Devanagarization of Latin script

Adi-ShankaraCharya had reviving Hinduism to Hindus and other members of the Indian subcontinent. Had had a tall order cut out for him.

He had to not only debate scholars of multiple traditions following the path of Ahimsa. But also inspire enough for not only GharVapsai and take up sanyas. This was neccessary to prepare Hindus for islamic onslaught.

He had another task laid out in front of him. How can revival of Hinduism happen without revival of Sanskrit ? Even today all the mantras for the rituals are in Sanskrit. The script used for them are varied but not the language. For example, in Telugu and Tamil speaking regions the it’s Sanskrit written in local scripts which retain the phonetic capability.

Adi-ShankaraCharya the true Ahimsa Dharma follower that found a non-violent way of reviving Sanskrit. He started Sanskritization of Pali which went on until it became Sanskrit.

While the idea of non-translatables is accepted by a big section of Hindu society (not enought yet) and effort is going into Sanskritization of english atleast in the spiritual context. But of the 20 million source books of Hinduism only a microscopic portion are available in English.

Big chunk of these books are available in various languages like Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi etc. The script often is directly Devanagari or related to it.

Just like Sanskritization of Pali, Manipravalam was created which made Sanskrit accessable to non-Sanskrit speakers. This continuous process of revival kept Sanskrit alive and relevant.

Digitization of Hindu literature is a major problem. Of the 100 million source books of Hinduism barely 20 million exist scattered. Every day more and more priceless and rare books are simple vanishing into thin air. Even if all the 20 million books are collected and digitized will Hindus be able to consume them ? Or will it led to feeding Breaking Hindu forces considering they are better organized ? Fear should not stop for Hindus to take action. If those books and manuscripts are not digitized quickly then they would be lost for ever.

A major section of Hindu society cannot read or write any other language apart from English. This group can be broadly classified into 3 categories:

1. Can speak or understand a Hindu language but never learnt how to read or write in it.

2. Can speak or understand a Hindu language, learnt to read or write but out of touch.

3. Cannot speak or understand any Hindu language, never learnt any.

(Hindu language == languages used in Hindu scriptures.)

How do we prepare Hindu society to become consumer of those digitized books ? How do we address the non-familiarity of Hindus with scripts of Hindu literature ? As more seekers are adopting Hinduim from the latin script backgroud easy transition has to be created for them as well.

Creation of Latin font with devaganari (Telugu, Tamil etc) effect would go a long way. Apart from enriching the latin font it will also aid Hindu society to transition into scripts of Hindu literature.

Samakran and Ananda Namaste are 2 fonts available. While Ananda Namaste seems to be a more modern version.

More such fonts need to be developed for daily use. I would like to use an open source font with devagari effect in long post forms as well.

Originally published at https://hinduinterest.com.