie
and are hence in need of grantha for the adequate representation of
these sounds. Just as Sanskrit as language of several sciences, of literature and of brahmanical and buddhist religious texts is normally part
of a bilingual situation-speakers in south India thus typically combine lmowledge of Sanskrit with an intimate familiarity with Tamil,
Telugu, etc.-like that the grantha script in south India is normally
part of a biscriptual situation in which grantha combines with tamil,
telugu scripts etc. 4 It should hence not be a matter of surprise that
grantha shows regional differences parallel with the distinct nature of
the other scripts with which it stands in a biscriptual relation. Moreover, grantha has gone through a number of relatively clearly identifiable stages of development, from the first half of the first millennium
5
CE till early modern times. Among the multifaceted changes in style
and calligraphy of the characters of the different varieties of the script,
which are the ones that may serve to determine the relative date of a
grantha manuscript?
1.3 Since especially South Indian manuscripts normally lack any
precise statement about the date of their production, indications that
can be derived from subsequent changes in the style and calligraphy
of the script-varieties are very much needed for a chronological
determination of available manuscripts. Even in the very limited
number of cases their colophon does contain a date, the system of
dating usually gives the Samvatsara year which follows a 60-year cycle 6
3

For example, tam iJ alphabet ka represents Sanskrit kha, ga and gha .

For the moment we will here not take into account the later use of devanagari
in South India, which wil l make the situation mu lti -scriptual.
5
Its origins are therefore contemporary with those of siddhamatrka and early
nagari in the middle and northern part of the Indian subcontinent (Rath 2006).
6
See for telugu manuscripts, Sarma's article on "From my Grandfather's chest of
palm leaf Books" in tl1e present volume.
4

189

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

of Brhaspati (Jupiter), so that a year given as, for instance, virodhakrt

samvatsara, may correspond to CE 1551 or to 1551 + 60 = 1611, or to
1671, to 1731 etc. or also to 1551-60 = 1491 etc. In recent decades
laboratory techniques have been developed to determine the dates of
an object on the basis of the ratio of a radioactive isotope (C, 4) in the
material texture. In practice this technique leaves a considerable margin
and often remains incapable of adding a significant chronological
indication beyond the rough estimates that can be made on other
grounds.
2.

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

2.1 In his discussion of the South-Indian alphabets and their development, A.C. Burnell (1878: 14) gives a chronological chart of the
southern scripts in order to show the derivation of some of these
scripts (including grantha) from southern brahmi, as well as their link
with other scripts from southern origin. I give here this chronological
chart with minor modifications.
Southern Scripts, 250 B.C. - 1600 A.D.
500BC

BRAHMT

250 BC
1st AD

Gupta (N)

350

650

cave

cera

Ver'lgi

Calukya

Proto - Grantha

Vatteluttu

W. Calukya

/\

E. Calukya

Old Javanese (Kawl)

1000
1300

o! T,,,l_"'
I

1600

Tulu Malayalam Grantha

II
Tamil

Ha!a-Ka nnac;la

I
Kannac;la

Old Telugu

Telugu

Chart 10.1. A Chronological Chart of Southern Scripts.

Modern Javanese

190

SARAJU RATH

A closer study of grantha from early stone-inscriptions, copper-plates

and palm-leaf manuscripts shows that a few clearly distinct varieties
developed in the course of time. Their style shows the reflection and
influence oflocal scripts, as we notice below.

Chart 10.2. Varieties of grantha script found in manuscripts.

Table 10.1. Varieties and chronology ofGrantha script in inscriptions, mss, etc.
Varieties
grantha with
tel. &kan.
--- late grantha with
tel. & kan.

Period
(century CE)
4th-7th

-- -15th+

Dynasty
Ca lukya,
Kadamba &
Pallava
-- --

Areas

---Vijayanagara,
Bijapur, G untur

Main
materials
Inscriptions,
copper-pl.

---mss.

grantha with
vatteluttu

6th+

Pallava, Cera, Madurai dt.

