The Ariyaka script () is an obsolete

alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

, invented by King

Mongkut Mongkut (18 October 18041 October 1868) was the fourth Monarchy of Thailand, king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IV. He reigned from 1851 until his death in 1868. The reign of Mongkut was marked by significant modernization ini ...

as an alternative to transcribing

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

, the liturgical language of

Theravada Buddhism ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' ( anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or '' Dhamma'' in ...

. The script, inspired by the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and Burmese-Mon scripts, did not come into popular use and eventually fell out of usage. Ariyaka Script

History

Pali, an early-period language, has been traditionally used to preserve cultural heritage and religious teachings. The Ariyaka alphabet was invented by King

(Rama IV) of Siam (1804–1868) as an alternative script for Pali. Mongkut found the Khom Thai script, which was commonly used for Pali, to be too complex and sought to create a more accessible and Western-style script. During mid-19th century religious reforms in the

Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782–1932) The Rattanakosin Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Siam after 1855, refers to the Siamese kingdom between 1782 and 1932. It was founded in 1782 with the History of Bangkok#Rattanakosin, establishment of Rattanakosin (Bangkok), which repl ...

, Mongkut discouraged the use of Khom Thai in religious texts, arguing that its exclusivity falsely implied divine or magical significance. Instead, he ordered Buddhist monks to adopt the Thai script for recording the

Tripiṭaka There are several Buddhist canons, which refers to the various scriptural collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or the various Buddhist scriptural canons.

. In the 1830s and 40s, he introduced the Ariyaka script to facilitate printing rather than relying on traditional palm-leaf manuscripts. Mongkut established a printing press for the script at Bowonniwet Vihara Temple in Bangkok, where a limited number of texts were printed. The Ariyaka script, inspired by Greek and Mon-Burmese scripts, was designed to replace existing Pali transcription scripts such as Khom Thai and

Tai Tham Tai Tham script (''Dharma, Tham'' meaning "scripture") is an abugida writing system used mainly for a group of Southwestern Tai languages i.e., Northern Thai language, Northern Thai, Tai Lue language, Tai Lü, Khün language, Khün and Lao langu ...

. The Pali alphabet, including the Ariyaka script, consists of 41 letters: *6 vowels *2 diphthongs *32 consonants *1 accessory nasal sound ( niggahīta) Consonants are further classified into 25 mutes, 6 semivowels, 1 sibilant, and 1 aspirant, with vowels divided into long and short forms. In modern times, computational research has been conducted on Ariyaka script recognition. A study by Neha Gautam (2015) proposed a PALI Alphabet Recognition System, which utilizes image processing techniques to digitize and identify Ariyaka characters for textual analysis.

References

External links

{{List of writing systems Constructed scripts Obsolete writing systems Writing systems introduced in the 19th century Writing systems of Asia Pali Buddhism in Thailand Publishing in Thailand Thai language Thai inventions