Nandinagari

The Nandinagari script was used in southern India until the 19th century. Some of earliest writing in Nandinagari are inscriptions in stone found in Mamallapuram, a town in northern Tamil Nadu, dating from the 7th century AD. It was also used in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and the official script of the Vijayanagara Kingdom (1336–1646). Nandinagari was mainly used to write Sanskrit, and also to write Kannada in Karnataka.

Nandinagari was inscribed in stone and on copper plates, and written on palm-leaf manuscripts or on paper. There are also coins with Nandinagari on them from the reign of King Rajaraja I (c. 985–1014) of the Chola Dynasty. There are manuscripts of the Rigveda and other vedas in Nandinagari, as well as other literature.

Notable features

Type of writing script: abugida / syllabic alphabet
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
Used to write: Sanskrit and Kannada
Written on / inscribed in: stone, copper plates, coins, palm leaves, paper
Closely resembles the Devanagari script, although Nadinagari differs in a number of ways, particularly in the vowel letters.

Nandinagari script

Notes

The virama mutes the inherent vowel, and is used to create conjuncts
The anusvara indicates nasalization, e.g. [ã]
The visarga indicates post vocalic aspiration, e.g. [ah]
The avagraha indicates the elision of word-initial a as a result of sandhi
The siddham is used as an invocation at the beginning of documents

Download a script chart for Nandinagari (Excel)

Sample text

Sample text in the Nandinagari script

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandinagari

Link

Information about the Nandinagari script
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandinagari
https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17162-nandinagari.pdf

Some of the writing systems used to write Sanskrit

Bhaiksuki, Brāhmi, Devanāgari, Galik, Grantha, Gupta, Kadamba, Kharosthi, Nandinagari, Sharda, Siddham, Thai, Tibetan

Abugidas / Syllabic alphabets

Ahom, Aima, Arleng, Badagu, Badlit, Basahan, Balinese, Balti-A, Balti-B, Batak, Baybayin, Bengali, Bhaiksuki, Bhujimol, Bilang-bilang, Bima, Blackfoot, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Carrier, Chakma, Cham, Cree, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dham Lipi, Dhankari / Sirmauri, Ditema, Dives Akuru, Dogra, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Fox, Fraser, Gond, Goykanadi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gunjala Gondi, Gupta, Gurmukhi, Halbi Lipi, Hanifi, Hanuno'o, Hočąk, Ibalnan, Incung, Inuktitut, Jaunsari Takri, Javanese, Kaithi, Kadamba, Kamarupi, Kannada, Kawi, Kharosthi, Khema, Khe Prih, Khmer, Khojki, Khudabadi, Kirat Rai, Kōchi, Komering, Kulitan, Kurukh Banna, Lampung, Lanna, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Lota Ende, Magar Akkha, Mahajani, Malayalam, Meitei (Modern), Manpuri (Old), Marchen, Meetei Yelhou Mayek, Meroïtic, Masarm Gondi, Modi, Mon, Mongolian Horizontal Square Script, Multani, Nandinagari, Newa, New Tai Lue, Ojibwe, Odia, Ogan, Pahawh Hmong, Pallava, Phags-pa, Purva Licchavi, Qiang / Rma, Ranjana, Rejang (Kaganga), Sasak, Savara, Satera Jontal, Shan, Sharda, Sheek Bakrii Saphaloo, Siddham, Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sukhothai, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagbanwa, Takri, Tamil, Tanchangya (Ka-Pat), Tani, Thaana, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tigalari, Tikamuli, Tocharian, Tolong Siki, Vatteluttu, Warang Citi

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 16.03.23

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