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Grantha alphabet

OriginThe Grantha alphabet is a descendent of the Brahmi alphabet and started to emergeduring the 5th century AD. Most of the alphabets of southern India evolved fromGrantha, and it also influenced the Sinhala and Thai alphabets.

The Grantha alphabet has traditional been used by Tamil speakers to write Sanskrit andis still used in traditional vedic schools (patasalas)

Notable features

Each letters represents a consonant with an inherent vowel (a). Other vowelswere indicated using a diacritics or separate letters.

Letters are grouped according to the way they are pronounced.

Grantha vowels

Grantha vowel diacritics (with ka)

Grantha consonants

Grantha numerals

Sample text

TransliterationSarvē mānavāḥ svatantratāḥ samutpannāḥ vartantē api ca, gauravadr ̥śā adhikāradr ̥śā casamānāḥ ēva vartantē. Ētē sarvē cētanā-tarka-śaktibhyāṁ susampannāḥ santi. Api ca,sarvē´pi bandhutva-bhāvanayā parasparaṁ vyavaharantu.

Grantha alphabet for Sanskrit http://www.omniglot.com/writing/grantha.htm

1 of 2 12/01/2011 10:47 PM

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TranslationAll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed withreason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

LinksInformation about the Grantha Scripthttp://www.ancientscripts.com/grantha.htmlhttp://www.mudgala.com/articles/grantha.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantha_scripthttp://noolaham.net/wiki/index.php/வைலவாச :கிர த

Grantha Script Tutorialshttp://www.ibiblio.org/sadagopan/gsindex.html

Grantha fonts and software for writing Granthahttp://www.uni-hamburg.de/Wiss/FB/10/IndienS/Kniprath/INDOLIPI/Indolipi.htm

Other alphabets used to write SanskritBrāhmi, Devanāgari, Grantha, Kharoṣṭhi, Śāradā, Siddham, Thai, Tibetan

Other syllabic alphabetsAhom, Balinese, Batak, Bengali, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Cham, Dehong Dai/Tai Le,Devanagari, Dhives Akuru, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Gondi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gupta,Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Hanuno'o, Hmong, Javanese, Kannada, Kayah Li, Kharosthi,Khmer, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Malayalam, Manpuri, Modi, Oriya, Pallava,Phags-pa, Ranjana, Redjang, Shan, Sharda, Siddham, Sindhi, Sinhala, SorangSompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tamil,Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tocharian, Varang Kshiti

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Grantha alphabet for Sanskrit http://www.omniglot.com/writing/grantha.htm

2 of 2 12/01/2011 10:47 PM