Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t4.8

c5.s2.t4.8

Up to about 1600 A. D. the Tuḷu² and Malayāḷam alphabets (as shown by Sanskrit MSS.) are identical, and hardly differ from the modern Tuḷu hand given in Pl. xiv. MSS. from Malabar proper are generally written in a very irregular sprawling hand³, those from the Tuḷu country are neater. This character was termed in Malabar Ārya-eḻuttu, and was only applied to write Sanskrit works up to the latter part of the seventeenth century when it commenced to supplant the old Vaṭṭeḻuttu hitherto used for writing Malayāḷam. In the Tuḷu country it cannot be said ever to have been used for writing the vernacular language—a Dravidian dialect destitute of a written literature.