Kaithī Kayathi, Kayasthi, 𑂍𑂶𑂟𑂲
Kaithī script (vowels top three rows, consonants below)
Script type	Abugida
Time period	c. 16th–mid 20th century
Direction	left-to-right
Languages	Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Hindustani, Magahi, Nagpuri, Maithili
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet[a] Phoenician alphabet[a] Aramaic alphabet[a] Brahmi Gupta Siddhaṃ Nāgarī Kaithī
Child systems	Sylheti Nagari
Sister systems	Devanagari Nandinagari Gujarati Modi
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Kthi (317), ​Kaithi
Unicode
Unicode alias	Kaithi
Unicode range	U+11080–U+110CF
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is debated.

Kaithi (𑂍𑂶𑂟𑂲), also called Kayathi (𑂍𑂨𑂟𑂲) or Kayasthi (𑂍𑂰𑂨𑂮𑂹𑂟𑂲), is a historical Brahmic script that was used widely in parts of Northern and Eastern India, primarily in the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. In particular, it was used for writing legal, administrative and private records.^[1] It was used for a variety of Indo-Aryan languages, including Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Hindustani, Magahi, and Nagpuri.

Kayasthi (kaithi) signboard at Purbi Gumti Arrah along with Urdu alphabet (on right side) and Roman Script (above). "Lock no. 11" is written on the board in various languages or scripts.

This table sets out the handwritten form of the vowels and consonants of the Kaithi script, as of the middle of the 19th century.

Bhojpuri story written in Kaithi script by Babu Rama Smaran Lal in 1898

Etymology

Kaithi script derives its name from the word Kayastha, a social group of India that is historically related to writing and traditionally consists of administrators and accountants.^[2] The Kayastha community was closely associated with the princely courts and British colonial governments of North India and were employed by them to write and maintain records of revenue transactions, legal documents and title deeds; general correspondence and proceedings of the royal courts and related bodies.^[3] The script used by them acquired the name Kaithi.

History

A printed form of the Kaithi script, as of the mid-19th century

Kaithi Script (left side bottom-most line) on the Coins of Sher Shah Suri

Documents in Kaithi are traceable to at least the 16th century. The script was widely used during the Mughal period. In the 1880s, during the British Raj, the script was recognised as the official script of the law courts of Bihar. Kaithi was the most widely used script of North India west of Bengal. In 1854, 77,368 school primers were in Kaithi script, as compared to 25,151 in Devanagari and 24,302 in Mahajani.^[4] Among the three scripts widely used in the 'Hindi Belt', Kaithi was widely perceived to be neutral, as it was used by both Hindus and Muslims alike for day-to-day correspondence, financial and administrative activities, while Devanagari was used by Hindus and Persian script by Muslims for religious literature and education. This made Kaithi increasingly unfavorable to the more conservative and religiously inclined members of society who insisted on Devanagari-based and Persian-based transcription of Hindi dialects. As a result of their influence and due to the wide availability of Devanagari type as opposed to the incredibly large variability of Kaithi, Devanagari was promoted, particularly in the Northwest Provinces, which covers present-day Uttar Pradesh.^[5]

In the late 19th century, John Nesfield in Oudh, George Campbell of Inverneill in Bihar and a committee in Bengal all advocated for the use of Kaithi script in education.^[6] Many legal documents were written in Kaithi, and from 1950 to 1954 it was the official legal script of Bihar district courts. However, it was opposed by Brahmin elites and phased out. Present day Bihar courts struggle to read old Kaithi documents.^[7]

Classes

On the basis of local variants Kaithi can be divided into three classes viz. Bhojpuri, Magahi and Trihuti.^[8][9]

Bhojpuri

Signboard in Bhojpuri Kaithi at Purbi Gumti Arrah along with Persian Script (on right side) and Roman Script (above). "Lock no. 11" is written on the board in various languages or scripts.

This was used in Bhojpuri speaking regions and was considered as the most legible style of Kaithi.^[8]

Consonants

All Kaithi consonants have an inherent a vowel:

Vowels

Kaithi vowels have independent (initial) and dependent (diacritic) forms:

Diacritics

Kaithi diacritics with kha (𑂎)

Several diacritics are employed to change the meaning of letters:

Vowel diacritics

The following table shows the list of vowel diacritics on consonants. The vowel diacritics on consonants are call kakahārā (𑂍𑂍𑂯𑂰𑂩𑂰).

Signs and Punctuation

Kaithi has several script-specific punctuation marks:

General punctuation is also used with Kaithi:

• + plus sign can be used to mark phrase boundaries
• ‐ hyphen and - hyphen-minus can be used for hyphenation
• ⸱ word separator middle dot can be used as a word boundary (as can a hyphen)

Digits

Kaithi uses stylistic variants of Devangari digits. It also uses common Indic number signs for fractions and unit marks.^[10]

Unicode

Kaithi script was added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2.

The Unicode block for Kaithi is U+11080–U+110CF:

Publications

The first Bhojpuri quarterly Bagsar Samāchar was published in this script in 1915.^[11]

See also

• Devanagari
• Sylheti Nagari
• Gujarati script
• Modi script

References