The Devanagari script is used for writing classical
Sanskrit and its modern historical derivative,
Hindi. Extensions to Devanagari are used to write other related languages of
India (such as
Marathi) and of
Nepal (
Nepali). In addition, the Devanagari is used to write
Awadhi,
Bagheli,
Bhatneri,
Bhili,
Bihari,
Braj Bhasha,
Chhattisgarhi,
Garhwali,
Gondi (
Betul,
Chhindwara and
Mandla dialects),
Harauti,
Ho,
Jaipuri,
Kachchhi,
Kanauji,
Konkani,
Kului,
Kumaoni,
Kurku,
Kurukh,
Marwari,
Mundari,
Newari,
Palpa and
Santail.
All other Indic scripts, as well as the Sinhala script of Sri Lanka, the Tibetan script and the Southeast Asian scripts (Thai, Lao, Khmer and Myanmar), as historically connected with the Devanagari script as descendants of the ancient Brahmi script. The entire family of scripts shares a large number of structural features.
The Devanagari block of the Unicode standard is based on ISCII-1988 (Indian Standard Code for Information Interchange) which is an update of earlier ISCII standards from 1983 and 1986. In 1991, a new version of ISCII was published in IS 13194, which partially modified the layout and repertoire; thus, Unicode does not precisely follow the layout of the new standard. Unicode remains a superset of the ISCII-1991 repertoire, except for a number of new Vedic extensions defined in IS 13194:1991 Annex G Extended Character Set for Vedic.
Unicode encodes Devanagari characters in the same relative position as those coded in positions 0xA0 to 0xF4 in ISCII-1988. The same character code layout is followed for eight other Indic scripts in Unicode : Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. This parallel code layout emphasizes the structural similarities of the Brahmi scripts and follows the stated intention of the Indian coding standards to enable one-to-one mappings between analogous coding positions in different scripts in the family. Sinhala, Thai, Lao, Khmer and Myanmar depart to a greater extent from the Devanagari structural pattern, so the Unicode standard does not attempt to provide any direct mapping for these scripts to the Devanagari order.
The writing systems that employ Devanagari and other Indic scripts constitute a cross between syllabic writing systems as phonemic writing systems (alphabets). The effective unit of these writing systems is the orthographic syllable, consisting of a consonant and vowel (CV) core and zero or more preceding consonants, with a canonical structure of ((C)C)CV. The orthographic syllable need not correspond exactly with a phonological syllable, especially when a consonant cluster is involved, but the writing system is built on phonological principles and tends to correspond quite closely to pronunciation.
The orthographic syllable is built up of alphabetic pieces, the actual letters of the Devanagari script. The pieces consist of three distinct character types : consonant letters, independent vowels and dependent vowel signs. In a text sequence, these characters are stored in logical (phonetic) order.
Devanagari characters can combine or change shape depending on their context, such as its ordering with respect to other characters. A few Devanagari characters cause a change in the order of the displayed characters. This reordering is not commonly seen in non-Indic scripts and occurs independently of and bidirectional character reordering that might be required.
Be advised that the rules for correctly rendering Devanagari text from a stream of characters are horrifically complex.
Unicode's
Devanagari code block reserves the
128 code points from U+0900 to U+097F, of which
112 are currently assigned.
NKo <-- Devanagari --> Bengali
Number of characters added in each version of the Unicode standard :
Unicode 1.1 : 104
Unicode 4.0 : 1
Unicode 4.1 : 1
Unicode 5.0 : 4
Unicode 5.1 : 2
Number of characters in each General Category :
Letter, Modifier Lm : 1
Letter, Other Lo : 72
Mark, Non-Spacing Mn : 18
Mark, Spacing Combining Mc : 8
Number, Decimal Digit Nd : 10
Punctuation, Other Po : 3
Number of characters in each Bidirectional Category :
Left To Right L : 94
Non Spacing Mark NSM : 18
The columns below should be interpreted as :
- The Unicode code for the character
- The character in question
- The Unicode name for the character
- The Unicode General Category for the character
- The Unicode Bidirectional Category for the character
- The Unicode version when this character was added
If the characters below show up poorly, or not at all, see Unicode Support for possible solutions.
