are begun, which are spelt "nana, mona, ittanna, tuva" (that is, "na, mo and tu"), and the writing system therefore came to be known as the "nana-mona" alphabet.

[10] The earliest forms of the script have been traced to memorial stone and rock inscriptions from this period.

[2] These include, among others, the famous Pulankurichi rock inscriptions, and numerous inscribed hero stones from Chengam Taluk and the nearby Dharmapuri District in northern Tamil Nadu.

[7] Vatteluttu is unambiguously attested in a number of inscriptions in Tamil Nadu from the 6th century AD.

[8][7] Some of the inscriptions associated with Pallava rulers from Simhavarman III to Nandivarman (mid-6th to mid-8th century AD) are exclusively in Vatteluttu script.

[7] Its use is also attested in north-eastern Sri Lankan rock inscriptions, such as those found near Trincomalee, dated to between c. the 5th and 8th centuries AD.

[8][2] In what is now Kerala, Vatteluttu continued for a much longer period than in Tamil Nadu by incorporating characters from Pallava-Grantha Script to represent Sanskrit or Indo-Aryan loan words in early Malayalam.