Documenti di Didattica
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2018-03-27
Anshuman Pandey
pandey@umich.edu
1 Introduction
This is a preliminary proposal to encode ‘Pallava’, an important epigraphical script descended from Brahmi
that was used between the 4th and 9th centuries in South Asia. It was developed during the Pallava dynasty,
which ruled much of south India from 275–897 , for producing inscriptions in Sanskrit and Prakrit. The
script is the ancestor of the modern Grantha script (see comparison in tables 1–5). In India, it influenced
the epigraphical styles associated with the Chalukya, Kadamba, Vengi, and other dynasties. The script was
exported to Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, and other areas. It is the ancestor of ancient scripts
of these regions, such as Pyu and Kawi; therefore, also of scripts such as Javanese, Khmer, Lao, Thai, and
others. The representative glyphs shown here are normalized forms found on stone inscriptions of the 7th
century . A formal proposal with additional details and specimens is forthcoming.
2 Tentative repertoire
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Distinctive letters for the long vowel ū and the short vowels e and o do not occur in the available materials.
Similarly, letters for the Sanskrit vocalic sounds r̥, r̥̄, l̥ , l̥ ̄ are not attested. Space has been reserved in the
code chart for these letters. These reservations are useful during preliminary research on the script and will
be adjusted based upon additional information.
The following 9 dependent vowel signs are used in the available materials:
◌
◌
◌
◌
◌
◌
◌
◌
◌
Vowel signs for representing the short vowels e and o, as well as the Sanskrit vocalic sounds r̥, r̥̄, l̥ , l̥ ̄ are
not attested in the materials consulted. Space has been reserved in the code chart for these combining signs.
These reservations are useful during preliminary research on the script and will be adjusted based upon
additional information.
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
◌
◌
2.4 Consonants
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Each consonant letter bears the inherent vowel /a/. This inherent vowel is silenced using ◌ the sign virama.
Consonant clusters are rendered as vertical stacks of letters and are to be represented in encoded text using
a special control character (information forthcoming).
2.5 Virama
The ◌ is used for indicating the absence of the inherent vowel of a consonant letter, and
corresponds to other halanta characters. It is placed above the letter. This sign does is not a control character
for conjuncts. A separate character has been defined for this purpose (see below).
2.6 Subjoiner
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
◌
◌
2.8 Punctuation
2.10 Digits
Digits are attested in copper plate grants (see fig. 6). It is likely that a full set of digits exists. Additional
research is required to identify the repertoire.
3 Character Data
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
4 References
Bühler, Georg. 1892. “A Prākrit grant of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman”. Epigraphia Indica, new
series, vol. 1, pp. 2–10.
Burnell, Arthur C. 1874. Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the fourth to the seventeenth century
. . being an introduction to the study of South-Indian inscripts and mss. Mangalore: Printed by Stolz
& Hirner, Basel Mission Press.
Hultzsch, Eugen. 1892. “A plate of a Pallava copper-plate grant”. Epigraphia Indica, new series, vol. 1,
pp. 398–399.
Sharma, Shriramana. 2009. “Proposal to encode the Grantha script in Unicode”. L2/09-372.
http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09372-grantha.pdf
5 Acknowledgments
This preliminary proposal would not be possible without the generosity of Aditya Bayu, who granted per-
mission to use his ‘Mulawarman’ font for Pallava.
This project was made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities,
which funded the Universal Scripts Project (part of the Script Encoding Initiative at UC Berkeley). Any
views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect
those of the National Endowment of the Humanities.
7
1E300 Pallava 1E35F
0
$
1E300 1E310 1E320 1E330 1E340
1
1E301 1E311 1E321 1E331
2 $
1E302 1E312 1E322 1E332 1E342
3 $
1E303 1E313 1E323 1E343
4 $
1E304 1E314 1E324 1E344
5 $ $
1E315 1E325 1E335 1E345
6 $ $
1E316 1E326 1E336 1E346
7 $ $
1E317 1E327 1E337 1E347
8
$ $
1E318 1E328 1E338 1E348
9
$
1E319 1E329 1E339 1E349
A
1E31A 1E32A 1E34A
B
1E30B 1E31B 1E32B 1E34B
C
1E30C 1E31C 1E32C 1E34C
D
1E31D 1E32D
E
1E30E 1E31E 1E32E
F $
1E30F 1E31F 1E32F 1E33F
𑀓 𑌕
𑀔 𑌖
𑀕 𑌗
𑀖 𑌘
𑀗 𑌙
𑀘 𑌚
𑀙 𑌛
𑀚 𑌜
𑀛 𑌝
𑀜 𑌞
𑀝 𑌟
𑀞 𑌠
𑀟 𑌡
𑀠 𑌢
𑀡 𑌣
𑀢 𑌤
𑀣 𑌥
𑀤 𑌦
𑀥 𑌧
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
𑀦 𑌨
𑀧 𑌪
𑀨 𑌫
𑀩 𑌬
𑀪 𑌭
𑀫 𑌮
𑀬 𑌯
𑀭 𑌰
𑀮 𑌲
𑀯 𑌵
𑀰 𑌶
𑀱 𑌷
𑀲 𑌸
𑀳 𑌹
𑀴 𑌳
𑀵 —
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
𑀅 𑌅
𑀆 𑌆
𑀇 𑌇
𑀈 𑌈
𑀉 𑌉
𑀊 — 𑌊
𑀋 — 𑌋
𑀌 — 𑍠
𑀍 — 𑌋
𑀎 — 𑍠
𑀏 — —
— 𑌏
𑀐 𑌐
𑀑 — —
— 𑌓
𑀒 𑌔
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
◌𑀸 ◌ ◌𑌾
◌𑀺 ◌ ◌𑌿
◌𑀻 ◌ ◌𑍀
◌𑀼 ◌ ◌𑍁
◌𑀽 ◌ ◌𑍂
◌𑀾 — ◌𑍃
◌𑀿 — ◌𑍄
◌𑁀 — —
◌𑁁 — —
◌𑁂 — —
— ◌ 𑍇◌
◌𑁃 ◌ 𑍈◌
◌𑁄 — —
— ◌ 𑍇 ◌𑌾
◌𑁅 ◌ 𑍇 ◌𑍗
Table 4: Comparison of the dependent vowel signs of Brahmi, Pallava, and Grantha.
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
◌𑀀 — ◌𑌁
◌𑀁 ◌ ◌𑌂
◌𑀂 ◌ ◌𑌃
◌𑁆 ◌ ◌𑍍
— — 𑌽
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 1: Pallava inscriptions on copper plate grants of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman (from
Bühler 1892: plate 1).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 2: Pallava inscriptions on copper plate grants of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman (from
Bühler 1892: plate 2).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 3: Pallava inscriptions on copper plate grants of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman (from
Bühler 1892: plate 3).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 4: Pallava inscriptions on copper plate grants of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman (from
Bühler 1892: plate 4).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 5: Pallava inscriptions on copper plate grants of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman (from
Bühler 1892: plate 5).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 6: Inventory of letterforms used in the Pallava copper plates grants of Śivaskandavarman
(from Bühler 1892: plate 6).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 7: A plate from a copper plate grant (from Hultzsch 1892: plate before p. 338).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 8: Copper plate grant with Pallava inscription (from Burnell 1874: plate after p. 146).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
Figure 9: Copper plate grant with Pallava inscription (from Burnell 1874: plate after p. 148).
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Preliminary proposal to encode Pallava in Unicode Anshuman Pandey
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