Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t4.1

c5.s2.t4.1

The materials for the history of this section of the S. Indian alphabets are also excessively defective. These alphabets were up to quite recent times in very limited use, and except in Malabar, are still applied merely to write Sanskrit. The name ‘Grantha’ by which the E. coast variety has been known for some centuries[^2), indicates that it was merely used for ‘books’ or literary purposes. This being the case, it is hopeless to look for old specimens, as palm leaf MSS. perish rapidly in the Tamiḻ country where they are mostly written on leaves of the ‘Borassus flabelliformis,’ far inferior to the Talipat leaves in beauty and durability. The oldest MS. I have been able to discover is Tanjore 9,594 which must be of about 1600 A. D. Autographs of mediæval authors who must have used this character (*e. g.* Appayya Dīxita in the sixteenth century A. D.) appear to be no longer in existence.