Cola, Pandya S, S-W TNadu,
& S, S-E Kerala

Inscriptions,
copper-pl. &
mss.

grantha with
tamil

7th +

Cola, Pandya, Arcot, Pulicat

PaJlava,

Inscriptions,
copper -pl. &
mss.

grantha with
ma laya lam
(& arya-eluttu)

fromllth , esp. Cola, Cera,

from 14th
Pandya

South Kerala,
Travancore

grantha with
tulu -mal.
(& kol-eluttu)

from lOth, esp.

from 14th

Kasargad dt.
Inscriptions
Malabar,NKeraJa, &mss.
Tulu country

Inscriptions,
copper-pl. &
mss.

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

2.2
i.
n.
iii.
iv.
v.

191

As indicated in Chart 2 and Table 1, the varieties we find are,

grantha with telugu-kannac,i.a
grantha with vatteluttu
grantha with tamil
grantha with malayalam (arya-eluttu)
grantha with tulu-malayalam (kol-eluttu)

i. Stone inscriptions and copper-plates which are found from the

4th-5th century onwards show an archaic form of grantha characters

(representing Sanskrit) that has a close affinity to archaic telugu-kannac,i.a7 characters (representing early Telugu and Kannac,i.a) of the same
period. Especially the grantha characters which, in spite of their monumental context, have a cursive form show this affinity. This suggests
a development of early grantha in connection with early telugukannac,i.a writing and in parallel monumental and cursive styles (the
latter probably on perishable materials now lost). The grantha characters were developed in a full-fledged way to a common variety in
course of time through a number of developmental phases. The particular early specimens of this writing found in inscriptions and plates
belonged to the period of the Pallava, the Chalukya and the Kadamba
rulers, who reigned till the mid 7th century. From then onwards we
see a gradual speciation till the early southern scripts acquire an individual status and an independent identity.
In addition to the early sources available in Indian epigraphy,
inscriptions and plates outside India show the archaic cursive and
monumental styles of early grantha that is close to telugu/kannac,i.a.
K. A. Nilakanta Sastri (1949 [2003]: 79-82) refers to both the monumental and the cursive style of this early grantha in some early inscriptions discovered in Java, e.g. one at Ci-Aruton. Also Diringer refers to

7
Inscription found in Halmidi, dated ca . 450 CE and Badami rock Inscription
(5th-6th AD) which was found in Bijapur, Karnataka. Also see Sivaramamurti 1952,
p. 222.
Also see Epigraphia Indica I, VIII, pp. 159-163, Pikira plates of Pallava king
Simhavarman, dated 5th AD, found in Nelatur, Ongole taluk, Guntur District,
Andhra Pradesh.

192

SARAJU RATH

this inscription. 8 Another relevant specimen is formed by the two thin

gold plates known as Maunggun plates discovered in Burma. 9
In available manuscripts the archaic monumental and archaic cursive styles of grantha have so far not been found. However, we do find
Sanskrit manuscripts of a later period written in a round variety of
grantha where telugu or kanna<;la characters are inserted in between;
for example, the word grhapati where gr appears in telugu [or/and
kanna<;la] and hapati in grantha.
ii. According to Burnell (1878: 49), tamil script is the direct descen dant from vatteluttu. Both are closely similar, except that in vatteluttu
the character slants from down-left to up -right. 10 The observations of
C. Sivaramamurti (1966: 235) are basically in harmony with this:
"Grantha and Vatteluttu were used in the extreme south of the
Peninsula. Vatteluttu is a form of cursory Tamil written in a peculiar
slanting way .. . " He further explains, more interestingly, how these
two scripts nevertheless developed to a large extent independently
and maintained their distinctive features: "as [vatteluttu) had an independent development, the letters differ to a certain extent in their general features with greater resemblance in such letters as a, au, e, ka, pa,
ra, la and va, but [with less resemblance] in letters like ta and rna, and
in some cases [the resemblance is even less) by their peculiarly different shape as for instance in i,
ta, na and ya, though the ultimate
common origin can easily be traced." Vatteluttu is thus to be regarded
as an old and cursive form of southern script which was important
from the 5th century onwards, 11 under Pallava, Cera, Pandya and
Cola rulers. Grantha characters occurring with vatteluttu were mostly
used in inscriptions and later in palm-leaf manuscripts in areas such
as South Malabar, Coimbatore etc .. In his report on the palace records
(grandhavaris) in Malabar and Kerala, Dr. Nampoothiry mentions
8
See 1996, David Diringer, The A lp habet: A key to the History of Mankind,
Fig. 174, p. 383.
9
K. A. Nilakanta Sastri (194-9, reprinted in 2003: 14) writes, "The in scription
comprises quotations from Pali Buddhist scriptures written in a clearly South Indian
alphabet of the fifth or sixth cen tury Ao" Furthermore, he clarifies (on p. 15), "a line
of inscription in Pyi1 and Pali, in a n ea rly Telugu -Canarese script of South India,
very closely allied to that of the Kadambas of Vanavasi and that of the Pallavas of
The character is practical ly the same as the sc ript of the Maunggun
plates .. ..
0
'
It gives me an impress ion of runnin g handwriting.
" Mahadevan 2003: 2 11 -215.

