Devanagari

Devanagari देवनागरी
Devanagari script (vowels top, consonants bottom) in Chandas font.
Type	Abugida
Languages	Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Rajasthani, Chhattisgarhi, Santali, Kashmiri, Konkani, Sindhi, Dogri, Bodo, Newar, Awadhi, Magahi, Haryanvi, Bhili, Mundari, Sanskrit, Pali and many more
Time period	Early signs: 1st century CE,[1] modern form: 10th century CE[2][3]
Parent systems	Brāhmī Gupta Nāgarī Devanagari
Child systems	Gujarati Moḍī
Sister systems	Gurmukhi, Nandinagari
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924	Deva, 315
Unicode alias	Devanagari
Unicode range	U+0900–U+097F Devanagari, U+A8E0–U+A8FF Devanagari Extended, U+1CD0–U+1CFF Vedic Extensions

Devanāgarī
Abugida Brahmic scripts Inherent vowel
Languages Hindi Marathi Nepali Pali Konkani Bodo Maithili Sindhi Sanskrit and more
Transliteration IAST Hunterian NLK ISO 15919 Harvard-Kyoto ITRANS Velthuis SLP1 WX notation (ISCII)
Vowels and syllabic consonants अ a ॲ æ ऄ आ (का) ā इ (कि) i ई (की) ī उ (कु) u ऊ (कू) ū ॶ (कॖ) ॷ (कॗ) ऋ (कृ) r̥ ॠ (कॄ) r̥̄ ऌ (कॢ) l̥ ॡ (कॣ) l̥̄ ए (के) ē ऍ (कॅ) ê ऎ (कॆ) e ऐ (कै) ai (कॕ) (कॎ) ओ (को) ō ऑ (कॉ) ô ऒ (कॊ) o औ (कौ) au ॳ (कऺ) ॴ (कऻ) ॵ (कॏ) (Schwa deletion)
Consonants क k क़ q ख kh ख़ k̲h̲ ग g ग़ ġ ॻ gg घ gh ङ ṅ च c छ ch ज j ज़ z ॼ jj ॹ ž झ jh झ़ zh ञ ñ ट ṭ ठ ṭh ड ḍ ड़ ṛ ॾ ḍḍ ॸ ḍ ढ ḍh ढ़ ṛh ण ṇ त t थ th द d ध dh न n ऩ ṉ प p फ ph फ़ f ब b ॿ bb भ bh म m य y य़ ẏ ॺ र r ऱ ṟ ळ ḷ ऴ ḻ ल l व v श ś ष ṣ स s ह h ॽ (Conjuncts)
Diacritics, punctuation, symbols अं ṁ अः ḥ अँ m̐ अऀ ऽ ’ क़ क् ३ 3 ᳵ ẖ ᳶ ḫ अ॑ ` अ॒ _ अ॓ अ॔ ॐ aum̐ । ॥ ॰ ॱ ₹ INR and more (Devanagari (Unicode block) Devanagari Extended Vedic Extensions)
Numerals ० 0 १ 1 २ 2 ३ 3 ४ 4 ५ 5 ६ 6 ७ 7 ८ 8 ९ 9 Āryabhaṭa Akṣarapallī Bhūtasaṃkhyā Kaṭapayādi

Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic script and its descendants
Northern Brahmic Gupta script Bhaiksuki alphabet Tocharian alphabet Khotanese Śāradā script Laṇḍā scripts Gurmukhī alphabet Khojki Khudabadi script Multani alphabet Mahajani Devāśeṣa Takri alphabet Dogra Siddhaṃ script Tibetan alphabet 'Phags-pa script Pungs-chen Pungs-chung Marchen Marchung Horizontal square script Soyombo alphabet Lepcha alphabet Limbu alphabet Nāgarī script Devanagari Gujarati alphabet Modi alphabet Nandinagari Kaithi Sylheti Nagari Kalinga alphabet Odia alphabet Gaudi Assamese-Bengali Tirhuta Bhujinmol Newar Ranjana alphabet Meithei script
Southern Brahmic Tamil-Brahmi Vatteluttu alphabet Kolezhuthu Tamil script Grantha alphabet Malayalam script Tigalari alphabet Sinhala alphabet Dhives Akuru Thaana Saurashtra alphabet Khmer alphabet Lao alphabet Thai alphabet Cham alphabet Ahom alphabet Kawi script Balinese alphabet Javanese script Baybayin Batak alphabet Buhid alphabet Hanunó'o alphabet Tagbanwa alphabet Sundanese alphabet Lontara alphabet Makasar Rejang alphabet Mon alphabet Burmese alphabet Chakma alphabet Tai Tham alphabet New Tai Lue alphabet Tai Le alphabet Tai Viet alphabet Bhattiprolu alphabet Kadamba alphabet Kannada alphabet Telugu script

Devanagari (/ˌdeɪvəˈnɑːɡəri/ DAY-və-NAH-gə-ree; देवनागरी, IAST: Devanāgarī, a compound of "deva" देव and "nāgarī" नागरी; Hindi pronunciation: [d̪eːʋˈnaːɡri]; ), also called Nagari (Nāgarī, नागरी),^[4] is an abugida (alphasyllabary) alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, has a strong preference for symmetrical rounded shapes within squared outlines, and is recognisable by a horizontal line that runs along the top of full letters.^[5] In a cursory look, the Devanagari script appears different from other Indic scripts such as Bengali-Assamese, Odia, or Gurmukhi, but a closer examination reveals they are very similar except for angles and structural emphasis.^[5]