Devanagari
Based on ISCII 1988
- U+0901 ँ Devanagari sign candrabindu Mn NSM 1.1
- aka anunasika
- ref U+0310 ̐ combining candrabindu (Combining Diacritical Marks)
- U+0902 ं Devanagari sign anusvara Mn NSM 1.1
- aka bindu
- U+0903 ः Devanagari sign visarga Mc L 1.1
Independent vowels
- U+0904 ऄ Devanagari letter short a Lo L 4.0
- U+0905 अ Devanagari letter A Lo L 1.1
- U+0906 आ Devanagari letter aa Lo L 1.1
- U+0907 इ Devanagari letter I Lo L 1.1
- U+0908 ई Devanagari letter ii Lo L 1.1
- U+0909 उ Devanagari letter U Lo L 1.1
- U+090A ऊ Devanagari letter uu Lo L 1.1
- U+090B ऋ Devanagari letter vocalic r Lo L 1.1
- U+090C ऌ Devanagari letter vocalic l Lo L 1.1
- U+090D ऍ Devanagari letter candra e Lo L 1.1
- U+090E ऎ Devanagari letter short e Lo L 1.1
- * for transcribing Dravidian short e
- U+090F ए Devanagari letter E Lo L 1.1
- U+0910 ऐ Devanagari letter ai Lo L 1.1
- U+0911 ऑ Devanagari letter candra o Lo L 1.1
- U+0912 ऒ Devanagari letter short o Lo L 1.1
- * for transcribing Dravidian short o
- U+0913 ओ Devanagari letter O Lo L 1.1
- U+0914 औ Devanagari letter au Lo L 1.1
Consonants
- U+0915 क Devanagari letter ka Lo L 1.1
- U+0916 ख Devanagari letter kha Lo L 1.1
- U+0917 ग Devanagari letter ga Lo L 1.1
- U+0918 घ Devanagari letter gha Lo L 1.1
- U+0919 ङ Devanagari letter nga Lo L 1.1
- U+091A च Devanagari letter ca Lo L 1.1
- U+091B छ Devanagari letter cha Lo L 1.1
- U+091C ज Devanagari letter ja Lo L 1.1
- U+091D झ Devanagari letter jha Lo L 1.1
- U+091E ञ Devanagari letter nya Lo L 1.1
- U+091F ट Devanagari letter tta Lo L 1.1
- U+0920 ठ Devanagari letter ttha Lo L 1.1
- U+0921 ड Devanagari letter dda Lo L 1.1
- U+0922 ढ Devanagari letter ddha Lo L 1.1
- U+0923 ण Devanagari letter nna Lo L 1.1
- U+0924 त Devanagari letter ta Lo L 1.1
- U+0925 थ Devanagari letter tha Lo L 1.1
- U+0926 द Devanagari letter da Lo L 1.1
- U+0927 ध Devanagari letter dha Lo L 1.1
- U+0928 न Devanagari letter na Lo L 1.1
- U+0929 ऩ Devanagari letter nnna Lo L 1.1
- * for transcribing Dravidian alveolar n
- U+092A प Devanagari letter pa Lo L 1.1
- U+092B फ Devanagari letter pha Lo L 1.1
- U+092C ब Devanagari letter ba Lo L 1.1
- U+092D भ Devanagari letter bha Lo L 1.1
- U+092E म Devanagari letter ma Lo L 1.1
- U+092F य Devanagari letter ya Lo L 1.1
- U+0930 र Devanagari letter ra Lo L 1.1
- U+0931 ऱ Devanagari letter rra Lo L 1.1
- * for transcribing Dravidian alveolar r
- * half form is represented as "Eyelash RA"
- U+0932 ल Devanagari letter la Lo L 1.1
- U+0933 ळ Devanagari letter lla Lo L 1.1
- U+0934 ऴ Devanagari letter llla Lo L 1.1
- * for transcribing Dravidian l
- U+0935 व Devanagari letter va Lo L 1.1
- U+0936 श Devanagari letter sha Lo L 1.1
- U+0937 ष Devanagari letter ssa Lo L 1.1
- U+0938 स Devanagari letter sa Lo L 1.1
- U+0939 ह Devanagari letter ha Lo L 1.1
Various signs
- U+093C ़ Devanagari sign nukta Mn NSM 1.1
- * for extending the alphabet to new letters
- U+093D ऽ Devanagari sign avagraha Lo L 1.1
Dependent vowel signs
- U+093E ा Devanagari vowel sign aa Mc L 1.1
- U+093F ि Devanagari vowel sign i Mc L 1.1
- * stands to the left of the consonant
- U+0940 ी Devanagari vowel sign ii Mc L 1.1
- U+0941 ु Devanagari vowel sign u Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0942 ू Devanagari vowel sign uu Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0943 ृ Devanagari vowel sign vocalic r Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0944 ॄ Devanagari vowel sign vocalic rr Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0945 ॅ Devanagari vowel sign candra e Mn NSM 1.1
