Editing Malayalam (section)

=== Vattezhuthu alphabet ===
{{further|Vatteluttu}}
[[File:Tigalari-sanskrit-manuscript.jpg|thumbnail|A medieval [[Tigalari script|Tigalari]] manuscript (Bears high similarity with modern Malayalam script)]]
Vatteluttu ({{indic|lang=ml|indic=വട്ടെഴുത്ത്|trans=Vaṭṭezhuthŭ}}, "round writing") is a script that had evolved from [[Tamil-Brahmi]] and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-day [[Tamil Nadu]] and in [[Kerala]].

Malayalam was first written in Vattezhuthu. The [[Vazhappally]] inscription issued by [[Rajashekhara Varman]] is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE.<ref name="ager-1998">{{cite web|title=Malayalam alphabet, pronunciation and language|first=Simon|last=Ager|work=Omniglot|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm|year=1998|access-date=2009-09-08|archive-date=10 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510202326/https://www.omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Vazhapally Temple|url=http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|publisher=Vazhappally Sree Mahadeva Temple|access-date=2009-10-31|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109014543/http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|archive-date=2011-01-09}}</ref> During the medieval period, the [[Tigalari script]] that was used for writing [[Tulu language|Tulu]] in [[South Canara]], and [[Sanskrit]] in the adjacent [[Malabar District|Malabar region]], had a close similarity to the modern Malayalam script.<ref name="vinodh rajan" /> In the Tamil country, the modern [[Tamil script]] had supplanted Vattezhuthu by the 15th century, but in the [[Malabar Coast|Malabar]] region, Vattezhuthu remained in general use up to the 17th century,<ref>Burnell (1874), p. 39.</ref> or the 18th century.<ref name="malayalam resource centre">{{cite web|title=The Script|url=http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/evol_lang.htm#The%20Script|access-date=2009-11-20|publisher=Malayalam Resource Centre|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725044626/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/evol_lang.htm#The%20Script|archive-date=2011-07-25|url-status=dead}}</ref> A variant form of this script, [[Kolezhuthu]], was used until about the 19th century mainly in the [[Malabar District|Malabar]]-[[Kingdom of Cochin|Cochin]] area.<ref name="government of kerala">{{cite web|title=Alphabets|publisher=Government of Kerala|url=http://www.kerala.gov.in/language%20&%20literature/alphabets.htm|access-date=2009-10-29|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091109222758/http://www.kerala.gov.in/language%20%26%20literature/alphabets.htm|archive-date=2009-11-09}}</ref>

Vatteluttu was in general use, but was not suitable for literature where many Sanskrit words were used. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was originally used to write [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and as such, did not have letters for voiced or aspirated consonants used in Sanskrit but not used in Tamil. For this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha alphabet were sometimes mixed, as in the [[Manipravalam]]. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, ''Vaishikatantram'' ({{lang|ml|വൈശികതന്ത്രം}}, ''Vaiśikatantram''), dates back to the 12th century,<ref>Nampoothiri, N. M. (1999), [http://malabarandkeralastudies.net/downloadingfiles/pdffiles/culturaltraditionsinmedeivalkerala.pdf "Cultural Traditions in Medieval Kerala"]{{dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (PDF) in Cherian, P. J., ''Perspectives on Kerala History: The Second Millennium'', Kerala Council for Historical Research, {{ISBN|81-85499-35-7}}, retrieved 2009-11-20.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Development of Literature|url=http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/devliterature.htm|access-date=2009-11-20|publisher=Malayalam Resource Centre|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130704044944/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/devliterature.htm|archive-date=4 July 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> where the earliest form of the Malayalam script was used, which seems to have been systematized to some extent by the first half of the 13th century.<ref name="ager-1998" /><ref name="malayalam resource centre" />

Another variant form, [[Malayanma]], was used in the south of [[Thiruvananthapuram]].<ref name="government of kerala" /> By the 19th century, old scripts like Kolezhuthu had been supplanted by Arya-eluttu – that is the current Malayalam script. Nowadays, it is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala.<ref>Andronov, Mikhail Sergeevich. ''A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in Historical Treatment''. Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1996.</ref>