The Nagari script has roots in the ancient Brāhmī script family.^[6] Some of the earliest epigraphical evidence attesting to the developing Sanskrit Nagari script in ancient India, in a form similar to Devanagari, is from the 1st to 4th century CE inscriptions discovered in Gujarat.^[1] The Nagari script was in regular use by the 7th century CE and it was fully developed by about the end of first millennium.^[4][7] The use of Sanskrit in Nagari script in medieval India is attested by numerous pillar and cave temple inscriptions, including the 11th-century Udayagiri inscriptions in Madhya Pradesh,^[8] and an inscribed brick found in Uttar Pradesh, dated to be from 1217 CE, which is now held at the British Museum.^[9] The script's proto- and related versions have been discovered in ancient relics outside of India, such as in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Indonesia; while in East Asia, Siddha Matrika script considered as the closest precursor to Nagari was in use by Buddhists.^[10][11] Nagari has been the primus inter pares of the Indic scripts.^[10] It has long been used traditionally by religiously educated people in South Asia to record and transmit information, existing throughout the land in parallel with a wide variety of local scripts (such as Modi, Kaithi, and Mahajani) used for administration, commerce, and other daily uses.

The Devanagari script is used for over 120 languages,^[12] making it one of the most used and adopted writing systems in the world.^[13] Among the languages using it – as either their only script or one of their scripts – are Hindi,^[14] Marathi, Nepali, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Rajasthani, Chhattisgarhi, Santali, Kashmiri, Konkani, Sindhi, Dogri, Bodo, Nepalbhasa, Awadhi, Magahi, Haryanvi, Bhili, Mundari, Pali and Sanskrit.^[12] The Devanagari script is closely related to the Nandinagari script commonly found in numerous ancient manuscripts of South India,^[15][16] and it is distantly related to a number of southeast Asian scripts.^[12]

Devanagari script has forty-seven primary characters, of which fourteen are vowels and thirty-three are consonants.^[10] The ancient Nagari script for Sanskrit had two additional consonantal characters.^[10] The script has no distinction similar to the capital and small letters of the Latin alphabet.^[17] Generally the orthography of the script reflects the pronunciation of the language.^[12]

Origins

Devanagari is part of the Brahmic family of scripts of India, Nepal, Tibet, and South-East Asia.^[18] It is a descendant of the Gupta script, along with Siddham and Sharada.^[18] Variants of script called Nāgarī, recognisably close to Devanagari, are first attested from the 1st century CE Rudradaman inscriptions in Sanskrit, while the modern standardised form of Devanagari was in use by about 1000 CE.^[7][19] Medieval inscriptions suggest widespread diffusion of the Nagari-related scripts, with biscripts presenting local script along with the adoption of Nagari scripts. For example, the mid 8th century Pattadakal pillar in Karnataka has text in both Siddha Matrika script, and an early Telugu-Kannada script; while, the Kangra Jvalamukhi inscription in Himachal Pradesh is written in both Sharada and Devanagari scripts.^[20]

The 7th-century Tibetan king Srong-tsan-gambo ordered that all foreign books be transcribed into the Tibetan language. He sent his ambassador Tonmi Sambota to India to acquire alphabet and writing methods; returning with Sanskrit Nagari script from Kashmir corresponding to 24 Tibetan sounds and innovating new symbols for 6 local sounds.^[21] Other closely related scripts such as Siddham Matrka was in use in Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and other parts of East Asia by between 7th- to 10th-century.^[22][23] Sharada remained in parallel use in Kashmir. An early version of Devanagari is visible in the Kutila inscription of Bareilly dated to Vikram Samvat 1049 (i.e. 992 CE), which demonstrates the emergence of the horizontal bar to group letters belonging to a word.^[2] One of the oldest surviving Sanskrit text from early post-Maurya period available consists of 1,413 Nagari pages of a commentary by Patanjali, with a composition date of about 150 BCE, the surviving copy transcribed about 14th century CE.^[24]

Nāgarī is the Sanskrit feminine of Nāgara "relating or belonging to a town or city, urban". It is a phrasing with lipi ("script") as nāgarī lipi "script relating to a city", or "spoken in city".^[25]

The use of the name devanāgarī is relatively recent, and the older term nāgarī is still common.^[18] The rapid spread of the term devanāgarī may be related to the almost exclusive use of this script to publish Sanskrit texts in print since the 1870s.^[18]

Principle

As a Brahmic abugida, the fundamental principle of Devanagari is that each letter represents a consonant, which carries an inherent schwa vowel. This is usually written in Latin as a, though it is represented as [ə] in the International Phonetic Alphabet.^[26] The letter क is read ka, the two letters कन are kana, the three कनय are kanaya, etc. Other vowels, or the absence of vowels, require modification of these consonants or their own letters:

