This book is intended to facilitate access to the amazing wealth of documents written in the
five major South Indian scripts. It focusses on the South Indian Sanskrit tradition but also
takes into account the modern alphabets of the respective Dravidian languages. The sometimes
bewildering variety of the five scripts is mapped out in altogether c. 5200 basic characters
ligatures (i.e. vocalizations) conjuncts consonant clusters numerals abbreviations etc.
Special care has been taken to break down the complexity of Grantha Tamil in a system of
graphic classification. The material surveyed comprises Sanskrit manuscripts as well as the
Southern tradition of Sanskrit printing and books in Dravidian languages (including Tranquebar
prints).
