Grantha (Punjabi ਗ੍ਰੰਥ, Tamil கிரந்த, from Sanskrit ग्रन्थ grantha meaning "book" or "manuscript") is an ancient script that was prevalent in South India. It is generally supposed to have evolved from Brahmi, another ancient Indic script. It has influenced the Malayalam and Sinhala scripts. Punjabi (also Panjabi; in GurmukhÄ«, in ShāhmukhÄ«, in transliteration) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Punjabi people in India, Pakistan and other parts of the world. ... Tamil ( ; IPA ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. ... Sanskrit ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... South India is a linguistic-cultural region of India that comprises the four Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Pondicherry, whose inhabitants are collectively referred to as South Indians. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... Malayalam (മലയാളം ) is the language spoken predominantly in the state of Kerala, in southern India. ... The Sinhala script is used to write the Sinhala language. ...

The same term also refers to the sacred texts of Sikhism in particular, see Guru Granth Sahib, Adi Granth, Dasam Granth. Sikhism (IPA: or ; Punjabi: , , IPA: ) is a religion that began in sixteenth century Northern India with the teachings of Nanak and nine successive human gurus. ... The Guru Granth Sahib (Punjabi: , ) Guru is made up of two words: GU meaning DARK and RU meaning LIGHT. The word Guru means from darkness to light or from ignorance to enlightenment. ... Guru Granth Sahib (Granth is Punjabi for book, Sahib is Hindi meaning master, from Arabic, meaning companion, friend, owner, or master) or Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji or SGGS for short, is more than a holy book of the Sikhs. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Sanskrit and Grantha

John 3:16 - written in the Grantha script (Tamil Based Sanskrit)

Although Sanskrit is now almost exclusively written in the Devanagari script, there were letters in Sanskrit which were lacking in the Dravidian languages. Thus the Grantha script was used to write Sanskrit in the Tamil-speaking parts of South Asia until the 19th century. In the early 20th century, it began being replaced by the Devanagari script in religious and scholarly texts, and the normal Tamil script (with the use of diacritics) in popular texts. Image File history File links John_3_16_Sanskrit_translation_grantham_script. ... Image File history File links John_3_16_Sanskrit_translation_grantham_script. ... Sanskrit ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century) Devanāgarī (देवनागरी — in English pronounced ) (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1] is an abugida alphabet used to write several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri and Nepali from Nepal. ... Tamil ( ; IPA ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. ... This article is about the geopolitical region in Asia. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... A diacritic mark or accent mark is an additional mark added to a basic letter. ...

The Grantha script was also historically used for writing Tamil-Sanskrit Manipravalam, a blend of Tamil and Sanskrit which was used in the exegesis of Sanskrit texts. This evolved into a fairly complex writing system which required that Tamil words be written in the Tamil vatteluthu and Sanskrit words be written in the Grantha script. By the 15th century, this had evolved to the point that both scripts would be used within the same word - if the root was derived from Sanskrit it would be written in the Grantha script, but any Tamil suffixes which were added to it would be written using the Tamil vatteluthu. This system of writing went out of use when Manipravalam declined in popularity, but it was customary to use the same convention in printed editions of texts originally written in Manipravalam until the middle of the 20th century. While the Pattu school flourished among certain sections of the society, the literature of the elite was composed in the curious mixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam which is referred to as Manipravalam, mani meaning ruby (Malayalam) and pravalam meaning coral (Sanskrit). ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

In modern times, the Grantha script is mainly used in certain religious contexts by orthodox Tamil-speaking Hindus. Most notably, they use the script to write a child's name for the first time during the nāmakarṇa naming ceremony, and to write the Sanskrit portion of wedding invitations and announcements of a person's last rites. It is also used in many religious almanacs to print traditional formulaic summaries of the coming year. Hinduism (known as in some modern Indian languages[1]) is a religion that originated on the Indian subcontinent. ... Nuptial is the adjective of wedding. It is used for example in zoology to denote plumage, coloration, behavior, etc related to or occurring in the mating season. ...

Erstwhile Tulu script, was called Grantha Lipi. [Citation needed]

Dhives and Grantha

Eveila Akuru which was used to write the Divehi language from 12th to 17thAD has strong connections with the Grantha script. Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language and the official language of the Republic of the Maldives. ...

Malayalam and Grantha

The origin of Malayalam script can be traced back to Grantha script. Malayalam scripts possess much resemblance with Grantha scripts. The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. ... The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. ...

Tamil and Grantha

It is suggested that Tamil was also written using the Grantha script at some point in time, but currently Tamil has its own script system. Tamil ( ; IPA ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. ...

There have been attempts to mix Sanskrit words into Tamil in the past. Even though there are well-defined rules for writing foreign loan words in Tamil. These letters help to compensate for sounds that are nonexistent in original Tamil. These grantha characters are becoming more widely used, although many scholars are unwilling to adopt the Sanskrit sounds for historical and cultural reasons.

The current Tamil script is a direct descendant of the Grantha script, with the signs for voiceless aspirated (such as /kh/), voiced (/g/), and voiced aspirated stops (/gh/) left out.

See also: Tamil alphabet Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

External links

• Quick facts about Grantha at AncientScripts.com
• Article at Omniglot
• more about Grantha Script
• Software package with Grantha OpenType font