• A final consonant is marked with the diacritic ् called the virāma in Sanskrit, halant in Hindi, and occasionally a "killer stroke" in English. This cancels the inherent vowel, so that from क्नय knaya is derived क्नय् knay. The halant is often used for consonant clusters when typesetting conjunct ligatures is not feasible.
• Consonant clusters are written with ligatures (saṃyuktākṣara "conjuncts"). For example, the three consonants क्, न्, and य्, (k, n, y), when written consecutively without virāma form कनय, as shown above. Alternatively, they may be joined as clusters to form क्नय knaya, कन्य kanya, or क्न्य knya. This system was originally created for use with the Middle Indo-Aryan languages, which have a very limited number of clusters (the only clusters allowed are geminate consonants and clusters involving homorganic nasal stops). When applied to Sanskrit, however, it added a great deal of complexity to the script, due to the large variety of clusters in this language (up to five consonants, e.g. rtsny). Much of this complexity is required at least on occasion in the modern Indo-Aryan languages, due to the large number of clusters allowed and especially due to borrowings from Sanskrit.
• Vowels other than the inherent a are written with diacritics (termed matras). For example, using क ka, the following forms can be derived: के ke, कु ku, की kī, का kā, etc.
• For vowels as an independent syllable (in writing, unattached to a preceding consonant), either at the beginning of a word or (in Hindi) after another vowel, there are full-letter forms. For example, while the vowel ū is written with the diacritic ू in कू kū, it has its own letter ऊ in ऊक ūka and (in Hindi but not Sanskrit) कऊ kaū.

Such a letter or ligature, with its diacritics, is called an akṣara "syllable". For example, कनय kanaya is written with what are counted as three akshara, whereas क्न्य knya and कु ku are each written with one.

When handwriting, letters are usually written without the distinctive horizontal bar, which is added only once the word is completed.^[27]

Letters

The letter order of Devanagari, like nearly all Brahmic scripts, is based on phonetic principles that consider both the manner and place of articulation of the consonants and vowels they represent. This arrangement is usually referred to as the varṇamālā "garland of letters".^[28] The format of Devanagari for Sanskrit serves as the prototype for its application, with minor variations or additions, to other languages.^[29]

Vowels

The vowels and their arrangement are:^[30]

	Independent form	IAST	As diacritic with प		Independent form	IAST	As diacritic with प
kaṇṭhya (Guttural)	अ	a	प		आ	ā	पा
tālavya (Palatal)	इ	i	पि		ई	ī	पी
oṣṭhya (Labial)	उ	u	पु		ऊ	ū	पू
mūrdhanya (Retroflex)	ऋ	ṛ	पृ		ॠ4	ṝ	पॄ
dantya (Dental)	ऌ4	ḷ	पॢ		ॡ4, 5	ḹ	पॣ
kaṇṭhatālavya (Palatoguttural)	ए	e	पे		ऐ	ai	पै
kaṇṭhoṣṭhya (Labioguttural)	ओ	o	पो		औ	au	पौ
	अं1	aṃ	पं		अः1	aḥ	पः
	ॲ / ऍ 7		पॅ		ऑ7		पॉ

1. Arranged with the vowels are two consonantal diacritics, the final nasal anusvāra ं ṃ and the final fricative visarga ः ḥ (called अं aṃ and अः aḥ). Masica (1991:146) notes of the anusvāra in Sanskrit that "there is some controversy as to whether it represents a homorganic nasal stop [...], a nasalised vowel, a nasalised semivowel, or all these according to context". The visarga represents post-vocalic voiceless glottal fricative [h], in Sanskrit an allophone of s, or less commonly r, usually in word-final position. Some traditions of recitation append an echo of the vowel after the breath:^[31] इः [ihi]. Masica (1991:146) considers the visarga along with letters ङ ṅa and ञ ña for the "largely predictable" velar and palatal nasals to be examples of "phonetic overkill in the system".
2. Another diacritic is the candrabindu/anunāsika ँ अँ. Salomon (2003:76–77) describes it as a "more emphatic form" of the anusvāra, "sometimes [...] used to mark a true [vowel] nasalization". In a New Indo-Aryan language such as Hindi the distinction is formal: the candrabindu indicates vowel nasalisation^[32] while the anusvār indicates a homorganic nasal preceding another consonant:^[33] e.g. हँसी [ɦə̃si] "laughter", गंगा [ɡəŋɡɑ] "the Ganges". When an akshara has a vowel diacritic above the top line, that leaves no room for the candra ("moon") stroke candrabindu, which is dispensed with in favour of the lone dot:^[34] हूँ [ɦũ] "am", but हैं [ɦɛ̃] "are". Some writers and typesetters dispense with the "moon" stroke altogether, using only the dot in all situations.^[35]
3. The avagraha ऽ अऽ (usually transliterated with an apostrophe) is a Sanskrit punctuation mark for the elision of a vowel in sandhi: एकोऽयम् eko'yam ( ← ekas + ayam) "this one". An original long vowel lost to coalescence is sometimes marked with a double avagraha: सदाऽऽत्मा sadā'tmā ( ← sadā + ātmā) "always, the self".^[36] In Hindi, Snell (2000:77) states that its "main function is to show that a vowel is sustained in a cry or a shout": आईऽऽऽ! āīīī!. In Madhyadeshi Languages like Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Maithili, etc. which have "quite a number of verbal forms [that] end in that inherent vowel",^[37] the avagraha is used to mark the non-elision of word-final inherent a, which otherwise is a modern orthographic convention: बइठऽ baiṭha "sit" versus बइठ baiṭh
4. The syllabic consonants ṝ, ḷ, and ḹ are specific to Sanskrit and not included in the varṇamālā of other languages. The sound represented by ṛ has also been lost in the modern languages, and its pronunciation now ranges from [ɾɪ] (Hindi) to [ɾu] (Marathi).
5. ḹ is not an actual phoneme of Sanskrit, but rather a graphic convention included among the vowels in order to maintain the symmetry of short–long pairs of letters.^[29]
6. There are non-regular formations of रु ru and रू rū.
7. There are two more vowels in Marathi, ॲ and ऑ, that respectively represent [æ], similar to the English pronunciation of <a> in "act", and [ɒ], similar to the English pronunciation of <o> in "cot". These vowels are sometimes used in Hindi too. IAST transliteration is not defined. In ISO 15919, the transliteration is ê and ô, respectively.

