Context: An ancient Dravidian script "Vatteluttu, or Vattezhuth", is being slowly salvaged from the annals of history through a concerted effort by researchers, linguists and tech experts in Kerala.
Its Origin

• The earliest forms of Vatteluttu have been traced to memorial stone inscriptions from the 4th century AD.
• It probably developed from Tamil Brahmi around 4th-5th century AD.
• Vatteluttu is distinctly attested in a number of inscriptions in Tamil Nadu from the 6th century AD.

About Vattezhuth

• It is an ancient Dravidian script, also known as Vatteluttu, that’s believed to have flourished for over ten centuries.
• The script is written left to right, as is typical for Indian scripts.
• It is widely accepted as having given birth to the modern Tamil and Malayalam scripts.
• “For example, language experts have claimed that the word ‘keralam’ originated from the word ‘cheralam’ meaning land ruled by the Cheras. But when we studied Vattezhuth, we realised that the letters ‘ka’ and ‘cha’ look similar. 
• So the word ‘keralam’ could have been misunderstood as ‘cheralam’. It’s a huge thought. Also, the word ‘keralam’ has found mention in one of King Ashoka’s BC-era edicts. So it could have been some kind of royal name,”
• In Kerala, there are innumerable records of the Vattezhuth, or round writing, script in the form of stone inscriptions, edicts and palm-leaf manuscripts.
• It is a script that was native to the ‘thamizhakam’ region for centuries and used extensively by rulers of Chola, Pandya and Chera kingdoms.
• The Vattezhuth script system was also known as ‘Naanam Monam’ and its name came from the eight syllable manthra ‘Om Namo Narayana’ which was used to start the royal charters.
• The inability of Vattezhuth to write Sanskrit has paved the way for the introduction of a new script for the language, Grandha Script.

Additional Fact