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

193

the existence of palmleaf manuscripts of the 16th century in vatteluttu

and koleluttu script. 12 With regard to epigraphical evidence of the 8th
century, Sivaramamurti (1966: 229) observed the following: "Grantha
letters occurring with vatteluttu or by themselves, in pure Sanskrit
texts ... [represent] a cursory forrn. [of grantha] which in many respects
differs from [tamil scripts] though [it is] based on [those tamil]
scripts." However, Mahadevan (2003: 212) 13 reports that "the Royal
Chancellery of the State of Travancore in South Kerala continued to
use Vatteluttu even in the 19th century .... " While going through
manuscripts in vatteluttu I noted that the archaic variety and the later
development of the combination grantha plus vatteluttu in palrnleaf
manuscripts show very little proximity with tamil characters. An illustration of a palmleaf written in the grantha-vatteluttu variety is given
in Figure 10.1.

Figure 10.1. A palmleaf ms. showing grantha-vat:teluttu variety.

Courtesy:Vaidika Samshodhana Mandai, Pune, India.
Picture by the author. See colour section, Plate XI.

m. The development of characters in grantha-tamil is seen in Pallava,

Cola and Pandya inscriptions. In his book on Indian epigraphy and
South Indian scripts, Sivaramamurti (1966: 222-234) shows in detail
the stages of development through illustrations of the mixed granthatamil variety in inscriptions. In the manuscript tradition, however,
both the scripts got prominence with an independent, individual status. The following points deserve notice:
a. In a manuscript text in Sanskrit, the text is written in grantha
which is sometimes mixed with a few letters (the ones most resembling their tamil counterparts) in tamil style, for example, i, e, o, ra, l
and 1. This happens often if the scribe is from Tamil origin.

12
Dr. N.M. Nampoothiry in his "Report submitted to ICSSR, New Delhi" (1983):
"Palm leaf manuscripts are collected in seventy bundles. The earl iest of them is dated
1538 AD. Most of them are written in old scripts. A few of them are in ko[le] luttu/
vatteluttu".
13
Mahadevan 2003: 212: "Gradually, h owever, the Malayalam script completely
replaced the phonologicaLly deficient and palaeographically degenerate Vat:teluttu by
the end of 18th century AD".

194

SARAJU RATH

b. In this case we also find the Sanskrit text purely in grantha script
but with wrong readings-for instance, patapatma in place of padapadma-which can be explained from the phonetic structure of the
Tamil language and the tamil script. 14
c. In a Sanskrit text with Tamil commentary, the Sanskrit version
is written purely in grantha and the commentary mainly in tamil
script and Tamil language. Literature of the
type shows
this variety.