Consonants

The table below shows the consonant letters (in combination with inherent vowel a) and their arrangement. To the right of the Devanagari letter it shows the Latin script transliteration using International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration,^[38] and the phonetic value (IPA) in Hindi.^[39][40]

	sparśa (Plosive)								anunāsika (Nasal)		antastha (Approximant)		ūṣman/saṃghaṣhrī (Fricative)
Voicing →	aghoṣa				ghoṣa								aghoṣa		ghoṣa
Aspiration →	alpaprāṇa		mahāprāṇa		alpaprāṇa		mahāprāṇa		alpaprāṇa				mahāprāṇa
kaṇṭhya (Guttural)	क	ka /k/	ख	kha /kʰ/	ग	ga /ɡ/	घ	gha /ɡʱ/	ङ	ṅa /ŋ/					ह	ha /ɦ/
tālavya (Palatal)	च	ca /c, t͡ʃ/	छ	cha /cʰ, t͡ʃʰ/	ज	ja /ɟ, d͡ʒ/	झ	jha /ɟʱ, d͡ʒʱ/	ञ	ña /ɲ/	य	ya /j/	श	śa /ɕ, ʃ/
mūrdhanya (Retroflex)	ट	ṭa /ʈ/	ठ	ṭha /ʈʰ/	ड	ḍa /ɖ/	ढ	ḍha /ɖʱ/	ण	ṇa /ɳ/	र	ra /r/	ष	ṣa /ʂ/
dantya (Dental)	त	ta /t̪/	थ	tha /t̪ʰ/	द	da /d̪/	ध	dha /d̪ʱ/	न	na /n/	ल	la /l/	स	sa /s/
oṣṭhya (Labial)	प	pa /p/	फ	pha /pʰ, ɸ/	ब	ba /b/	भ	bha /bʱ, β/	म	ma /m/	व	va /w, ʋ/

• Rounding this out where applicable is ळ ḷa /Retroflex lateral flap / (also /ɭ̆/ in IPA), the intervocalic lateral flap allophone of the voiced retroflex stop in Vedic Sanskrit, which is a phoneme in languages such as Marathi, Konkani, and Rajasthani.^[41]
• Beyond the Sanskritic set, new shapes have rarely been formulated. Masica (1991:146) offers the following, "In any case, according to some, all possible sounds had already been described and provided for in this system, as Sanskrit was the original and perfect language. Hence it was difficult to provide for or even to conceive other sounds, unknown to the phoneticians of Sanskrit". Where foreign borrowings and internal developments did inevitably accrue and arise in New Indo-Aryan languages, they have been ignored in writing, or dealt through means such as diacritics and ligatures (ignored in recitation).
  • The most prolific diacritic has been the subscript dot (nuqtā) ़. Hindi uses it for the Persian, Arabic and English sounds क़ qa /q/, ख़ xa /x/, ग़ ġa /ɣ/, ज़ za /z/, झ़ zha /ʒ/, and फ़ fa /f/, and for the allophonic developments ड़ ṛa /ɽ/ and ढ़ ṛha /ɽʱ/. (Although ऴ ḷha /ɭʱä/ could also exist, it is not used in Hindi.)
  • Sindhi's and Saraiki's implosives are accommodated with a line attached below: ॻ [ɠə], ॼ [ʄə], ॾ [ɗə], ॿ [ɓə].
  • Aspirated sonorants may be represented as conjuncts/ligatures with ह ha: म्ह mha, न्ह nha, ण्ह ṇha, व्ह vha, ल्ह lha, ळ्ह ḷha, र्ह rha.
  • Masica (1991:147) notes Marwari as using ॸ for ḍa [ɗə] (while ड represents [ɽə]).

For a list of the 297 (33×9) possible Sanskrit consonant-(short) vowel phonemes, see Āryabhaṭa numeration.

