Old Malayalam
Old Malayalam is the period of the Malayalam language spanning the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD. Malayalam seems to have been influenced by Sanskrit as there are numerous Sanskrit words in the language. There are personal terminations for verbs that were conjugated according to gender and number.
From the copper-plate deeds of this period and from the records of daily events that used to be kept in certain ruling families of this at this period, the progress of the language that had been made can be concluded. It is only from this time onward compositions in prose had been found.