V. Vedachalam to conduct a workshop on ‘How to read and write Tamil-Brahmi and Vatteluttu scripts’

A centrepiece of The Hindu Lit For Life, to be held on January 17 and 18 in Chennai, will be a workshop on ‘How to read and write Tamil-Brahmi and Vattelluttu scripts’.

Conducted by award-winning and accomplished epigraphist and scholar — V. Vedachalam — the two-day workshop will give participants an overview of the origin and development of scripts in the world and India, with a special focus on Tamil Nadu, and how scripts appeared and developed in Tamilakam. “We will talk about the importance of inscriptions found in Tamil Nadu and how to read them. For only then, we will know about Tamilakam’s history,” said Vedachalam, a retired Senior Epigraphist from Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) and an author of more than 30 books on Jainism in Tamil Nadu, the Yakshi cult, several topics related to the Pandya dynasty, Madurai Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple-complex, Rameswaram temple, Tiruvellarai temple and more. He has also been a part of several excavations by TNSDA.

A Tamil-Brahmi script found at the Kodumanal excavation site in Erode district.
| Photo Credit:
M. Govarthan

In Tamil Nadu, Tamil Brahmi or the Tamili script appeared first and Vattelluttu emerged from it later, he shared. Then the present-day written Tamil came into existence. In Tamil Nadu, both Grantha script and Nagari script were used to write Sanskrit. Vedachalam added: “I will teach the participants how to read the Tamil-Brahmi/Tamili script, which is more than 2,200 years old and also bring estampages of Tamil-Brahmi and Vattelluttu inscriptions for the participants to study. The Sumerian script is dated to circa 3000 BCE. We will discuss all these, including the subject-matter of Tamili inscriptions, where they are found, who engraved them, and so on.”