Nandinagari is a Brahmic script derived from the 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 𑧁𑧞𑦿𑧒𑧁𑧑𑦰𑧈𑧓
The word Nandinagari in Nandinagari script
Script type	Abugida
Time period	c.8th-19th century
Direction	left-to-right
Languages	Sanskrit and Kannada
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet[a] Phoenician alphabet[a] Aramaic alphabet[a] Brahmi Gupta Siddhaṃ Nāgarī Nandinagari
Sister systems	Devanagari, Kaithi, Gujarati, Modi
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Nand (311), ​Nandinagari
Unicode
Unicode alias	Nandinagari
Unicode range	U+119A0–U+119FF
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

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

Etymology

Nagari comes from नगर (nagara), which means city.[6]

Nandinagar script inscription from Kakatiya rule found in Mahabubabad 212 km from Nandi Nagar, Hyderabad.[7]

The first part of the term "Nandi" is ambiguous in its context. It may mean "sacred" or "auspicious" (cf. Nandi verses in Sanskrit drama).^{[citation needed]} Nandi is the name of Lord Siva's Vrishabhavahana (bull vehicle), a revered icon, and it may be the source of the name.^{[citation needed]}

History

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][9]

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.[10][11] A Rigveda manuscript has been found written in Nandi nagari script,[12] as well as manuscripts of other Vedas.[13] Manuscripts of the first century BCE Vikramacarita, also known as the "Adventures of Vikrama" or the "Hindu Book of Tales",[14] have been found in Nandinagari script.[15]

In a Travancore temple of Kerala, an Anantasayana Mahatmya palm-leaf manuscript was found, and it is in Nandinagari script.[16]

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.[8]

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.[17] These cover Vedas, philosophy, commentaries on ancient works,[18] mythology, science and arts.[3][19][20] 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.[21]

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.[8] 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.[22]

Unicode

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:

See also

• Shiksha – the Vedic study of sound, focusing on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nandinagari.

• Palaeographical Importance of Nandinagari, HareKrsna.com