Figure 10.2. A palmleaf ms. in grantha-tamil script. Johan van Manen collection;
courtesy: Kern Library, Lei den . Picture by the a uthor. See colour section, Plate XII.

iv. Among scripts for Dravidian languages, malayalam script is closest

to grantha as it shows numerous similarities in many individual
characters. This was well noticed already by Burnell, who referred to
malayalam script as a catagory of modern grantha 16 (western grantha);
however, the appropriateness of the name which he used for this, tulumalayalam, can be disputed. 17 The grantha-malayalam 18 mss studied
14
Such reading may confuse non -Tamil Sansluit scholars but may be automatically corrected in reading and understanding by bilingual and biscriptual Tamil
Sansluit scholars.
15
I take the term
"gem and coral" here in its broader sense of a
combination of a regional Dravidian language and Sanskrit, not in the sense of the
schoolmaster approach of the Lilatilakam (on which cf. now Freeman 2003: 446-450)
which tries to narrow down the term to apply only to a highly regulated "union"
(yoga) between
and Sanskrit. The term
has even been
employed with reference to a projected "commingling of Brajbhasa and Khari Boli"
(Trivedi 2003: 1016).
6
'
See Burnell 1878: 41 -43. Burnell catagorises modern Grantha as eastern
Grantha and Tulu-Malayalam as western Grantha.
17
Burnell gives th e name "tra nsitional grantha" to the script I would call tulumalaya lam.
18
Seeing the combined style, I prefer to nam e it as grantha-malayalam and see
no point of naming it as tulu-malayalam. In ea rlier days, kanna<;la script was domi-

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

195

by me make me agree with Mahalingam's view on the influence of the

old vatteluttu style ('round-hand' calligraphy) on malayalam characters
which are otherwise close to (and apparently derived mainly from)
Arya-eluttu. Regarding the place of Arya-eluttu in the evolution of
Vatteluttu, Mahadevan (2003:212) writes,
"Ultimately, however, it became necessary for Malayalam to have a
script of its own, which was formed from the Grantha script. The new
script which came into existence towards the end of the 14th century
AD was called Arya-eluttu to distinguish it from Tekkan Malayalam,
the local name for Vatteluttu in South Kerala and Koleluttu, another
variant of Vatteluttu in North Kerala. Even after the introduction of
Arya-eluttu for Malayalam, Vatteluttu lingered on as it was popular
among the sections of the population whose dialects were not so heavily Sanskritised as that of the Nambudiri Brahmans."

v. The tulu-malayalam script is a variety of grantha dating from the

8th or' 9th century CE. It is the variety which Burnell called transitional
grantha. From about 1300 CE we see the script in the form which it has
basically maintained till modern times. Currently two varieties of
tulu-malayalam are in use: Brahmanic, or square, and Jain, or round.
The development of malayalam script and its varieties (esp. Koleluttu)
deserves further research on the basis of mss in mixed scripts.

Figure 10.3. A palm leaf ms. in grantha-malayaJam.

Courtesy:Vaidika Samshodhana Mandal, Pune, India.
Picture by the author. See colour section, Plate XIII.

3.

GEOGRAPHICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND DEVELOPMENTS

OVER TIME

3.1 The locations of inscriptions and of collections of manuscripts

etc. point to distinct areas where the different varieties of grantha
nantly used in Tulu country; full -fledged malayalam variety came here in use later
011.

196

SARAJU RATH

were popular and dominant. A map which specifies the geographical

areas where the respective varieties developed and flourished in early
centuries is provided below.

4rtlU,o

C,r .. v .

C,.r . Tu/u4\f11htjlfhtrn

Figure 10.4. Map of South India showing the areas of the varieties of grantha.
Map by author. See colour section, Plate XV.

3.2 Apart from geographical differentiation there are developments

over time. We find notable changes in some aspects of grantha script
applying to some or all varieties which can be used in the determination of a date of the manuscript. In addition, each scribe has his own
style but in the present study I abstract from such variations and focus
on features that change over time. These notable changes can be summarized under the following headings:
[ A ] Specific characters (vowels and consonants)
[ B ] Conjunct consonants & placements
[ C ] Punctuation marks
[ D ] Numerals: alphabetic, syllabic, or digital
3.3 With regard to [A], [B] and [C], the comparative chart (table 2)
illustrates some major changes over time. The earliest stage is repre-

197

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

sented by grantha characters not on palmleaf but on copper plates;

they derive from the so-called Leiden Copper-plates which belong to
the period of Rajaraja Cola I. Later stages are represented by characters from palm-leaf manuscripts belonging to different periods (16th19th).
Table 10.2. Cha nges over time in grantha.
Column!

Column2

Column3

Chola cp.

