Nepalese scripts ( Nepal Lipi: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑐮 𑐁𑐏𑐮,

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

: नेपाल आखल) are alphabetic writing systems employed historically in Nepal Mandala by the indigenous Newars for primarily writing

Nepal Bhasa Newar (), or Newari and known officially in Nepal as Nepal Bhasa, is a Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Newar people, the indigenous inhabitants of Nepal Mandala, which consists of the Kathmandu Valley and surro ...

. It is also used for transcribing

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...

. There are also some claims they have also been used to write the Parbatiya (Khas) language. These scripts were in widespread use from the 10th to the early 20th-century, but have since been largely supplanted by the modern script known as

. Of the older scripts, about 50,000 manuscripts written in Nepal Lipi have been archived.

History

Pre development

Prior to development of Nepal Scripts, people in the Nepal Mandala used the following scripts which are shared within the South Asian region.Shakyavansha, Hemraj (1993, eighth edition). ''Nepalese Alphabet.'' Kathmandu: Mandas Lumanti Prakashan. *

Brāhmī script Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' o ...

- Ashoka period * Purva Licchavi Script - prior Licchavi period * Uttara Licchavi Script - later Licchavi period (6th–11th or 12th century)

Early usage and development

The 'Nepal Script' or 'Nepalese script' appeared in the 10th century. The earliest instance is a manuscript entitled '' Lankavatara Sutra'' dated

Nepal Era Nepal Sambat, also spelled as Nepala Sambata, (Nepal Bhasa: , Nepali: ) is the lunisolar calendar used by the Newari people of Nepal. The Calendar era began on 20 October 879 AD, with 1142 in Nepal Sambat corresponding to the year 2021–2022 ...

28 (908 AD). Another early specimen is a palm-leaf manuscript of a Buddhist text the ''

Prajnaparamita A Tibetan painting with a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra at the center of the mandala Prajñāpāramitā ( sa, प्रज्ञापारमिता) means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Transcendental Knowledge" in Mahāyāna and Theravāda B ...

'', dated Nepal Era 40 (920 AD). One of the oldest manuscript of Ramayana, preserved till date, was written in Nepal Script in 1041. The script has been used on stone and copper plate inscriptions, coins (

Nepalese mohar The mohar was the currency of the Kingdom of Nepal from the second half of the 17th century until 1932. Silver and gold mohars were issued, each subdivided into 128 ''dams''. Copper dams were also issued, together with copper ''paisa'' worth 4 c ...

), palm-leaf documents and

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

manuscripts. Among the famed historical texts written in Nepal Lipi are ''Gopalarajavamsavali'', a history of Nepal, which appeared in 1389 AD, the Nepal-Tibet treaty of Nepal Era 895 (1775 AD) and a letter dated Nepal Era 535 (1415 AD) sent by Chinese Emperor Tai Ming to Shakti-simha-rama, a feudatory of

Banepa Banepa ( ne, बनेपा) is a municipality and historical town in a valley situated at about above sea level in central Nepal which is at about east from Kathmandu. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census, it has a population of 55,528. The ...

. Besides the

Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley ( ne, काठमाडौं उपत्यका; also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley ( ne, नेपाः उपत्यका, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः)), ...

and the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

n region in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

, the Ranjana script is used for sacred purposes in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...

and

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...

. The Jokhang Temple in

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

, Tibet is ornamented with mantras embossed in Ranjana script, and the panels under the eaves are numbered using Nepal Lipi.

Decline

In 1906, the

Rana Rana may refer to: Astronomy * Rana (crater), a crater on Mars * Delta Eridani or Rana, a star People, groups and titles * Rana (name), a given name and surname (including a list of people and characters with the name) * Rana (title), a histori ...

regime banned Nepal Bhasa,

and Nepal Lipi from official use as part of its policy to subdue them, and the script fell into decline. Authors were also encouraged to switch to

to write Nepal Bhasa because of the availability of moveable type for printing, and Nepal Lipi was pushed further into the background. However, the script continued to be used for religious and ceremonial purposes till the 1950s.