- aka candra
- U+0946 ॆ Devanagari vowel sign short e Mn NSM 1.1
- * for transcribing Dravidian vowels
- U+0947 े Devanagari vowel sign e Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0948 ै Devanagari vowel sign ai Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0949 ॉ Devanagari vowel sign candra o Mc L 1.1
- U+094A ॊ Devanagari vowel sign short o Mc L 1.1
- * for transcribing Dravidian vowels
- U+094B ो Devanagari vowel sign o Mc L 1.1
- U+094C ौ Devanagari vowel sign au Mc L 1.1
Various signs
- U+094D ् Devanagari sign virama Mn NSM 1.1
- aka halant (the preferred hindi name)
- * suppresses inherent vowel
- U+0950 ॐ Devanagari om Lo L 1.1
- U+0951 ॑ Devanagari stress sign udatta Mn NSM 1.1
- aka vedic tone svarita
- * mostly used for Rigvedic svarita, with rare use for Yajurvedic udatta
- * used also in Vedic texts written in other scripts
- U+0952 ॒ Devanagari stress sign anudatta Mn NSM 1.1
- aka vedic tone anudatta
- * used also in Vedic texts written in other scripts
- U+0953 ॓ Devanagari grave accent Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0954 ॔ Devanagari acute accent Mn NSM 1.1
Additional consonants
- U+0958 क़ Devanagari letter qa Lo L 1.1
- U+0959 ख़ Devanagari letter khha Lo L 1.1
- U+095A ग़ Devanagari letter ghha Lo L 1.1
- U+095B ज़ Devanagari letter za Lo L 1.1
- U+095C ड़ Devanagari letter dddha Lo L 1.1
- U+095D ढ़ Devanagari letter rha Lo L 1.1
- U+095E फ़ Devanagari letter fa Lo L 1.1
- U+095F य़ Devanagari letter yya Lo L 1.1
Additional vowels for Sanskrit
- U+0960 ॠ Devanagari letter vocalic rr Lo L 1.1
- U+0961 ॡ Devanagari letter vocalic ll Lo L 1.1
- U+0962 ॢ Devanagari vowel sign vocalic l Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0963 ॣ Devanagari vowel sign vocalic ll Mn NSM 1.1
Generic punctuation for scripts of India
These punctuation marks are for common use for the scripts of India despite being named "DEVANAGARI".
- U+0964 । Devanagari danda Po L 1.1
- aka purna viram
- * phrase separator
- U+0965 ॥ Devanagari double danda Po L 1.1
- aka deergh viram
Digits
- U+0966 ० Devanagari digit zero Nd L 1.1
- U+0967 १ Devanagari digit one Nd L 1.1
- U+0968 २ Devanagari digit two Nd L 1.1
- U+0969 ३ Devanagari digit three Nd L 1.1
- U+096A ४ Devanagari digit four Nd L 1.1
- U+096B ५ Devanagari digit five Nd L 1.1
- U+096C ६ Devanagari digit six Nd L 1.1
- U+096D ७ Devanagari digit seven Nd L 1.1
- U+096E ८ Devanagari digit eight Nd L 1.1
- U+096F ९ Devanagari digit nine Nd L 1.1
Devanagari-specific additions
- U+0970 ॰ Devanagari abbreviation sign Po L 1.1
- U+0971 ॱ Devanagari sign high spacing dot Lm L 5.1
Additional vowel for Marathi
- U+0972 ॲ Devanagari letter candra a Lo L 5.1
- * Marathi
Sindhi implosives
These are added from Amendment 3 to 10646:2003.
- U+097B ॻ Devanagari letter gga Lo L 5.0
- U+097C ॼ Devanagari letter jja Lo L 5.0
Glottal stop
- U+097D ॽ Devanagari letter glottal stop Lo L 4.1
- * used for writing Limbu in Devanagari
- * a glyph variant has the connecting top bar
Sindhi implosives
These are added from Amendment 3 to 10646:2003.
- U+097E ॾ Devanagari letter ddda Lo L 5.0
- U+097F ॿ Devanagari letter bba Lo L 5.0
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