Palmleaf mss
16-l8th AD

Palm leaf mss

19th AD

llth

AD

VOWEL/MATRA

<:{'fJ '

eft! '

Bc1

tQj

U/U

AI

G'\

G"

VISARGA

>sa me continued

0
0

.s

AVAGRAHA
CONSONANTS

KA
RA

dP

Jre

a:r,rtr

fV

<f1>

IT

CONJUNCTS

KSA

f8

VYA

c;.-

SRI
(}j
RNNA/RPPA/
RPA/RJJA

..
'bi)

02-}_,

0-[_)

'

'r!1rr-!--;;tb-?196

198

SARAJU RATH

3.4 In the comparative chart (table 2) only a small number of characters and conjuncts are discussed in order to illustrate changes in style
and calligraphy which have occurred from time to time. Among available sources I give examples from manuscripts of the van Manen collection and from the so-called Leiden copper-plates which belong to
the 11th cent. AD of Chola King Rajaraja Chola I.

Vowel A and A
a. Column 1 (copper-plate) gives an ancient vowel A which is simple,
having a single loop at the left side below, and has few ornamental
features except for the connected vertical line. An early form of ms.
variety in column 2 shows double loops, a feature that is not common
in later periods. The A in a 19th cent. ms. (last column) is simpler in
form .
b. In long A, the ancient version in column one has an extending line at
the right (of the character) which remains proportional when it comes
out from the middle in a curving shape (a bit like roman numeral three)
and encircles it from below till the lower front part of the character
is reached; the ms. style shows considerable freedom regarding the
extending line which sometimes starts from the top, sometimes from
below, and which continues even till the top of the frontside of the
character.

Matra U and 0
c. The miitras u and u after consonant in copper-plate are put in two
vertical lines with the lower ends joined in the case of all characters
such as su orrJ, bu
du
etc. In few cases, earlier mss show a
partly similar style with the matras exclusively put below the characters
in the middle part such as pu "'tr', and in other cases they are put at
the side, for example, su
Mss of the 19th century do not show
uniformity: this matra sometimes starts from the corner below or at the
side, in pu
not from the middle. Even with the same character
in the same ms. of this period the style of this matra can each time
be different (starting from the corner below, at the side or from the
middle); this was not the case in earlier centuries.
Diphthongs
d. The matra ai (similarly au not shown here) in inscriptions and
copper-plates in Chola grantha consists of two spiraling curls one above

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

199

another preceding to the consonant character to which it belongs and

this style is known as PF$thamatra, occasionally also one curl in front of
the other and both preceding to the consonant; in manuscripts (16th18th and 19th cent.) only the latter style is found .

Visarga
e. The style of visarga shows some variation in manuscripts between
the 16th and 18th century, the similarity between the various styles
being that two dots are never placed separately. The second column
shows a running style which differs both from what is found in earlier
and from what is found in later centuries.
Consonants
f. Among consonants I have taken the first one, ka, as test character,
and ra as an additional one. A complete overview of all characters is
to be provided in a forthcoming publication. To be noted is the subtle
distinction between the ka in the early ms. variety and the later one: the
right-hand loop is only curved but not joined.
g. Two long vertical lines joined both on the top and the bottom
represents ra in copper-plate and inscription writing. In later writing
ra is more open and has an addtionalline. In tl1e early mss. the special
features are: (i) the beginning line often joins the second one whereas
the first line remains always separate in 19th century ms. and in some
earlier transitional forms; (ii) the topline is lengthened which is mostly
not the case in 19th cent. ones.
Conjuncts
h. In case of conjuncts, both characters in full form are put either one
above the other or side by side: this is what we find both in inscriptions
and copper-plates and in early mss. However, later mss. show ligatures
in which the first character is abbreviated and the second one full. Even
in later mss. we may also find the old system.
i. Inscriptions and copper-plates are consistent in the use of a brief
conjunct form of ya slanting from left-down to right-up which is added
to consonants; in early mss. a new style comes up which is more vertical
and more rounded; this is the only form normally found in later mss.
Duplication in characters
j. Characters can be doubled in all periods (from early Sanskrit

