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The topic of Mahajani has been a subject of interest for a long time, its various dimensions and ramifications have intrigued academics, professionals and subject matter experts alike. From its historical origins to its modern applications, Mahajani has proven to be a continually relevant and highly important area of study in a variety of contexts. As society evolves, interest in Mahajani remains constant, demonstrating its ability to adapt and remain relevant in an ever-changing world. In this article, we will explore the various facets of Mahajani and its impact in different areas, with the aim of providing a holistic view of this fascinating topic.
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Mahajani 𑅬𑅱𑅐𑅛𑅧𑅑 | |
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Script type | |
Time period | 12th century — 21st century |
Direction | Left-to-right |
Region | India, Pakistan |
Languages | Hindi, Punjabi, and Marwari |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Gurmukhi, Khudabadi, Khojki, Multani |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Mahj (314), Mahajani |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Mahajani |
U+11150–U+1117F Final Accepted Script Proposal | |
The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon. |
Brahmic scripts |
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The Brahmi script and its descendants |
Mahajani is a Laṇḍā mercantile script that was historically used in northern India for writing accounts and financial records in Marwari, Hindi and Punjabi. It is a Brahmic script and is written left-to-right. Mahajani refers to the Hindi word for 'bankers', also known as 'sarrafi' or 'kothival' (merchant).
Mahajani has been used as a primary accounting script for Marwari traders and for the use of Hindi and Punjabi in a wide region across northwest India and eastern Pakistan. It was taught in merchant schools as part of the education system. A vast majority of documents in which it is found are financial documents, in addition to primers. Its use has been reported by bookkeepers in Haryana as the Langdi script, although its relationship with Langdi is uncertain. Mahajani descended from Landa scripts in the greater Punjab region in historic times and was well known as a merchant's script throughout north India. It may have also been influenced by Kaithi and Devanagari.
It has fewer vowels than most North Indian scripts, and the use of them is optional. The vowels i and u can represent both their short and long forms in addition to diphthongs and related vowels. Since vowels are optional, they must be interpreted in context for most Mahajani texts. There are no special conjunct consonant forms, and there are no viramas to indicate them. Nasalization, if indicated, is typically represented by 'na'. It also has various fraction marks, accounting marks, and textual organization marks, to indicate paragraph and word spacing, and abbreviation, punctuation, and space marks. As many Mahajani texts are accounting books, accounting symbols have been found, but they are undergoing further research for proper encoding. It also uses a Devanagari-like baseline only to mark title headings on texts, not like in Devanagari where the baseline is an integral part of the characters. Some characters also have glyphic variants, which can be found in greater detail in the Unicode proposal.
Independent form | IAST | ISO | IPA |
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𑅐 | a | ||
ā | [ɑː] | ||
𑅑 | i | ||
ī | [iː] | ||
𑅒 | u | ||
ū | [uː] | ||
𑅓 | e | ē | [eː] |
ai | |||
𑅔 | o | ō | [oː] |
au |
Independent form | IAST | IPA |
---|---|---|
𑅕 | ka | [k] |
𑅖 | kha | [kʰ] |
𑅗 | ga | [ɡ] |
𑅘 | gha | [ɡʱ] |
𑅙 | ca | [tʃ] |
𑅚 | cha | |
𑅛 | ja | [dʒ] |
𑅜 | jha | |
𑅝 | ña | [ɲ] |
𑅞 | ṭa | [ʈ] |
𑅟 | ṭha | |
𑅠 | ḍa | [ɖ] |
𑅡 | ḍha | |
𑅢 | ṇa | [ɳ] |
𑅣 | ta | [t̪] |
𑅤 | tha | |
𑅥 | da | [d̪] |
𑅦 | dha | |
𑅧 | na | [n] |
𑅨 | pa | [p] |
𑅩 | pha | |
𑅪 | ba | [b] |
𑅫 | bha | |
𑅬 | ma | [m] |
𑅭 | ra | [r] |
𑅮 | la | [l] |
𑅯 | va | [ʋ] |
𑅰 | sa | [s] |
𑅱 | ha | [ɦ] |
Mahajani script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.
The Unicode block for Mahajani is U+11150–U+1117F:
Mahajani Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+1115x | 𑅐 | 𑅑 | 𑅒 | 𑅓 | 𑅔 | 𑅕 | 𑅖 | 𑅗 | 𑅘 | 𑅙 | 𑅚 | 𑅛 | 𑅜 | 𑅝 | 𑅞 | 𑅟 |
U+1116x | 𑅠 | 𑅡 | 𑅢 | 𑅣 | 𑅤 | 𑅥 | 𑅦 | 𑅧 | 𑅨 | 𑅩 | 𑅪 | 𑅫 | 𑅬 | 𑅭 | 𑅮 | 𑅯 |
U+1117x | 𑅰 | 𑅱 | 𑅲 | 𑅳 | 𑅴 | 𑅵 | 𑅶 | |||||||||
Notes |