BharatNotes Grantha
noun (countable)Usage in a UPSC answer
The Grantha script, used by Tamil Brahmin scholars to transcribe Sanskrit Vedic texts and Agamic literature, became the conduit through which the Shaiva Agamas and Vaishnava Pancharatra texts were preserved in South India and transmitted to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
Grantha (noun — script), grantha (noun — text/book/treatise), granthalaya (compound noun — library, from grantha + alaya/abode), granthakara (noun — author), granthavali (noun — collection of texts)
Root
Sanskrit grantha = a text, a book (literally: something tied or knotted together); from granth- (to tie, to compose)
Etymology
From Sanskrit grantha (a composed text, a book, literally 'something knotted together'), from the verbal root granth or grath (to tie, to knit, to compose a text by tying verses together). The use of the same word for both the script and the 'book/text' reflects the close association between this script and Sanskrit literary composition in the south. The script evolved from the southern Brahmi variant of the 5th–6th centuries CE and attained a distinctive form under Pallava and later Chola patronage.
Memory Hook
GRANTHA = GRANT(h)A text: a grantha is literally a text whose verses are KNOTTED together like a bundle. The Grantha script was the knot that tied Sanskrit culture to South India.
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