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The Grantha script (Tamily ''Kiranta eḻuttu'', Malayalam ''Grantha lipi'') was widely-used between the sixth century and the 20th centuries by Tamil speakers in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, to write Sanskrit and the classical language Manipravalam, and is still in restricted use in traditional Vedic schools (Sanskrit ''veda pāṭhaśālā''). It is a Brahmic script, having evolved from the Brahmi script in Tamil Nadu. The Malayalam script is a direct descendant of Grantha as are the Tigalari and Sinhala alphabets. The rising popularity of Devanagari for Sanskrit and the political pressure created by the Tanittamil Iyakkam〔(The Tamil Purist Movement: A Re-evaluation, by K.Kailasapathy )〕 for its complete replacement by the modern Tamil script led to its gradual disuse and abandonment in Tamil Nadu in the early 20th century, except for specialized Hindu religious literature. Grantha script still lives in Tamilnadu, albeit in reduced state. ==History== In Sanskrit, ''grantha'' is literally 'a knot'.〔MACDONNELL, ARTHUR. A HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 1. LONDON: MOTILAL BANARASIDASS, 1900. 15. Print.〕 It is a word that was used for books, and the script used to write them. This stems from the practice of binding inscribed palm leaves using a length of thread held by knots. Although Sanskrit is now mostly written with Devanagari, Grantha was widely used to write Sanskrit in the Tamil-speaking parts of South Asia until the 19th century. Scholars believe that the Grantha script was used when the Vedas were first put into writing around the 5th century CE. In the early 20th century, it began to be replaced by Devanagari in religious and scholarly texts and the Tamil script (with the use of diacritics) in popular texts. The Grantha script was also historically used for writing Manipravalam, a blend of Tamil and Sanskrit which was used in the exegesis of Manipravalam texts. This evolved into a fairly complex writing system which required that Tamil words be written in the Tamil script 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 script. 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. In modern times, the Grantha script is 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 naming ceremony, and to write the Sanskrit portion of traditional wedding cards 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Grantha alphabet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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