200

SARAJU RATH

inscriptions till recent manuscripts 19 ), especially in conjuncts with

r and h (Piil).ini's rule 8.4.46 aco rahabhyarh dve) but also in other
environments. 2 For instance, sri is found written as ssri (with sbelow
sr). These doubled consonants, as in rppa, rcca, rjja,
are in the
earlier centuries written one above the other, later on mostly side by
side (with the repha in between).
3.5 With regard to numerals [D], the use of specific symbols and systems of representation in grantha script have not yet been sufficiently
studied and needs a separate treatment. Scholars such as Ojha,
Gokhale, Pandey, Diringer, Dani, Mahalingam, Shivaganesha Murthy
do not discuss the problems of the representation of the numerals and
variations in the system. Buhler's, Ojha's, Griinendahl's, Visalakshy's
works contain useful material but they provide only brief charts which
are quite insufficient for determining the value of the numerals as
found in the manuscripts.
3.6 The following ms. is a good example of the use ofboth alphabetic
numerals (one of the varieties of Ak$arapalli) and digital numerals in
the margin. The manuscript apparently belongs to a transitional
period where both types are used.

Figure 10.5. Alphabetic and digital numerals.

Johan van Manen collection, courtesy: Kern Library, Leiden.
Picture by the author. See colour secion, Plate XIV.

9
'
In Asoka's inscriptions and other Prakrit inscriptions, however, double and
doubled consonants are usually represented by single ones.
20
Practices in inscriptions and manuscripts partly match with the prescriptions
of ancient grammatical authorities who differ with each other in several details:
Wackernagell896: 110-114, Renou 1961:6-8.

'*",.---- - -

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

201

The various types of numerals used in grantha mss. 21 are briefly shown
below in table 3. The period attributed to the syllabic and digital
numerals (columns Grantha [A] and Grantha [B]) is primarily based
on calligraphical and palaeographical characteristics.
Table 10.3
TAMIL

Grantha[A]
SYLLABIC
16-18th CE

Grantha[B]
ALPHABETIC
Biiriikha(ii or
dvadasiik$ari

Eh

[9

A/KA

SL

eJ

A!KA

Q_

&

II KI

g_

lJ-1

I!KI

r;u

'fuJ

U/KU

@j@

9n
6T

'/

U/KD

!lrr

,:!)

B.IKB.

err

't!::::J

B.

..u;..e,

ROMAN

7
8

fh.,

GJ'?-

L/KL

10/0

Ll)

L!KV2

21

Grantha[C]
DIGIT
19th CE

A descriptive study with all southern numeral systems in general and specific
varieties, used in grantha mss., is in preparation (Rath, forthcoming b).
22
In Barakha(ii or dviidasiik$ari style, grantha L I KL is only used to represent 10,
not Zero.

202

4.

SARAJU RATH
INDICES FOR ATTRIBUTING A DATE AND REGION OF ORIGIN
TO A MANUSCRIPT

4.1 Referring to our previous discussion and adding a few points, we

give in this section an overview of peculiarities in calligraphy and style
that can be particularly helpful in dating a manuscript (which I will
discuss here first, in 4.2) and in localising it (4.3) .
4.2 The characteristics found in inscriptions, for instance copperplate inscriptions (from the 11th) and (rare) early manuscripts till the
15th century CE are as follows. 23
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.

absence of
absence of kakapada mark (as insertion marker);
absence of other punctuation marks;
absence of avagraha mark;
absence of halantyam;
conjunct consonants: one below the other, both in full form;
for diphthongs ai and au, two e matras are placed one above the
other
viii. archaic forms of grantha is found;
ix.
only syllabic numerals are used.
The characteristics of manuscripts of the 16th -18th century CE:
i.
single
sometimes we find it very small in size;
ii.
halantyam (consonant without vowel) is shown by placing the
full characters ma, ta, na, ka, ta very small in size at the end;
iii.
conjuncts: one below other for specific characters like ppa, cca,
ccha, lla, tta, jja, tta; also side by side for combinations such as
gga,jja,jjha, lla, tta, tta, both characters appearing in a full form;
iv.
rare use of the avagraha mark: ( ;
v.
kakapada mark is used above a fine, two types: _L V;
vi.
anusvara mark is given on the top, for instance,
Q}-rP- and also at the side of the character f'IN o;
23
These and the following sets of characteristics are mostly overarching ones that
apply to all regional varieties (4.3) to the extent they are attested in a period. We will
consider h ere strictly the chronological indications to be derived from the script
itself, disregarding indi cations that may be derived from explicit statements in the
colophons, the developmental stage of characters of oth er scripts occasionally
inserted, the quality of the pa lm leaf that is used as writing material, etc.