Revival

After the Rana dynasty was overthrown and democracy established in 1951, restrictions on Nepal Bhasa were lifted. Attempts were made to study and revive the old scripts, and alphabet books were published. Hemraj Shakyavamsha published an alphabet book of 15 types of Nepalese alphabets including Ranjana, Bhujimol and Pachumol. In 1952, a pressman

Pushpa Ratna Sagar Pushpa Ratna Sagar ( ne, पुष्प रत्न सागर) (born Pushpa Ratna Tuladhar) (29 October 1922 – 11 November 2011) was a Nepalese merchant, grammarian, lexicographer and pioneer pressman. Born Pushpa Ratna Tuladhar in Asan D ...

of Kathmandu had moveable type of Nepal script made in India. The metal type was used to print the dateline and the titles of the articles in ''

Thaunkanhe ''Thaunkanhe'' () is the first magazine in Nepal Bhasa to be published from Nepal. The monthly magazine began publication on 21 May 1951 (Nepal Era 1071 Bachhala), coinciding with the festival of Swanya Punhi, the "full moon day of flowers" marki ...

'' monthly. In 1989, the first book to be printed using a computer typeface of Nepal script, ''Prasiddha Bajracharyapinigu Sanchhipta Bibaran'' ("Profiles of Renowned Bajracharyas") by Badri Ratna Bajracharya, was published.

Types

The scripts known to have been used by the Newar people of pre-Gorkha Nepal (i.e., Nepala Mandala) or dynasties that ruled over them in history are as follows: * Rañjana style ** Rañjana script * Flat-headed style **

Prachalit script Prachalit Nepal script is a type of abugida script developed from the Nepalese scripts, which are a part of the family of Brahmic scripts descended from Brahmi script. It is used to write Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit and Pali. Various publications are ...

** Pāchūmol script ** Hiṁmol script ** Kuṁmol script * Curve-headed style ** Bhujiṁmol script ** Golmol script ** Kveṁmol script ** Litumol script Among the different scripts based on Nepal script, Ranjana (meaning "delightful"), Bhujinmol ("fly-headed") and Prachalit ("ordinary") are the most common. Ranjana is the most ornate among the scripts. It is most commonly used to write Buddhist texts and inscribe

mantra A mantra (Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ma ...

s on prayer wheels, shrines, temples, and monasteries. The popular Buddhist mantra ''

Om mani padme hum ' ( sa, ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ, ) is the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra particularly associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It first appeared in the Mahayana ''Kāraṇ ...

'' (meaning ("Hail to the jewel in the lotus" in Sanskrit) is often written in Ranjana.

Description

Consonants

The compound letters ''kṣa'', ''tra'' and ''jña'' are often regarded as separate letters that are taught together with the other letters. Since the Newari language lacks

retroflex A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...

consonants, the letters ''ṭa'', ''ṭha'', ''ḍa'', ''ḍha'', ''ṇa'' and ''ṣa'' are used only in loanwords. The same applies to the letter ''śa''. Newari, on the other hand, has a number of

sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...

consonants that are pronounced with

creaky voice In linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation, vocal fry, or glottal fry) refers to a low, scratchy sound that occupies the vocal range below the common vocal register. It is a special kind of phonation in which ...

(''ṅha'', ''ñha'', ''ṇha'', ''nha'', ''mha'', ''rha'' and ''lha''). They are written in compound letters consisting of "ha" combined with the letter for the corresponding modal sonorant.

Contextual forms

Some letters have alternative forms that are used when combined with certain vowel diacritics or included in a consonant cluster. * Letter ''bha'' and ''ha'' changes appearance when combined with any of the vowel diacritics ''u'', ''ū'', ''ṛ'', ''ṝ'', ''ḷ'' and ''ḹ''. * Letter ''ja'' and ''ra'' forms ligatures together with the vowels ''u'' and ''ū''. * Vowels ''u'' changes appearance when combined with the letters ''ga'', ''ta'', ''bha'' and ''śa''.

