Overview
Devanagari (देवनागरी, IAST: Devanāgarī) is an Indic script used widely in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida, a type of segmental writing system, derived from the ancient Brāhmī script. Devanagari is among the official scripts of India and Nepal.
The script was in regular use by the 8th century CE and had attained its modern form by around 1000 CE. It comprises 48 primary characters, including 14 vowels and 34 consonants, and is among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world, used for over 120 languages. Its orthography closely reflects pronunciation, and it is a unicameral alphabet without the concept of letter case found in the Latin alphabet.
Devanagari is written from left to right and shows a preference for symmetrical, rounded shapes within squared outlines. A characteristic feature is the horizontal line known as the śirorekhā (शिरोरेखा) that runs along the top of full letters. While it appears visually distinct from other Indic scripts such as Bengali-Assamese or Gurmukhi, closer examination reveals significant structural similarities, with differences mainly in angles and emphasis. The script is closely related to the Nandināgarī script found in many ancient South Indian manuscripts, and is more distantly related to several Southeast Asian scripts.
Languages that use Devanagari as a primary or secondary script include Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Pāḷi, Nepali, Boro, Sherpa, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj Bhasha, Chhattisgarhi, Haryanvi, Magahi, Nagpuri, Rajasthani, Khandeshi, Bhili, Dogri, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani, Sindhi, Nepal Bhasa, Mundari, Angika, Bajjika and Santali. Of these, Hindi (हिन्दी) is the most widely spoken. The script has long served as a vehicle for Sanskrit literature and the textual traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and
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