Vatteluttu script

E86783

The Vatteluttu script is an ancient South Indian writing system historically used to write early Dravidian languages, especially Tamil and Malayalam, before being replaced by later regional scripts.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Vatteluttu script canonical 5

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (45)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Brahmic script
abugida
historical script
writing system
alternativeName Vattezhuthu
Vatteḻuttu
linked to: Vattezhuthu
associatedWith Kerala history
Malayalam language
linked to: Malayalam

Tamil Nadu history
Tamil language
linked to: Tamil
characteristic rounded letter shapes
derivedFrom Tamil-Brahmi script
developedIn early centuries CE
etymology name means ‘rounded letters’ in Tamil
hasGlyphStyle curvilinear forms
hasUnicodeStatus not yet encoded as a separate Unicode block (as of mid-2020s)
historicalUsageStatus extinct as a living script
influenced early Malayalam script
regional scripts of Kerala
region Indian subcontinent
linked to: South Asia
replacedBy Grantha script
Malayalam script
Tamil script
scriptCategory South Indian script
scriptCodeISO15924 Vatk
scriptFamily Southern Brahmi
scriptType alphasyllabary
timePeriod circa 4th century CE to 14th century CE
usedBy Chera kingdom
linked to: Chera dynasty

medieval Tamil polities
usedFor copper plate grants
inscriptions
manuscripts
usedIn Kerala region
linked to: Kerala

South India
Sri Lanka
Tamil region
usedUntil late medieval period
writingDirection left-to-right
writingMedium palm-leaf manuscripts
stone inscriptions
writingSystemOf Old Malayalam
linked to: Malayalam

Old Tamil
linked to: Tamil

early Dravidian languages
early Malayalam

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (5)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Dravidian languages writingSystem Vatteluttu script
Malayalam script derivedFrom Vatteluttu script
Pallava script relatedTo Vatteluttu script
Tamil-Brahmi script influenced Vatteluttu script
Tulu script derivedFrom Vatteluttu script