The Spread And Evolution Of Indian Pallava Script In Thailand

Pallava Script was introduced to Southeast Asian islands and peninsulas from the 5^th to 7^thh century,which thereafter evolved into the written script of“Theravada Buddhism”and imposed great influence on the development of related countries and ethnicities.Being a vivid example of the exchanges between Indian culture and Thai culture and of academic value and practical significance,the spread and evolvement of Pallava Script is undoubtedly worth attention.Pallava Script is a southern variant of the Indian Brahmi Script,a product of vowelization of abjad surfacing in around the 7th century BC.On the basis of abjad,the Indians redesigned Brahmi Script with reference to the"Mandala"structure,making the consonants and vowels a fixed graphic syllable,which forming the Diacritic Syllabary.In the 3-4th century AD,due to the increasing north-south differentiation,the Brahmi script eventually formed two different kinds of characters:the"Northern Department"and the"Southern Department".As one of the descendants of the"Southern Department"of Brahmi Script,the Pallava script appeared in the 5th century AD,introducing the concept of consonant diacritics based on diacritic syllable structure of Brahmi script.Consonant diacritics enable Pallava Script to express complex compound consonants without a large number of compound symbols.Moreover,consonant diacritics are more flexible in expressing final consonant,streamlining the symbols in Pallava Script again.With the deepening communication between south India and Southeast Asia,the Pallava Script was gradually introduced to Southeast Asia from the 5th to 7th century,and produced the“Post-Palawa Script”between the 8th and 9th centuries.Post-Pallava Script retains the diacritic syllable structure,which slightly differed from the Pallava Script.During this period,the Mon and Khmer people mastered the Pallava and Post-Pallava writing system,as well as a small amount of Khmer and Mon,for writing Sanskrit and Pali.In the 10th-13th centuries,the Mon and Khmer people created Old Mon Script and Old Khmer Script after inheriting the diacritic syllable structure of the Pallava Script,using them as their own national language on a large scale.After coming to the Indo-China peninsula,the Thai people took Old Khmer Script as the prototype and created Thai Script by referring to some features of the ancient script.Different from Khmer and Mon Script,Thai Script is no longer Diacritic Syllabary,only keeping the appearance of Diacritic Syllabary while inclining to Alphabet.After the 13th century,Thai Script,Old Mon Script and Old Khmer Script evolved into the three main branches of the Pallava Script in Thailand.The spread of Thai Script to the north and northeast regions produced Fakkham Script,Nithet Script and Thai Noi Script.Old Khmer Script evolved into Thai Khmer Script,becoming scripture script of the central region.Old Mon Script was introduced to the north and northeast regions and gave birth to Lanna Script and Duatham Script,which became the scripture script in the north and northeast regions respectively.After the 19th century,with the prosperity of the Bangkok dynasty in the central region,the Thai Script thrived rapidly.On the one hand,Thai Script standardized the writing system.On the other hand,thanks to the support of the central government,Thai Script was forcibly introduced to the areas of other writing system,becoming absolutely dominant in Thai society as a national writing system.As a variant of the Pallava script,Thai Script achieved the“reunification”of the Pallava Script in Thailand in the modern society.The formation of Thai Script is achieved by blending Pallava Script with local culture and“recreating”in multiple ways,which is stemming from Indian script imprinted with Thai characteristics.