The Devanagari Script
Introduction
This prelude begins with anintroduction to the Sanskrit letters. The writing system used for Sanskritis known as Devanagari. Indian languages are phonetic in nature and hencethe written shapes represent unique sounds. In Sanskrit as well as in other Indianlanguages, proper pronounciation of the words is quite important. Henceit is necessary to learn the sounds associated with the written shapes.The word "alphabet" is notusually applied to Sanskrit or other Indian languages. There is a subtledifference between the notion of "alphabet" and the "aksharas" as the lettersof Sanskrit are called. When we think of the word "alphabet", we normallythink of the name given to each letter toidentify it. In most languages the letters of the alphabet have names whichmay give a clue to the sound associated with the letter. In Sanskrit andother Indian languages, there is no specific name given to the letters.The sound the letter stands for is actually the name for the letter. Ina phonetic language, reading becomes easy since the reader will be readingout the words by uttering the sound associated with each akshara. Moreinformation on this is given in a separate section on Sanskrit and Phonetics.
For many years now, peopleof the world have learnt the Aksharas of Sanskrit through equivalent Romanletters which employ special marks (known as diacritics).The diacritics, which consist of marks written above or below a letter of the alphabet, refer to variations in the sound associated with the letter. Dictionaries follow his method to help the reader identify the manner in which the word should be pronounced.In India, the National Library at Calcutta has recommendedthat a single transliteration scheme be used to represent the Aksharas acrossall the Indian languages. This scheme will be used in the lessons coveredin these pages. Students can take advantage of this when it comes to reading text.
The Roman Letters with Diacritic marks will be introduced along with the Aksharas themselves and hence it is not necessary for the reader to have prior knowledge of the Diacritics. A reference to this Transliteration scheme is alsoavailable in a separate page. The scheme is similar to the International PhoneticAlphabet representation but has some minor differences.
TheDevanagari Script used for writing Sanskrit and a few other Indian languageshas evolved from the Brahmi script which dates back to about 300B.C. The Devanagari as we see it today, came into use around 1700 A.D. Printingin Devanagari became possible around 1850 after printing presses were establisedin India. The script studied here corresponds to modern Devanagari seenin books printed during the past seventy to hundred years. Books printedin Devanagari prior to 1900 A.D. may show some variations in representingsome Aksharas.The terminology usedin classifying the aksharas is fairly standard and conforms to the terminologyfound in books on linguistics. It is of interest to note that the aksharashad already been classified from a linguistic point of view more than twothousand years ago. Sanskrit is probably the only language which has thisdistinction.
The DevanagariScript: Historical Details
Learnto write Devanagari Aksharas
(A modern version of the older but proven chalk and board method)Take an 0n-line quiz
(A novel interactive quiz which requires you to identify an aksharaselected at random!)
Next Section Short Vowels
