Newari scripts ( Nepal Lipi: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑐮 𑐁𑐏𑐮,

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

: नेपाल आखल) are a family of alphabetic writing systems employed historically in

Nepal Mandala Nepal Mandala () is the ancient geographic division of Nepal into different regions. It was characterized by three major divisions: “ Purwanchal” (Eastern Region), “ Madhyamanchal” (Central Region), and “ Pashchimanchal” (Western Re ...

by the indigenous

Newar people Newar (; , endonym: Newa; , Pracalit script: ), or Nepami, are primarily inhabitants in Kathmandu Valley of Nepal and its surrounding areas, and the creators of its historic heritage and civilisation. Page 15. Newars are a distinct linguistic ...

for primarily writing Nepal Bhasa. It is also used for transcribing

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and

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 ...

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 Of the older scripts, about 50,000 manuscripts written in Nepal Lipi have been archived.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

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 15919, ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system from ancient India. "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 ...

–

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

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

Prajnaparamita file:Medicine Buddha painted mandala with goddess Prajnaparamita in center, 19th century, Rubin.jpg, A Tibetan painting with a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra at the center of the mandala Prajñāpāramitā means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Trans ...

'', 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), palm-leaf documents and

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

and

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

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. Besides the

Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley (), also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley (, Newar language, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः), National Capital Area, is a bowl-shaped valley located in the Himalayas, Hima ...

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 Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

n region in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, the Ranjana script is used for sacred purposes in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

and

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

. The Jokhang Temple in

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

, 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 regime banned Nepal Bhasa, Nepal Era 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 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'' 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

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 ** 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: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...

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

Om mani padme hum ' (, ) 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 ''Kāraṇḍavyūha sūtra'', where it is also referr ...

'' (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 () 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 hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

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 a ...

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 basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

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 diacritics 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. It is the official script used to write Nepal Bhasa. Ranjana script has been proposed for encoding in Unicode. 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 (; , ) 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 surrounding regions in Nepal. The language is known officially ...

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 Bhaktapur (Nepali language, Nepali and Sanskrit: भक्तपुर, ; "City of Devotees"), known locally as Khwopa (Nepal Bhasa: , ) and historically called Bhadgaon, is a city in the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal located abou ...

in the Pracalit script dated February 1711 AD.

Notes

References

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