Reg: Language of Naadi and other old scripts

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

The reason for difficulty in reading a palm leaf manuscript is:

 

1. The Tamil script used is of old brahmi script called vatteyuthu or

circular script

 

2. They use a ancient form of shorthand so are like a ECG output and a

pulse output from a oscilloscope.

 

3. They don't mark the dots and special characters associated with Tamil letters

as if used the leaf will tear so it is left out. So you

have to assume them based on your language fluency.

 

4. Some Tamil letters follow similar formations like words of other Indian

languages. For ex: the Tamil word Ka is similar to Hindi or Devanagari Ka also

malayalam ka is similar to Tamil ka in written

form. Also in Telugu and Malayalam De & Da is written similar to Hindi

De & Da

 

5. All words and characters are jointly wrote as it won't be possible

to write in a palm leaf as we write today on paper as the palm leafs

are having horizontal veins and they won't allow vertical inscription

(if you move your hand in a horizontal position on a banana leaf, it

won't tear but if you move your hand vertically, it will tear)same

principle applies for a palm leaf.

 

Dhinakar