Old Kawi script

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Brahmic script and its descendants
Brāhmī Northern Brahmic Kusan Gupta Śāradā Landa Old Kashmiri Gurmukhī Takri Dogri Chameali Siddhaṃ Nāgarī Devanāgarī Nandināgarī Gujarati Proto-Bengali Eastern Nagari Bengali Assamese Mithilakshar Oriya Nepal Bhujimol Ranjana Tibetan ’Phagspa Southern Brahmic Tamil Brahmi Vatteluttu Tamil Pallava Grantha Malayalam Tulu Khmer Thai Lao Old Kawi Balinese Javanese Mon Burmese Kalinga Kadamba Old Kannada Kannada Telugu Sinhala

The Brahmic script and its descendants

Northern Brahmic
- Kusan
- Gupta
  - Śāradā
    - Landa
      - Old Kashmiri
      - Gurmukhī
    - Takri
      - Dogri
      - Chameali
  - Siddhaṃ
    - Nāgarī
      - Devanāgarī
      - Nandināgarī
      - Gujarati
    - Proto-Bengali
  - Nepal
    - Bhujimol
    - Ranjana
  - Tibetan
    - ’Phagspa
Southern Brahmic
- Tamil Brahmi
  - Vatteluttu
    - Tamil
- Pallava Grantha
  - Malayalam
  - Tulu
  - Khmer
    - Thai
      - Lao
  - Old Kawi
    - Balinese
    - Javanese
  - Mon
    - Burmese
- Kalinga
- Kadamba
  - Old Kannada
    - Kannada
    - Telugu
- Sinhala

Old Kawi is the oldest Kawi script used on Bali in 775 AD. It is written on palm leaves. The language is derived from the Vatteluttu, or rounded writing, of South India. Vatteluttu was also commonly known as the Pallava script by scholars of Southeast Asian studies such as George Coedes and D.G.E. Hall. These scripts were used in the Singhasari kingdom of Java. The more recent scripts were extant in the Majapahit Empire of Java, Bali, Borneo and Sumatra.

The scripts are abugida which represent a syllable ending in a vowel, just as in the Sanskrit of Vedic times and the Theravada Buddhist language Pali, thus annotation (virama) is needed to represent a pure consonant.