Syloti Nagri
| Sylheti Nagari Silôṭi Nagôri ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ ꠘꠣꠉꠞꠤ |
|
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Languages | Sylheti language, Bengali language |
|
Time period
|
1303 CE |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| ISO 15924 | Sylo, 316 |
|
Unicode alias
|
Syloti Nagri |
| U+A800–U+A82F | |
Sylheti Nagari (Silôṭi Nagôri) (ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ ꠘꠣꠉꠞꠤ) is an extinct script used for writing the Sylheti language in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Outside of Sylhet the script has been known to be used in Bangladesh's Mymensingh, Netrokona, Kishoreganj and in India's Assam. Developed from Bengali, Arabic, Kaithi and Devanagari scripts, Sylheti Nagari shows a fusion of Arabic and Persian symbols. The script was used for writing Sylheti, now a dialect of Bengali, rather than pure Bengali or Sanskrit languages.
The traditional belief of Hinduism that the Brahmi script was delivered from Brahma led the Muslims of Sylhet to not use it in their writings and a need to create a script based on the Arabic and Persian scripts. This led to the birth of Sylheti Nagari.
The script has also been known as Jalalabad Nagari, Fūl (flower) Nagari,Muslim Nagari, Muhammad Nagari. All of its names are suffixed with Nagari, which implies the script's connection to the Nāgarī script.
The specific origin of Sylheti Nagari is debated. The general hypothesis is the Muslims of Sylhet were the ones to invent it. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, however, is of the opinion that Shah Jalal brought the script with him when he arrived in the area in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The bulk of text written in Sylheti Nagari being influenced by Sufism seems to support this hypothesis. On the other hand, according to Ahmad Hasan Dani it was the Afghans living in Sylhet during the Afghan rule who invented the script, since some of Sylheti Nagari's letters resemble the symbols on Afghan coins, and there were a large number of Afghans living in Sylhet at that time. Other less-supported hypotheses are:
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Wikipedia