Nepalese scripts · Lablypedia

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 Devanagari. Of the older scripts, about 50,000 manuscripts written in Newar script have been archived.

History

Pre development

Prior to development of Nepalese scripts, people in the Nepal Mandala used the following scripts which are shared within the South Asian region.

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

The Newari script is an evolution of the old Eastern script, which also led to the Bengali–Assamese, Maithili and Oriya scripts.

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 CE), written in the Newar script. Another early specimen is a palm-leaf manuscript of a Buddhist text the Prajnaparamita, dated Nepal Era 40 (920 CE). One of the oldest manuscript of Ramayana, preserved till date, was written in the Newar script in 1019.

The script has been used on stone and copper plate inscriptions, coins (Nepalese mohar), palm-leaf documents and Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts. Among the famed historical texts written in Nepalese scripts are Gopal Raj Vamshavali, a history of Nepal written in 1389 using the Bhujimol script; the Nepal-Tibet Treaty of 1775, written in the Newar script; and a letter dated Nepal Era 535 (1415 CE) sent by Chinese Emperor Tai Ming to Shakti-simha-rama, a feudatory of Banepa, written in the Ranjana script.

Besides the Kathmandu Valley and the Himalayan region in Nepal, the Ranjana script is used for sacred purposes in Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Bhutan, Sikkim and Ladakh. The Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet is ornamented with mantras embossed in Ranjana script, and the panels under the eaves are numbered using Newar script.

Decline

In 1906, the Rana regime banned Nepal Bhasa, Nepal Era and Nepalese scripts from official use as part of its policy to subdue them, and the script fell into decline. Authors were also encouraged to switch to Devanagari to write Nepal Bhasa because of the availability of moveable type for printing, and Newar script 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 Newar 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 Newar script, Prasiddha Bajracharyapinigu Sanchhipta Bibaran ("Profiles of Renowned Bajracharyas") by Badri Ratna Bajracharya, was published.

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Types

The scripts known to have been used by the Newar people and dynasties of pre-Gorkha Nepal (i.e., Nepala Mandala) are as follows:

Rañjana style
- Rañjana script
Flat-headed style
- Newar script
- Pāchūmol script
- Hiṁmol script
- Kuṁmol script
Curve-headed style
- Bhujiṁmol script
- Golmol script
- Kveṁmol script
- Litumol script

Among the different scripts based on Nepalese scripts, Ranjana (meaning "delightful"), Bhujinmol ("fly-headed") and Newar also known as 'Prachalit' ("prevalent") are the most common. Ranjana is the most ornate among the scripts. It is most commonly used to write Buddhist texts and inscribe mantras on prayer wheels, shrines, temples, and monasteries. The popular Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum (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 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 consonants that are pronounced with creaky voice (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 forming [ṛ] 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

Newar

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.

Letter numerals

Nepalese manuscripts used a system of letters to stand for numbers, although the exact correspondence between letter and number value changed over time. In 1883, Cecil Bendall published a table of Nepalese letter numerals based on different dated Nepalese manuscripts from Cambridge University Library.

Current use

Newar script 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, Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Bhaktapur Municipality, Madhyapur Thimi Municipality ascribes its names in Ranjana Script.

In India, the official script for Newar language is Newar script.