Nandinagari

Nandinagari is a Brahmic script derived from Nāgarī script which appeared in the 7th century AD.[1] This script and its variants were used in the central Deccan region and south India,[1] and an abundance of Sanskrit manuscripts in Nandinagari have been discovered but remain untransliterated.[2][3] Some of the discovered manuscripts of Madhvacharya of the Dvaita Vedanta school of Hinduism are in Nandinagari script.[4]

Nandinagari
The word Nandinagari in Nandinagari script.
Type
LanguagesSanskrit
Time period
c.8th-19th century
Parent systems
Sister systems
Devanagari, Kaithi
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924Nand, 311
Unicode alias
Nandinagari
U+119A0–U+119FF
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic script and its descendants
Northern Brahmic
Southern Brahmic
A Nandinagari manuscript

It is a sister script to Devanāgarī, which is common in other parts of India.[5]

Etymology

The etymological origin of the name "Nandinagari" is unclear. The first part of the term "Nandi" is ambiguous in its context. It may mean "sacred" or "auspicious" (cf. Nandi verses in Sanskrit drama). Nandi is the name of Lord Siva's Vrishabhavahana (bull vehicle), a revered icon, and it may be the source of the name.

History
A 16th century CE Sanskrit record of Sadasiva Raya in Nandinagari script engraved on copper plates.[6] Manuscripts and records in Nandinagari were created and preserved historically by creating inscriptions on metal plates, specially treated palm leaves, slabs of stone and paper.

Nandinagari is a Brahmi-based script that was used in southern India between the 11th and 19th centuries AD for producing manuscripts and inscriptions in Sanskrit in south Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It derives from the central group of Nagari scripts and is related to Devanagari. There are also several styles of Nandinagari, considered by scholars as variant forms of the script.[5][7]

Some of the earliest inscriptions in Nandinagari have been found in Tamil Nadu. The 8th century Narasimha Pallava's stone inscriptions in Mamallapuram on Tamil Nadu's coast, the 10th-century coins from Chola king Rajaraja's period, the Paliyam copper plate inscriptions of the 9th century Ay king Varagunam are all in Nandinagari script.[8][9] A Rigveda manuscript has been found written in Nandi nagari script,[10] as well as manuscripts of other Vedas.[11] Manuscripts of the first century BCE Vikramacarita, also known as the "Adventures of Vikrama" or the "Hindu Book of Tales",[12] have been found in Nandinagari script.[13]

In a Travancore temple of Kerala, an Anantasayana Mahatmya palm-leaf manuscript was found, and it is in Nandinagari script.[14]

Nandi Nagari script was used to spell the Sanskrit language, and many Sanskrit copper plate inscriptions of the Vijayanagar Empire were written in that script.[6]

Numerous Sanskrit manuscripts written in Nandinagari have been discovered in South India, but it is one of the least documented and studied ancient scripts of India.[15] These cover Vedas, philosophy, commentaries on ancient works,[16] mythology, science and arts.[3][17][18] These are preserved in the manuscript libraries, particularly those in the southern regions of the country.[2] Some Nandinagari texts are in biscript that include other major south India language scripts, such as Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada scripts.[19]

Comparison to Devanagari

Nandinagari and Devanagari scripts are very close and share many similarities, but they also show systematic differences. Nandinagari differs from Devanagari more in the shape of its vowels, and less in many consonant shapes.[6] It has mātra (a headline at the top of the character) but lacks long connecting mātra over words. Nandinagari is thus a sister script of Devanagari, but not a trivial variation.[5]

The Nandinagari manuscripts also show cosmetic and style differences, such as the use of distinct Anusvaras and method of labeling each hymn or verse.[20]

A chart showing Nandinagari script

Unicode
Main article: Nandinagari (Unicode block)

Nandinagari script was added to the Unicode Standard in March 2019 with the release of version 12.0.

The Unicode block for Nandinagari is U+119A0–U+119FF:

Nandinagari[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+119Ax 𑦠 𑦡 𑦢 𑦣 𑦤 𑦥 𑦦 𑦧 𑦪 𑦫 𑦬 𑦭 𑦮 𑦯
U+119Bx 𑦰 𑦱 𑦲 𑦳 𑦴 𑦵 𑦶 𑦷 𑦸 𑦹 𑦺 𑦻 𑦼 𑦽 𑦾 𑦿
U+119Cx 𑧀 𑧁 𑧂 𑧃 𑧄 𑧅 𑧆 𑧇 𑧈 𑧉 𑧊 𑧋 𑧌 𑧍 𑧎 𑧏
U+119Dx 𑧐 𑧑 𑧒 𑧓 𑧔 𑧕 𑧖 𑧗 𑧚 𑧛 𑧜 𑧝 𑧞 𑧟
U+119Ex 𑧠 𑧡 𑧢 𑧣 𑧤
U+119Fx
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 13.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also
  • Shiksha – the Vedic study of sound, focussing on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet

References
  1. George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415772945, page 75
  2. Reinhold Grünendahl (2001), South Indian Scripts in Sanskrit Manuscripts and Prints, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 978-3447045049, pages xxii, 201-210
  3. P. Visalakshy (2003), The Fundamentals of Manuscriptology, Dravidian Linguistics Association, ISBN 978-8185691107, pages 55-62
  4. Friedrich Otto Schrader (1988), A descriptive catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the Adyar Library, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
  5. Pandey, Anshuman. (2013). Preliminary Proposal to Encode Nandinagari in ISO/IEC 10646.
  6. Prathima, G. & Rao, G. K. (2011). A Survey of Nandinagari Manuscript Recognition System. International Journal of Science & Technology, 1(1), 30-36.
  7. Pandey, Anshuman. (2017). Final proposal to encode Nandinagari in Unicode.
  8. Nagari script Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu (2011)
  9. I Nakacami (2008), Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195693737, pages 29-30
  10. AC Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century AD, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1108046107, page 61 with footnote 1
  11. MacKenzie Collection of Oriental Manuscripts, p. PA3, at Google Books, Asiatic Society of Bengal, pages 3, 6-7
  12. A Hindu Book of Tales: The Vikramacarita, Franklin Edgerton, The American Journal of Philology, Volume 33, No. 131, page 249-252
  13. A Hindu Book of Tales: The Vikramacarita, Franklin Edgerton, The American Journal of Philology, Volume 33, No. 131, page 262
  14. H. H. Wilson and Colin Mackenzie, Mackenzie Collection: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts, p. 62, at Google Books, Asiatic Society, page 62
  15. Reinhold Grünendahl (2001), South Indian Scripts in Sanskrit Manuscripts and Prints: Grantha Tamil - Malayalam - Telugu - Kannada - Nandinagari, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 978-3447045049, page xxii
  16. David Pingree (1981), Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, Volume 4, American Philosophical Society, ISBN 978-0871691460, pages 29, 201, 217, 260, 269, 409
  17. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts, p. PA2, at Google Books, H. H. Wilson, Mackenzie Collection of Nandinagari, Devanagari, Grandham and Telugu Manuscripts (South India), pages 2-8, 12-14
  18. David Pingree (1970), Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, Volume 5, American Philosophical Society, ISBN 978-0871692139, pages 26-27, 79-81, 237-241
  19. David Pingree (1970), Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, Volume 1 and 2, American Philosophical Society, ISBN 978-0871690814, see Preface and Introduction
  20. Srinidhi (2015), Encoding of Vedic characters used in non-Devanagari scripts, UNICODE International, pages 7-9
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