Welcome to this page illustrating the way the Tamil Aksharas are written. When the page loads fully, the Java Applet will stroke the first akshara (by default). The stroking of any akshara may be seen by clicking on the akshara.
 

 
  If you would like to download a copy of this animation sequence and keep it for reference in your own system, please use the link below. The file is a zipped archive. Winzip(MS Windows), unzip (Linux) or Stuffit Expander (MacIntosh) may be used to extract the contents.

  The applet in this page may not show up on a Mac but the downloaded version seems to work. One can never say what differences lie buried inside the Browser when displaying content from a server or display the same file from the local file system!   

  Download the tam_anim.zip file and extract the eight files in the archive into some convenient directory in your system. Use your web browser to open the Tamil.html file to see the animation.

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The applet should run properly on most Browsers. It uses no special features of Java. The applet can also be invoked locally by opening the associated html file. You may want to download the required files. Use the link below the applet.

Please observe that when the applet starts, delays may cause the first few strokes of "ah" to be missed. The applet will draw them at the end giving the impression that a different stroking order is applicable. Therefore the first akshara should be repeated to see the correct sequence of strokes. Also it may be mentioned here that the stroked aksharas may look a bit different from the aksharas seen in fonts. The strokes basically represent the action involved in writing the akshara by hand.

It  turns out that the applet continuously strokes the akshara though it may not be apparent. So, when you scroll or move the window, the akshara may be stroked differently starting from some intermediate point. This is what happens when the page loads first.
 
 

Acharya Logo
  Inscription in Early Brahmi script inside a cave situated in Tamilnadu, South India. The text includes the word "satiaputo" which stands for Emperor Ashoka whose emissaries spread Buddhism in the South and Sri Lanka. The letter "sa" is not seen in Tamil and so the inscription must have ben effected by persons who knew Sanskrit as well as Tamil.

Image graciously offered for reproduction in this page by Sri. Iravatham Mahadevan.