The Contribution of Malayalam to the cultural Heritage of India

Origin of Malayalam

Malayalam was the last of the four Dravidian Languages to take distinct shape, the other three are Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Earlier Malayalam used the old vattezhuthu script and evolved a new script based on grantha used in South India for writing Sanskrit. In the course of the 9th and to the 12th centuries a new literary language know as Manipravalam came into practice. A mixture of Tamil and Sanskrit was it. From 11th century we can find evidences for this. Attaprakaram and Kramadeepika was composed with Manipravalam style. The first full-fledged manipravalam style work is Vaisikathantram. The Bhashakautaliya, a Malayalam commentary on Arthasasthra of chanakyan is regarded as a work of the 12th century. Ramacharitham, the first Malayalam written poem was also in the same period. Then, Thirunizhalmala gave richness to the language and literature.