An Intelligent Bidirectional Transliteration System for Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil using a Rule-Based Unicode Model

An Intelligent Bidirectional Transliteration System for Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil using a Rule-Based Unicode Model | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article An Intelligent Bidirectional Transliteration System for Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil using a Rule-Based Unicode Model VIJAY V, JAYAKUMAR C This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8277800/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Ancient Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions constitute a vital part of South Asia’s epigraphical heritage, yet the script remains largely inaccessible to non-specialists. The primary challenge arises from the lack of effective digital tools for bidirectional transliteration between Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil, which have diverged over centuries of morphological evolution. This study proposes a rule-based computational framework that performs high-precision, bidirectional transliteration between Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil using Unicode character mapping, consonant–vowel composition rules, and virama handling. The system operates directly on Unicode text and supports the full Brahmi block, including Old Tamil extensions, thereby ensuring lossless character-level conversion. Experimental evaluation using a parallel Brahmi–Tamil dataset demonstrates perfect performance, achieving a BLEU score of 1.0000, 100%-character accuracy, and a character error rate (CER) of 0.0 in both transliteration directions. The high precision of the system underscores its immediate applicability to digital archiving, epigraphic research, and broader cultural heritage preservation. Future work will focus on integrating this framework with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies and extending support to additional regional Brahmi variants. Tamil Brahmi Script Unicode Processing Transliteration Character Mapping Cultural Heritage Preservation BLEU Score Evaluation Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8277800","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":557285034,"identity":"80a4efd6-9452-42c7-b2e3-19c69e4ba663","order_by":0,"name":"VIJAY 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Model","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Tamil Brahmi Script, Unicode Processing, Transliteration, Character Mapping, Cultural Heritage Preservation, BLEU Score Evaluation","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8277800/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8277800/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eAncient Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions constitute a vital part of South Asia\u0026rsquo;s epigraphical heritage, yet the script remains largely inaccessible to non-specialists. The primary challenge arises from the lack of effective digital tools for bidirectional transliteration between Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil, which have diverged over centuries of morphological evolution. This study proposes a rule-based computational framework that performs high-precision, bidirectional transliteration between Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil using Unicode character mapping, consonant\u0026ndash;vowel composition rules, and virama handling. The system operates directly on Unicode text and supports the full Brahmi block, including Old Tamil extensions, thereby ensuring lossless character-level conversion. Experimental evaluation using a parallel Brahmi\u0026ndash;Tamil dataset demonstrates perfect performance, achieving a BLEU score of 1.0000, 100%-character accuracy, and a character error rate (CER) of 0.0 in both transliteration directions. The high precision of the system underscores its immediate applicability to digital archiving, epigraphic research, and broader cultural heritage preservation. Future work will focus on integrating this framework with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies and extending support to additional regional Brahmi variants.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"An Intelligent Bidirectional Transliteration System for Ancient Tamil-Brahmi and Modern Tamil using a Rule-Based Unicode Model","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-12-10 03:13:53","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8277800/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":1}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"528079bb-d9ac-462d-83f6-940b7157e90f","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 10th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-14T11:08:58+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-12-10 03:13:53","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8277800","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8277800","identity":"rs-8277800","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}