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

203

repha (small vertical stroke representing r in conjuncts) on the

top (for all)
(rka), sometimes the consonants are doubled
side by side, sometimes one above other, for
instance,
viii. accent marks/ 4 for instance, udiitta: f"L
ix.
alphabetic and syllabic numerals are simultaneously found on
the left side margin of mss.

vii.

The characteristics of manuscripts of the 19th century CE:

i.
single
for end of one line of the verse: I and double at the
end of the verse: II;
ii.
halantyam is shown by turning the last part of the characters t,
n, m, k, t up in a slight curved vertical line. For example, t, n/
n;

avagraha mark is rarely used;

kiikapada mark below the line, between characters: 1\, n ;
anusviira mostly placed at the side;
repha, as a vertical stroke similar to a (short) single
is
placed in between the characters (doubled): rma, rca, rja, rpa

iii.
iv.
v.
vi.

lT

1!1 ;...!LJ I

_.!L);

;:? I 1lR; Q_j I d)_J ;

vii. appearance of vedic anuniisika (gum) and candrabindu: ?J \..!);

viii. accent marks 2 5 (for anudiitta and svarita) 0 L._;
ix.
the full
appears as two vertical lines joined with a small
horizontal bar on the top .J ;
x.
numerals are presented mostly in digits, occasionally alphabetic.
4.3 With regard to the determination of the region of origin of a mss.
or its scribe, I can give here a few simple small hints.
a. Sanskrit texts written mainly in grantha characters but mixed
with tamil, malayalam, tulu, telugu and kannada characters wherever
possible (on account of phonetic identity or similarity), especially in
earlier times, show the influence of the scribe's mother script on his
writing.
b. So-called writing mistakes (in the ms where the language is
Sanskrit and script is grantha or other) often betray properties of the
scribe's first language and script: for instance,
forganpatma for padma. Bilingual and biscriptual readers may
24
25

More details in Rath (forthcoming, a).

More detai ls in Rath (forthcoming, a).

204

SARAJU RATH

automatically correct such reading and understand the sentence

appropriately, even without experiencing a mistake in writing. While
working on a manuscript, one therefore needs to have a good knowledge of local languages and scripts and their linguistic representation
in a particular region.
c. The principle of pagination style fluctuates in every region. For
example, the folio -number stands left-side on the front page (recto) of
each leaf in the dravidian regions 2 6 ; in other parts oflndia on the back
side (verso) known as sankapr$tha (in eastern region on the right-side
top, in the north-western region on the left-side middle or top);
d. South Indian scribes often start their manuscript with sri and/or
svasti, where scribes of other parts of India start with om (and just as
siddham/svasti is used in the beginning of inscriptions).

5.

CONCLUSION

In the southern states of premodern South India, grantha was the specialised script for writing Sanskrit (and Vedic) texts, including royal
records and documents. Grantha shows regional differences parallel
with the distinct nature of the other scripts (telugu, etc.) with which it
was standing in a biscriptual relation; moreover, it shows a nwnber of
relatively clearly identifiable stages of development, from the first half
of the first millennium CE till early modern times. In the preceding
paragraphs we have focused on those among the multifaceted changes
in style and calligraphy of the characters of the different varieties of
the script, which may serve to determine the relative date of a grantha
manuscript, and which have mostly not been analyzed in available
studies and handbooks. A few major parameters have been reviewed
in this paper which together can help to narrow down the age of a
manuscript within a few centuries. If a Sarhvatsara date is given, the
determination can become more precise and point to a specific year
(within a 60-year cycle).

26

See, for instance, Rath 2005: 55.

VARIETIES OF GRANTHA SCRIPT

205

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