Schwa syncope in consonants

In many Indo-Aryan languages, the schwa ('ə') implicit in each consonant of the script is "obligatorily deleted" at the end of words and in certain other contexts,^[42] unlike in Marathi or Sanskrit. This phenomenon has been termed the "schwa syncope rule" or the "schwa deletion rule" of Hindi.^[42][43] One formalisation of this rule has been summarised as ə → ∅ | VC_CV. In other words, when a schwa-succeeded consonant is followed by a vowel-succeeded consonant, the schwa inherent in the first consonant is deleted.^[43][44] However, this formalisation is inexact and incomplete (it sometimes deletes a schwa when it should not and, at other times, it fails to delete it when it should) and can cause errors. Schwa deletion is computationally important because it is essential to building text-to-speech software for Hindi.^[44][45]

As a result of schwa syncope, the Hindi pronunciation of many words differs from that expected from a literal Sanskrit-style rendering of Devanagari. For instance, राम is rām (not rāma), रचना is rac'nā (not racanā), वेद is vēd (not vēda) and नमकीन is nam'kīn (not namakīna).^[44][45] The name of the script itself is pronounced dev'nāgrī (not devanāgarī).^[46]

Correct schwa deletion is also critical because, in some cases, the same Devanagari letter sequence is pronounced two different ways in Hindi depending on context, and failure to delete the appropriate schwas can change the sense of the word.^[47] For instance, the letter sequence 'रक' is pronounced differently in हरकत (harkat, meaning movement or activity) and सरकना (saraknā, meaning to slide). Similarly, the sequence धड़कने in दिल धड़कने लगा (the heart started beating) and in दिल की धड़कनें (beats of the heart) is identical prior to the nasalisation in the second usage. Yet, it is pronounced dhaṛaknē in the first and dhaṛkanē in the second.^[47] While native speakers correctly pronounce the sequences differently in different contexts, non-native speakers and voice-synthesis software can make them "sound very unnatural", making it "extremely difficult for the listener" to grasp the intended meaning.^[47]

Allophony of 'v' and 'w' in Hindi

[v] (the voiced labiodental fricative) and [w] (the voiced labio-velar approximant) are both allophones of the single phoneme represented by the letter 'व' in Hindi Devanagari. More specifically, they are conditional allophones, i.e. rules apply on whether 'व' is pronounced as [v] or [w] depending on context. Native Hindi speakers pronounce 'व' as [v] in vrat (व्रत, fast) and [w] in pakvān (पकवान, food dish), perceiving them as a single phoneme and without being aware of the allophone distinctions they are systematically making.^[48] However, this specific allophony can become obvious when speakers switch languages. Non-native speakers of Hindi might pronounce 'व' in 'व्रत' as [w], i.e. as wrat instead of the more correct vrat. This results in a minor intelligibility problem because wrat can easily be confused for aurat, which means woman, instead of the intended fast (abstaining from food), in Hindi.^[48]

Compounds

Compound letters- क with vowel diacritics.

Table: Compounds. Vowels in their independent form on the left and in their corresponding dependent form (vowel sign) combined with the consonant 'k' on the right. 'ka' is without any added vowel sign, where the vowel 'a' is inherent. ISO 15919^[49] transliteration is on the top two rows.

ISO	a		ā		æ		ɒ		i		ī		u		ū		e		ē		ai		o		ō		au		r̥		r̥̄		l̥		l̥̄		ṁ		ḥ
	a	ka	ā	kā	æ	kæ	ɒ	kɒ	i	ki	ī	kī	u	ku	ū	kū	e	ke	ē	kē	ai	kai		ko		kō	au	kau	r̥	kr̥	r̥̄	kr̥̄	l̥	kl̥	l̥̄	kl̥̄	ṁ	kṁ	ḥ	kḥ	k
Devanagari	अ	क	आ	का	ॲ	कॅ	ऑ	कॉ	इ	कि	ई	की	उ	कु	ऊ	कू	ऎ	कॆ	ए	के	ऐ	कै	ऒ	कॊ	ओ	को	औ	कौ	ऋ	कृ	ॠ	कॄ	ऌ	कॢ	ॡ	कॣ	अं	कं	अः	कः	क्

A vowel combines with a consonant to form their compound letter. For example, the vowel आ (ā) combines with the consonant क् (k) to form the compound का (kā), with halant removed and added vowel sign which is indicated by diacritics. The vowel अ (a) combines with the consonant क् (k) to form the compound क (ka) with halant removed. But, the compound letter series of क, ख, ग, घ... (ka, kha, ga, gha) is without any added vowel sign, as the vowel अ (a) is inherent.

Conjuncts

You will be able to see the conjuncts only if your system has a Unicode font installed that includes the required conjunct glyphs (such as one of the TDIL^[50] fonts, see the list of fonts below. Keep in mind that there is significant variation in the number of conjuncts a font supports: Siddhanta (a newer version of the Chandas font^[51]), for example, is one of the most comprehensive and covers more than 4300 ligatures^[52] whereas Hind, a decent font for modern use, has a coverage in the hundreds.^[53]. Unicode-compatible fonts use the "virama" or "halant" character (्) between characters to indicate when they should be ligatured, so as a general rule, if you see a halant in the middle of a word, it is likely a conjunct that is not supported by current font.

