Tulu Inscriptions

Tulunad and Tulu language are much older that many scholars believe Tulu is the oldest language in Dravidian family, next to Tamizh However, is clear that Tulu is older than Malayalam. Many Inscriptions and manucripts found in Tulund support this fact.

Stone inscriptions were found in Palethooru, Anantapura, Eeshwaramangala, Vittla, Dharmasthala, Bajakoodlu, Kidooru, Maameshara, Gosada, kelakuli, Kulashekhara, Parakkila, Kumata and many places stand as evidences for reach of Tulu script.
The Palethooru inscription is one of the oldest available inscription in Tulu language and Tulu script. A copper inscription in Tulu was also foud in Ubrangala. Tulu had literature works back in 10-11th century. Tulu script was also in wide use in Tulunad. A claim of Dr. Puninchitttaya stating Tuluvas gave script to Malayalam seems to be rightful looking at all these facts.

We have uploaded detailed article on each stone inscription in our page the summary and IAST transliteration of the text found in the inscription. You can access these articles in Inscriptions and Manuscript page.

Reference: “Tulu Lipi Parichaya” book written by Dr. Radhakrishna Belluru.