Compound letters

Consonant clusters are written by writing several consonant letters together in complex ligatures. How they are written depends on the shape of the letters and some letters have alternative shapes that are used depending on their position in the cluster.

Vowels

The vowel ''ṛ'' which in Sanskrit stands for

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

forming ��is used in Newar script to write the syllable ''ri''. In Newari, the vowels ''a'' and ''ā'' are pronounced with different vowel qualities. In order to write their long equivalents, some diacritics have been given partially different properties than what is otherwise usual in Brahmic scripts.

Vowel diacritics

=Pracalit

= Some of the vowel diacritics have different appearances depending on whether the consonant has a top line or not. There are seven consonants without top lines: ''ga'', ''ña'', ''ṭha'', ''ṇa'', ''tha'', ''dha'' and ''śa''.

=Rañjanā

= The vowel dialects can have up to three different appearances depending on which consonant they are combined with. The rules for ''ka'' are also used for ''ja'', ''kṣa'' and ''jña''. The rules for ''ga'' also apply to ''kha'', ''ña'', ''ṭha'', ''ṇa'', ''tha'', ''dha'' and ''sha''. The rules for ''ba'' are used for other letters. Ranjana ka vowels.svg , Rules for क ''ka'' Ranjana ga vowels.svg , Rules for ग ''ga'' Ranjana ba vowels.svg , Rules for ब ''ba''

Current use

Nepal Lipi is available in Unicode as

Newa script Prachalit Nepal script is a type of abugida script developed from the Nepalese scripts, which are a part of the family of Brahmic scripts descended from Brahmi script. It is used to write Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit and Pali. Various publications are ...

. It is the official script used to write Nepal Bhasa. Ranjana script has been approved for encoding in 2021. The letter heads of Kathmandu Metropolitan City,An example of a letter head in Kathmandu Metropolitan City Lalitpur Metropolitan City,An example of a letter head in Lalitpur Metropolitan City Bhaktapur Municipality,An example of a letter head in Bhaktapur Municipality Madhyapur Thimi MunicipalityAn example of a letter head in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality ascribes its names in Ranjana Script. In India, the official script for

Newar language Newar (), or Newari and known officially in Nepal as Nepal Bhasa, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Newar people, the indigenous inhabitants of Nepal Mandala, which consists of the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding regions in Nepal. ...

is Nepal Lipi.

Gallery

File:Invitation card.jpg,

Invitation card.

File:Thaunkanhay magazine cover 1951.jpg,

''Thaunkanhe'' monthly.

File:Sandhya times scan.jpg,

''Sandhya Times'' daily.

File:Nepal lipi inscription 1952.jpg,

Copper inscription from 1952 AD.

File:Pratap inscription.jpg,

Stone inscription from 1654 AD.

File:Ajima temple 1877ad.jpg,

Embossed lettering from 1877 AD.

File:Manuscript ns989.jpg,

Sanskrit Buddhist manuscript in Nepal script from 1869 AD.

File:Nb exercise book.jpg,

Table of Prachalit Nepal script.

File:Bhupatindra Malla's signature.jpg, An inscription from

Bhaktapur , motto = ne, पुर्खले सिर्जेको सम्पत्ती, हाम्रो कला र संस्कृति , lit=Creation of our ancestors, our heritage and culture , image_map ...

in the

Pracalit script Prachalit Nepal script is a type of abugida script developed from the Nepalese scripts, which are a part of the family of Brahmic scripts descended from Brahmi script. It is used to write Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit and Pali. Various publications are ...

dated February 1711 AD.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nepal Script Newar Brahmic scripts Writing systems of Newar language Newar language