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लिपि is the record in writing of the utterances by mouth. There are scientific and non-scientific statements about the origin of लिपि . In the beginning people used figures of objects to express their ideas. They were called pictorial writings and are found even now in caves in Spain and France where the aborigines lived. Gradually the pictures vanished and letters took their place.

पुराणस् give a different version. People of Java believe that the script originated from Java. The voice of Indonesia, a government organ, published once a पुराणिच् story relating to the origin of the script. लिपि came into being in 78 A.D. अजशिख , a saint among the Buddhists, was the originator of the लिपि . He had lwo disciples named Dora and Sempādā. All the three went and stayed in a village in the valley of the mountains of कोन्टङ्ग् . The country of मेन्राङ्ग्कामनाल् was then ruled by a King called Baka. अजशिख heard about this wicked King who had ordered one of his subjects to go to him daily for his food. The people were worried. They tried in secret to find out someone to subdue this tyrant. One day they approached अजशिख and requested him to find out a way to get relief from this cruel King. अजशिख sent them back promising to do something to help them.

अजशिख sat in meditation for some time and then told his disciples thus:-- "I have decided to help the people of मेन्राङ्ग्कामनाल् . दोर also should come with me. सेम्पादा should stay here keeping guard over my sword and clothes. Never give them to anybody but me. You should be prepared to give your life for it."

अजशिख and दोर went to see बक . People discouraged them and advised them not to go to the King. But they did not heed that and straight away went to the presence of बक . बक started to kill them but then अजशिख said, "Oh King, you can eat me tomorrow. In return please give me today land as big as my headwear". बक agreed to that and अजशिख spread his clothes on the ground. As बक looked with wonder that small piece of headwear began to grow big and it grew in size to cover the whole of the country. बक got furious at this and attacked अजशिख . But बक was slain in the duel.

The people burst into joy and made अजशिख their King. अजशिख then sent दोर to his आश्रम to fetch his sword and apparels, little thinking of the instructions he had given to सेम्पादा . दोर went and asked for the sword and apparel. But सेम्पादा did not give and a fight ensued in which both were killed.

Ajaśikha felt very sorry when he heard about the death of his disciples. He cursed himself for giving contradictory orders to his disciples and so wrote four lines, each containing five letters, to keep alive the memory of his dutiful disciples. Those twenty letters are the first ones written not only in Java but the whole world. They were the following:

He no co ro ko--There were two disciples.

Ṭo to so vo lo--They became enemies because they obeyed the orders of their guru.

पो धो जो यो ञ्जो --Both of them were brave men.

मो go bo do ङ्गो --Both of them died.

भारत lipis

Different kinds of lipis were prevalent in ancient भारत . ललितविस्तर mentions about sixtyfour kinds of lipis in भारत during the time of बुद्ध . From inscriptions on stones and other historical records it can be gathered that the basis of all the lipis had been two main lipis named ब्राह्मी and खरोष्ट्री . खरोष्ट्री was used in the northwest of भारत and became extinct by the 4th Century A.D. ब्राह्मी was the lipi universally used in भारत . This lipi had different forms in the north and south. The lipi in use in the south was called द्राविडी .

खरोष्टी lipi was written from right to left and the ब्राह्मी from left to right. Even the ब्राह्मी was written first from right to left and gradually for the convenience of writing it was changed to one from left to right.

Linguists consider ब्राह्मी लिपि as the basc of all the लिपिस् of भारत . It underwent changes in different parts and took different names. The scholars of Europe are of opinion that the ब्राह्मी लिपि was borrowed from foreign traders in B.C. 800. Others say that the ब्राह्मी लिपि was born out of the pictorial लिपि of the Chinese. There are those who say that the ब्राह्मी लिपि originated in Greece and Phoenicia. The great linguist Bulhar says that the ब्राह्मी लिपि came from the Semitic languages. But Lassen and Cunningham refuted it.

There is a bundle of leaves in the hand of the idol of ब्रह्मा in the temple of बादामि . Hindus believe that the ब्राह्मी lipi found in those leaves was written by ब्रह्मा himself. The Aryans forgot that lipi and व्यास found it out. This is a statement by the Arab traveller Albarūni who came to India in the 11th century A.D.

केरल लिपि

The ब्राह्मी lipi came to south India by the 3rd century A.D. Many scholars on languages say that 'Veṭṭeluttu' is a changed form of the ब्राह्मी lipi. The great lipi expert ल्।अ। रवि वर्म says that 'Eluttu' has come from the word 'Elu' or 'Alu' meaning 'to mark by cuts'. The common method of writing in South India was to use a pointed stick, long metal nail or chisel to make marks on leaves, rocks or copper plates. Writing by making marks with the pointed stick (Kol) got the name 'Koleluttu'. वेट्टेलुत्तु , Koleluttu and मलयाऌम were the three lipis in use in केरल . वेट्टेलुत्तु was in vogue in तमिल्नाडु also. But the पल्लवस् who were using प्राकृत language when they conquered the northern तमिल्नद् introduced ग्रन्थाक्षर and ग्रन्थतमिल् there. T.K.Krishna Menon says that ग्रन्थाक्षर was a false creation to write Sanskrit easily. In पाण्ड्यदेश and मलनाडु वेट्टेलुत्तु was in use even then.

The influence of the Pallavas began to wane and the Tamil लिपि slowly rose into prominence. Even then वेट्टेलुत्तु was in vogue in the empire of चेर comprising of मलनाडु, म्य्सोरे . Coimbatore, Salem and तोण्डमण्डलम् . When तमिल्नदु came under the emperor of विजयनगर those kings introduced नागरी लिपि there.

वेट्टेलुत्तु was called नानम् मोनम् also. In the south instead of using 'Hari श्री ' people used to say ' नमोनारायणाय ' and the first syllable 'Na' and the second one 'Mo' were used to name the language ' नानम् मोनम् '.

When the मलयालिस् started liking the मणिप्रवाल they started using ' आर्य एलुत्तु ' a form of ग्रन्थलिपि . This script was known as तुलु-मलयालम् also. This was also born of the ब्राह्मीलिपि . Gradually वेट्टेलुत्तु and कोलेलुत्तु was in use in the north of Kerala among Muslims. The Alphabets now in use by the different languages of south India took shape only about two centuries ago. The lipi of मलयालम् now in use came into shape by the time of एलुत्तश्शन् spreading the belief that it was एलुत्तश्शन् who had made the alphabet. It is wise to believe that the मलयालम् script came into use gradually from आर्य एलुत्तु than to give credit to one individual for its origin.