How a 16th-century poet and 1970s government reforms shaped the modern Malayalam script

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The Malayalam script is a complex Brahmic abugida that evolved from ancient roots into a modern writing system. Through centuries of linguistic adaptation, it transitioned from medieval Vatteluttu to the current Arya-eluttu, eventually undergoing radical 20th-century reforms to simplify printing and typewriting for millions of speakers in Kerala.

The Malayalam script belongs to the Brahmic family of writing systems, sharing a common lineage with the Tigalari script used for Tulu. Its history is marked by a transition from Vatteluttu—an ancient script derived from Tamil-Brahmi—to the modern Arya-eluttu. While Vatteluttu served as the primary script for centuries, it lacked the necessary characters to represent the voiced and aspirated consonants required for Sanskrit loanwords. This limitation led to the development of Manipravalam, a literary style that mixed Vatteluttu with the Grantha alphabet.

The 16th-century poet Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan is credited with synthesizing these influences into the foundation of the modern script. By blending Vatteluttu, Kolezhuthu, and Grantha, he created a system capable of expressing both Dravidian and Indo-Aryan sounds. This evolution continued into the 19th century, when Hermann Gundert introduced new vowel signs to distinguish between short and long vowels, further refining the orthography for contemporary use.

By the mid-20th century, the script faced the practical challenges of the printing press. In 1961, the Government of Kerala initiated reforms to reduce the complexity of the writing system. A committee led by Sooranad Kunjan Pillai recommended reducing the number of glyphs from approximately 1,000 to 250. These changes, which included using non-ligating vowel signs and splitting uncommon conjuncts, were officially implemented on April 15, 1971. Today, this reformed orthography, known as putiya lipi, is standard in primary education and the press, though the traditional pazhaya lipi remains accessible in digital media.

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