As mentioned, successive consonants lacking a vowel in between them may physically join together as a conjunct or ligature. Conjuncts are used mostly with loan words. Native words typically use the basic consonant and native speakers know to suppress the vowel. For example, the native Hindi word karnā is written करना (ka-ra-nā).^[54] The government of these clusters ranges from widely to narrowly applicable rules, with special exceptions within. While standardised for the most part, there are certain variations in clustering, of which the Unicode used on this page is just one scheme. The following are a number of rules:

• 24 out of the 36 consonants contain a vertical right stroke (ख kha, घ gha, ण ṇa etc.). As first or middle fragments/members of a cluster, they lose that stroke. e.g. त + व = त्व tva, ण + ढ = ण्ढ ṇḍha, स + थ = स्थ stha. In Unicode, these consonants without their vertical stems are called half forms.^[55] श ś(a) appears as a different, simple ribbon-shaped fragment preceding व va, न na, च ca, ल la, and र ra, causing these second members to be shifted down and reduced in size. Thus श्व śva, श्न śna, श्च śca श्ल śla, and श्र śra.
• र r(a) as a first member takes the form of a curved upward dash above the final character or its ā-diacritic. e.g. र्व rva, र्वा rvā, र्स्प rspa, र्स्पा rspā. As a final member with ट ṭa ठ ṭha ड ḍa ढ ḍha ङ ṛa छ cha it is two lines below the character, pointed downwards and apart. Thus ट्र ṭra ठ्र ṭhra ड्र ḍra ढ्र ḍhra ङ्र ṛra छ्र chra. Elsewhere as a final member it is a diagonal stroke extending leftwards and down. e.g. क्र ग्र भ्र. त ta is shifted up to make त्र tra.
• As first members, remaining characters lacking vertical strokes such as द d(a) and ह h(a) may have their second member, reduced in size and lacking its horizontal stroke, placed underneath. क k(a), छ ch(a), and फ ph(a) shorten their right hooks and join them directly to the following member.
• The conjuncts for kṣ and jñ are not clearly derived from the letters making up their components. The conjunct for kṣ is क्ष (क् + ष) and for jñ it is ज्ञ (ज् + ञ).

The "Biconsonantal conjuncts" table below shows all the 1296 possible symbols for the biconsonantal clusters formed by collating the 36 fundamental symbols of Sanskrit as listed in Masica (1991:161–162). Scroll your cursor over the conjuncts to reveal their romanisations (in ISO 15919^[56]) and IPA transcriptions. Note that there will be variation in the conjuncts that are actually used in any given language written in Devanagari and many of them would not be viable combinations in any language.

Conjuncts can be constructed of more than two consonants, and the theoretical number of possible combinations increases exponentially. However, longer conjuncts are increasingly constrained by the languages' phonology and the actual number of conjuncts observed drops sharply. Ulrich Stiel includes a five-consonant cluster in the top 360 most frequent conjuncts found in Classical Sanskrit^[57]; the complete list appears below. Presented as they are here, many of these conjuncts may seem a little absurd, but keep in mind that when writing in Devanagari, conjuncts very often span a syllable boundary. That is, not all conjuncts are possible at the beginning (or end) of a syllable or word; many will only occur in the middle of multisyllablic words where the coda consonants of one syllable are conjoined with the onset consonants of the following syllable.

Biconsonantal conjuncts

Top 360 Most Frequent Conjuncts in Sanskrit^[57]

Accent marks

The pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit is written with various symbols depending on shakha. In the Rigveda, anudātta is written with a bar below the line (◌॒), svarita with a stroke above the line (◌॑) while udātta is unmarked.

Punctuation

The end of a sentence or half-verse may be marked with the "।" symbol (called a danda, meaning "bar", or called a pūrṇa virām, meaning "full stop/pause"). The end of a full verse may be marked with a double-danda, a "॥" symbol. A comma (called an alpa virām, meaning "short stop/pause") is used to denote a natural pause in speech.^[58][59] Other punctuation marks such as colon, semi-colon, exclamation mark, dash, and question mark are currently in use in Devanagari script, matching their use in European languages.^[60]

Old forms

The following letter variants are also in use, particularly in older texts.^[61]

Letter variants

Standard form	Variant form

Numerals

Devanagari digits

०	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Fonts

A variety of unicode fonts are in use for Devanagari. These include, but are not limited to, Akshar,^[62] Annapurna,^[63] Arial,^[64] CDAC-Gist Surekh,^[65] CDAC-Gist Yogesh,^[66] Chandas,^[67] Gargi,^[68] Gurumaa,^[69] Jaipur,^[70] Jana,^[71] Kalimati,^[72] Kanjirowa,^[73] Lohit Devanagari, Mangal,^[74] Raghu,^[75] Sanskrit2003,^[76] Santipur OT,^[67] Siddhdnta, Thyaka,^[77] and Uttara.^[67]

The form of Devanagari fonts vary with function. According to Harvard College for Sanskrit studies, "Uttara [companion to Chandas] is the best in terms of ligatures but, because it is designed for Vedic as well, requires so much vertical space that it is not well suited for the "user interface font" (though an excellent choice for the "original field" font). Santipur OT is a beautiful font reflecting a very early [medieval era] typesetting style for Devanagari. Sanskrit 2003^[78] is a good all-around font and has more ligatures than most fonts, though students will probably find the spacing of the CDAC-Gist Surekh^[65] font makes for quicker comprehension and reading."^[67]

Google Fonts project now has a number of new unicode fonts for Devanagari in a variety of typefaces in Serif, Sans-Serif, Display and Handwriting categories.

