Scripts KannaDa/Telegu/SinhAla

[Balaji Hebbar]

A  few  days  ago,  when  my  friend  the  Ven. Uparatana  Thera  of
the  Sri  Lankan  Buddhist  VihAra  in  Washington  DC  area  and
myself  conversed  found  remarkable  similarity  between  the  SinhAla
and  KannaDa  scripts.  We  both  wrote  down  the  word  "ShrI  lankA"
in  SinhAla  and  KannaDa  and  both  of  us  could  practically  "read"
what  the  other  had  written  down.  I  had  heard  somewhere  that
the  KannaDa  and  Telegu  scripts  were  PAli  based.  Can  some
knowledgeable  Indological  linguist  educate  and  enlighten  me
further  on  the  Script  affiliation  of  these  languages?  I  am
fully  aware  that  SinhAla  is  an  "Aryan"  language  and  that
KannaDa  and  Telegu  belong  to  the  Dravidian  group.  I  am  curious
about  the  script  histories  though.  Thanks  in  advance.

Regards,
B.N.Hebbar