Khudabadi alphabet
| Khudabadi |
|
|---|---|
The word "Sindhi" written in the Khudabadi script
|
|
| Type | |
| Languages | Sindhi language |
|
Time period
|
c. 16th century–1947 (some small scale use still) |
|
Parent systems
|
|
|
Sister systems
|
Gurmukhī |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| ISO 15924 | Sind, 318 |
|
Unicode alias
|
Khudawadi |
| Final Accepted Script Proposal | |
|
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
|
|
Khudabadi (also known as Vaniki, Hatvaniki or Hatkai) (Sindhi: خدا آبادي، واڻڪي، هٽ واڻڪي، واڻڪي) script is a script used for writing the Sindhi language.
The Khudabadi script was invented by the Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar community. The members of the Swarnakar community, while residing in Khudabad around 1550, felt it necessary to invent a very simple script so that they can send written messages to their relations, who were living far away from them in their own home towns. This necessity mothered the invention of a new script. The new script had forty one consonants with vowels written as diacritic marks added to the consonants (like many other Brahmic scripts). And was to be written from left to right, like Sanskrit. It continued to be in use for very long period of time among Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar. Due to its simplicity, the use of this script spread very quickly and got acceptance in other Sindhi communities, for sending written communications. Because it was originated from Khudabad, it was called Khudabadi script. It followed a natural pattern and style of other Landa scripts in the region at the time.
The Sindhi traders started maintaining their accounts and other business books in this new script and therefore, later, the Khudabadi script became known as Vaniki, Hatvaniki or Hatkai script (vanika means trader). Suddenly, the knowledge of Khudabadi script became an important criterion for employing new persons who intend to go to Sindhwark (overseas), so that their business accounts and books can be kept secret from foreign people and government officials. The Khudabadi script became very popular in Sindh, to the extent that the schools started teaching the Sindhi language in Khudabadi script.
Sindhi language is now generally written in the Arabic script, but it belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family, and over seventy percent of Sindhi words are of Sanskrit origin. Even 300 years after the Muslim conquest, at the time of Mohammed Ghaznavi, the historian Al-Biruni found Sindhi written in three scripts – Ardhanagari, Saindhu and Malwari, all of them variations of Devanagari. When the British arrived they found the Pandits writing Sindhi in Devanagari, Hindu women using Gurmukhi, government servants using some form of Arabic script and traders keeping their business records in an entirely unknown (to the British) script called Khudabadi. It was widely known as "Hindu Sindhi," to distinguish it from the Arabic script used simultaneously.
...
Wikipedia