Transliteration

There are several methods of Romanisation or transliteration from Devanagari to the Roman script.^[79]

Hunterian system

The Hunterian system is the "national system of romanisation in India" and the one officially adopted by the Government of India.^[80][81][82]

ISO 15919

A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard of 2001. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic graphemes to the Latin script. The Devanagari-specific portion is nearly identical to the academic standard for Sanskrit, IAST.^[83]

IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is the academic standard for the romanisation of Sanskrit. IAST is the de facto standard used in printed publications, like books, magazines, and electronic texts with Unicode fonts. It is based on a standard established by the Congress of Orientalists at Athens in 1912. The ISO 15919 standard of 2001 codified the transliteration convention to include an expanded standard for sister scripts of Devanagari.^[83]

The National Library at Kolkata romanisation, intended for the romanisation of all Indic scripts, is an extension of IAST.

Harvard-Kyoto

Compared to IAST, Harvard-Kyoto looks much simpler. It does not contain all the diacritic marks that IAST contains. It was designed to simplify the task of putting large amount of Sanskrit textual material into machine readable form, and the inventors stated that it reduces the effort needed in transliteration of Sanskrit texts on the keyboard.^[84] This makes typing in Harvard-Kyoto much easier than IAST. Harvard-Kyoto uses capital letters that can be difficult to read in the middle of words.

ITRANS

ITRANS is a lossless transliteration scheme of Devanagari into ASCII that is widely used on Usenet. It is an extension of the Harvard-Kyoto scheme. In ITRANS, the word devanāgarī is written "devanaagarii" or "devanAgarI". ITRANS is associated with an application of the same name that enables typesetting in Indic scripts. The user inputs in Roman letters and the ITRANS pre-processor translates the Roman letters into Devanagari (or other Indic languages). The latest version of ITRANS is version 5.30 released in July, 2001. It is similar to Velthius system and was created by Avinash Chopde to help print various Indic scripts with personal computers.^[84]

Velthuis

The disadvantage of the above ASCII schemes is case-sensitivity, implying that transliterated names may not be capitalised. This difficulty is avoided with the system developed in 1996 by Frans Velthuis for TeX, loosely based on IAST, in which case is irrelevant.

ALA-LC Romanisation

ALA-LC^[85] romanisation is a transliteration scheme approved by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association, and widely used in North American libraries. Transliteration tables are based on languages, so there is a table for Hindi,^[86] one for Sanskrit and Prakrit,^[87] etc.

WX

WX is a Roman transliteration scheme for Indian languages, widely used among the natural language processing community in India. It originated at IIT Kanpur for computational processing of Indian languages. The salient features of this transliteration scheme are as follows.

• Every consonant and every vowel has a single mapping into Roman. Hence it is a prefix code, advantageous from computation point of view.
• Lower-case letters are used for unaspirated consonants and short vowels, while capital letters are used for aspirated consonants and long vowels. While the retroflex stops are mapped to 't, T, d, D, N', the dentals are mapped to 'w, W, x, X, n'. Hence the name 'WX', a reminder of this idiosyncratic mapping.

Encodings

ISCII

ISCII is an 8-bit encoding. The lower 128 codepoints are plain ASCII, the upper 128 codepoints are ISCII-specific.

It has been designed for representing not only Devanagari but also various other Indic scripts as well as a Latin-based script with diacritic marks used for transliteration of the Indic scripts.

ISCII has largely been superseded by Unicode, which has, however, attempted to preserve the ISCII layout for its Indic language blocks.

Unicode

The Unicode Standard defines three blocks for Devanagari: Devanagari (U+0900–U+097F), Devanagari Extended (U+A8E0–U+A8FF), and Vedic Extensions (U+1CD0–U+1CFF).

Devanagari[1] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+090x

ऀ

ँ

ं

ः

ऄ

अ

आ

इ

ई

उ

ऊ

ऋ

ऌ

ऍ

ऎ

ए

U+091x

ऐ

ऑ

ऒ

ओ

औ

क

ख

ग

घ

ङ

च

छ

ज

झ

ञ

ट

U+092x

ठ

ड

ढ

ण

त

थ

द

ध

न

ऩ

प

फ

ब

भ

म

य

U+093x

र

ऱ

ल

ळ

ऴ

व

श

ष

स

ह

ऺ

ऻ

़

ऽ

ा

ि

U+094x

ी

ु

ू

ृ

ॄ

ॅ

ॆ

े

ै

ॉ

ॊ

ो

ौ

्

ॎ

ॏ

U+095x

ॐ

॑

॒

॓

॔

ॕ

ॖ

ॗ

क़

ख़

ग़

ज़

ड़

ढ़

फ़

य़

U+096x

ॠ

ॡ

ॢ

ॣ

।

॥

०

१

२

३

४

५

६

७

८

९

U+097x

॰

ॱ

ॲ

ॳ

ॴ

ॵ

ॶ

ॷ

ॸ

ॹ

ॺ

ॻ

ॼ

ॽ

ॾ

ॿ

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 10.0

Devanagari Extended[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+A8Ex

꣠

꣡

꣢

꣣

꣤

꣥

꣦

꣧

꣨

꣩

꣪

꣫

꣬

꣭

꣮

꣯

U+A8Fx

꣰

꣱

ꣲ

ꣳ

ꣴ

ꣵ

ꣶ

ꣷ

꣸

꣹

꣺

ꣻ

꣼

ꣽ

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 10.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Vedic Extensions[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1CDx

