Grantham Inscriptions

Grantham Inscriptions

News: Recently, a team of archaeologists recently discovered two stone inscriptions of ‘Grantham’ and Tamil dating 11th and 16th centuries respectively at Pazhnchervazhi village near Kangayam.

What are Grantham Inscriptions?
• Grantha is an important historical script that was once used to write Sanskrit throughout South East Asia and greater Tamil Nadu. The word Grantha denotes in Sanskrit ‘a literary work’. Evidently, the script used for writing the Sanskrit works obtained the same name.
• When the Malayalam language began to freely borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit, this script was adopted for writing that language and was known as Arya Ezhuthu.
• Both Grantha and Tamil scripts appear alike in modern forms. The evolution of both scripts from Brahmi was also more or less similar.
• The development of the Grantha script in Tamil Nadu may be divided into four periods. The archaic and ornamental, the transitional, the mediaeval, and the modern.
• It was popular in Tamil Nadu until the early 20th century.
• After the introduction of printing machines, many Sanskrit books transcribed from palm leaves were printed in Grantha script.
• After Independence, the popularity of Hindi in Deva Nagari script influenced all printing works, and Grantha script went out of vogue.