A variant form of this script, Kolezhuthu, was used until about the 19th century mainly in the Malabar- Cochin area.

In the Tamil country, the modern Tamil script had supplanted Vattezhuthu by the 15th century, but in the Malabar region, Vattezhuthu remained in general use up to the 17th century, or the 18th century. During the medieval period, the Tigalari script that was used for writing Tulu in South Canara, and Sanskrit in the adjacent Malabar region, was very similar to the modern Malayalam script. The Vazhappally inscription issued by Rajashekhara Varman is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE. Malayalam was first written in Vattezhuthu. Vattezhuthu ( Malayalam: വട്ടെഴുത്ത്, 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. The Malayalam language itself was historically written in several different scripts.Ī medieval Tigalari manuscript (Bears high similarity with modern Malayalam script) The script is also used to write several minority languages such as Paniya, Betta Kurumba, and Ravula. The Malayalam script is a Vatteluttu alphabet extended with symbols from the Grantha alphabet to represent Indo-Aryan loanwords. The modern Malayalam alphabet has 15 vowel letters, 42 consonant letters, and a few other symbols. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an alphasyllabary ( abugida), a writing system that is partially “alphabetic” and partially syllable-based. Malayalam script bears high similarity with Tigalari script, which was used for writing the Tulu language, spoken in coastal Karnataka ( Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts) and the northernmost Kasargod district of Kerala. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India Malayalam script is also widely used for writing Sanskrit texts in Kerala. It is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people.

Malayalam script ( Malayāḷalipi IPA: / Malayalam: മലയാളലിപി) is a Brahmic script used commonly to write Malayalam, which is the principal language of Kerala, India, spoken by 45 million people in the world. A bilingual sign in Malayalam and Latin script ( English) at Changaramkulam, Malappuram, Kerala

Malayalam Drama Script Pdf