᳐

᳑

᳒

᳓

᳔

᳕

᳖

᳗

᳘

᳙

᳚

᳛

᳜

᳝

᳞

᳟

U+1CEx

᳠

᳡

᳢

᳣

᳤

᳥

᳦

᳧

᳨

ᳩ

ᳪ

ᳫ

ᳬ

᳭

ᳮ

ᳯ

U+1CFx

ᳰ

ᳱ

ᳲ

ᳳ

᳴

ᳵ

ᳶ

᳷

᳸

᳹

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 10.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Devanagari keyboard layouts

InScript is the standard keyboard layout for Devanagari. It is inbuilt in all modern major operating systems. Microsoft Windows supports the InScript layout (using the Mangal font), which can be used to input unicode Devanagari characters. InScript is also available in some touchscreen mobile phones.

InScript layout

A Devanagari INSCRIPT bilingual keyboard.

Typewriter

This layout was used on manual typewriters when computers were not available or were uncommon. For backward compatibility some typing tools like Indic IME still provide this layout.

Phonetic

Such tools work on phonetic transliteration. The user writes in Roman and the IME automatically converts it into Devanagari. Some popular phonetic typing tools are Baraha IME and Google IME.

The Mac OS X operating system includes two different keyboard layouts for Devanagari: one is much like INSCRIPT/KDE Linux, the other is a phonetic layout called "Devanagari QWERTY".

Any one of Unicode fonts input system is fine for Indic language Wikipedia and other wikiprojects, including Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Nepali Wikipedia. Some people use inscript. Majority uses either Google phonetic transliteration or input facility Universal Language Selector provided on Wikipedia. On Indic language wikiprojects Phonetic facility provided initially was java-based later supported by Narayam extension for phonetic input facility. Currently Indic language Wiki projects are supported by Universal Language Selector (ULS), that offers both phonetic keyboard (Aksharantaran, Marathi: अक्षरांतरण, Hindi: लिप्यंतरण, बोलनागरी) and InScript keyboard (Marathi: मराठी लिपी).

The Ubuntu Linux operating system supports several keyboard layouts for Devanagari, including Harvard-Kyoto, WX notation, Bolanagari and phonetic.

See also

• Clip font
• Devanagari transliteration
• Devanagari Braille
• ISCII
• Nagari Pracharini Sabha
• Nepali
• Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages
• Shiksha – the Vedic study of sound, focussing on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet

References

Footnotes

General references

• Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2 .
• Snell, Rupert (2000), Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 978-0-07-141984-0 .
• Salomon, Richard (2003), "Writing Systems of the Indo-Aryan Languages", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 67–103, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5 .
• Verma, Sheela (2003), "Magahi", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 498–514, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5 .
• Wikner, Charles (1996), A Practical Sanskrit Introductory .

Census and catalogues of manuscripts in Devanagari

Thousands of manuscripts of ancient and medieval era Sanskrit texts in Devanagari have been discovered since the 19th century. Major catalogues and census include:

• A Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Private Libraries at Google Books, Medical Hall Press, Princeton University Archive
• A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts at Google Books, Vol 1: Upanishads, Friedrich Otto Schrader (Compiler), University of Michigan Library Archives
• A preliminary list of the Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts, Vedas, Sastras, Sutras, Schools of Hindu Philosophies, Arts, Design, Music and other fields, Friedrich Otto Schrader (Compiler), (Devanagiri manuscripts are identified by Character code De.)
• Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Part 1: Vedic Manuscripts, Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
• Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Part 4: Manuscripts of Hindu schools of Philosophy and Tantra, Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
• Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Part 5: Manuscripts of Medicine, Astronomy and Mathematics, Architecture and Technical Science Literature, Julius Eggeling (Compiler), Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
• Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts at Google Books, Part 6: Poetic, Epic and Purana Literature, Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
• David Pingree (1970-1981), Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit: Volumes 1 through 5, American Philosophical Society, Manuscripts in various Indic scripts including Devanagari

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Devanagari

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Devanagari stroke order and Devanagari pronunciation.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Learning Devanagari.

• Unicode Chart for Devanagari
• Hindi/Devanagari Script Tutor
• Devnagari Unicode Legacy Font Converters
• Digital Nagari fonts, University of Chicago
• Devanagari in different fonts, Wazu, Japan (Alternate collection: Luc Devroye's comprehensive Indic Fonts, McGill University)
• Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, p. 30, at Google Books, Rudradaman’s inscription in Sanskrit Nagari script from 1st through 4th century CE (coins and epigraphy), found in Gujarat, India, pages 30–45
• Numerals and Text in Devanagari, 9th century temple in Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, India, Current Science
• On the Name Devanāgarī, Walter H. Maurer (1976), Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 96, No. 1, pages 101-104