Learning Sanskrit - Ancient Sanskrit characters

A comparative study of the ancient and new Devanāgarī characters

 Introduction

Hi, Gabriel Pradīpaka again. Devanāgarī is the modern alphabet to write in Sanskrit. By "modern" I mean: since Middle Ages up to date. Remember that Sanskrit is the oldest Indo-European language which is known (read the Linguistic section for more information). Anyway, Sanskrit used other two alphabets in ancient times: Brāhma (also known as "Brāhmī" or "Brāhmīlipi") and Kharoṣṭhī. I will not speak about these two old alphabets, which are not used anymore since long, but if you want to know more about them, go to this site dealing with Indian languages and scripts.

Therefore, Devanāgarī is the current alphabet used to write in Sanskrit since the Middle Ages. As a result, it has also inevitably undergone a process of evolution and modifications. In other words, some characters has been changed. This website uses the Sanskrit 2003 font, which consists of Sanskrit characters drawn in a up to date format. Nonetheless, you might read some books (e.g. dictionaries, grammars, etc.) or visit websites where the ancient characters are used instead, and consequently some confusion will accrue to you. I have been frequently asked via e-mail about how to dissipate this confusion, and in order not to send many individual messages with responses, I decided to write the present document and so respond everybody simultaneously. Oh, I am a clever boy, hehe.

Also, keep in mind that there are two types of Sanskrit: Vedic and Post-vedic (also called Classic). Before the fourth century BC, approximately, Vedic Sanskrit was on its height, but then it was replaced with Classic Sanskrit (the one I teach you in the site). Vedic Sanskrit has some common points with Classic Sanskrit, but there are big differences too. If you want to see an example of Vedic Sanskrit, read my Ṛgveda translation. In turn, if you want to see an example of Classic Sanskrit, read my Spandanirṇaya translation. Vedic Sanskrit is "by far" much more difficult than Classic Sanskrit as far as grammar is concerned. On top of that, it contains plenty of strange written accents you can see on this site. Classic Sanskrit is without any written accent. That is to say, everything is written in Devanāgarī script, both Vedic and Postvedic, but you will not find any of those accents in Classic Sanskrit ever.

Well, let us get down to work!

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 Comparative study

Firstly, the alphabet in Devanāgarī such as is shown in our website. It contains the modern forms only.

And now the same alphabet but using ancient Sanskrit characters. The characters which have been changed are in violet.

Sanskrit alphabet in ancient Devanāgarī script

Letters
Vowels
		इ	ई	उ	ऊ			ऌ	ए	ऐ
a	ā	i	ī	u	ū	ṛ	ṝ	ḷ	e	ai	o	au	aṁ 1	aḥ 1
Consonants
First Group
Subgroups				Hard				Soft
				Unaspirate		Aspirate		Unaspirate		Aspirate		Nasals
Gutturals				क		ख		ग		घ		ङ
				ka		kha		ga		gha		ṅa
Palatals				च				ज				ञ
				ca		cha		ja		jha		ña
Cerebrals (Cacuminals)				ट		ठ		ड		ढ
				ṭa		ṭha		ḍa		ḍha		ṇa
Dentals				त		थ		द		ध		न
				ta		tha		da		dha		na
Labials				प		फ		ब		भ		म
				pa		pha		ba		bha		ma
Second Group
Semivowels				य		र		ल			व
				ya		ra		la			va
Third Group
Sibilants							ष			स
				śa			ṣa			sa
Fourth Group
Sonant Aspirate				ह
				ha

¹ As a matter of fact, Anusvāra (the dot) and Visarga (the two dots) have not been modified at all. Only the "a" vowel accompanying them in the alphabet has been changed.

The ancient numbers apparently remain the same. Anyway, there are several additional variants as regards letters and numbers, which also should be kept in mind, because you will very likely stumble upon them some day. Some of these variants are old while other are modern. Remember that the Conjuncts are agglutinate consonants.

The following table is intended for all users. Of course, I am not going to write every possible variant but the most commonly seen. I will write down the variants I am aware of at this moment. Nonetheless, be warned that this table might be updated with more variants in the future:

Letters and numbers - Variants

Numbers
Numbers	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९	०
Numbers (variants included)		n/a	n/a	n/a	or	n/a	n/a		or or	n/a
Transliteration	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
Consonants
Gutturals	क	ख	ग	घ	ङ
Gutturals (variants)	n/a		n/a	n/a	n/a
Transliteration	ka	kha	ga	gha	ṅa
Palatals	च	छ	ज	झ	ञ
Palatals (variants)	n/a	n/a	n/a	or	n/a
Transliteration	ca	cha	ja	jha	ña
Dentals	त	थ	द	ध	न
Dentals (variants)	n/a	n/a	n/a		n/a
Transliteration	ta	tha	da	dha	na
Labials	प	फ	ब	भ	म
Labials (variants)	n/a	n/a	n/a		n/a
Transliteration	pa	pha	ba	bha	ma
Semivowels	य	र	ल	व
Semivowels (variants)	n/a	n/a	or	va
Transliteration	ya	ra	la	va
Conjuncts
Normal	क्ष
Variants
Transliteration	kṣa

Some examples now showing modern characters vs. ancient characters.

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 Examples

The following examples do not include the variants, but only the modern and ancient characters defined in the respective tables with the alphabets:

Modern and ancient characters in practice

Words
Using modern characters	अभिनवगुप्त	आनन्द	ऋषि	ॠः	ओदन	और्वर	छन्दस्	झटिति	कृष्ण	शिव
Using ancient characters
Transliteration	Abhinavagupta	ānanda	ṛṣi	ṝḥ	odana	aurvara	chandas	jhaṭiti	Kṛṣṇa	Śiva
Translation	Ever new and hidden (name of one of the greatest Trika masters)	bliss	sage, seer	a Bhairava or terrible form of Śiva	boiled rice	coming from the earth or ground	meter	instantly	Lord Kṛṣṇa (lit. black)	Lord Śiva (lit. auspicious)
Using modern characters	अत्र	आचार्य	ऋत	ॠकार	ओघ	औदर्य	प्रछ्	झगझगाय	दण्ड	शक्ति
Using ancient characters
Transliteration	atra	ācārya	ṛta	ṝkāra	ogha	audarya	prach	jhagajhagāya	daṇḍa	Śakti
Translation	here	a spiritual teacher	right, proper	the letter "ṝ"	flood, stream	being in the stomach or belly	to ask (questions)	to sparkle, flash	a stick	Power
Using modern characters	अखिल	आरण्य	ऋच्	ॠस्वर	ओजस्	औष्ठ	इच्छा	झष	कर्ण	कश्मीर
Using ancient characters
Transliteration	akhila	āraṇya	ṛc	ṝsvara	ojas	auṣṭha	icchā	jhaṣa	karṇa	kaśmīra
Translation	whole, completely	related to a forest	to praise	the vowel "ṝ"	vigor	lip-shaped	will	a large fish	ear	Kashmir

And that is it for now!

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 Further Information

This document was conceived by Gabriel Pradīpaka, one of the two founders of this site, and spiritual guru conversant with Sanskrit language and Trika philosophy.

For further information about Sanskrit, Yoga and Indian Philosophy; or if you simply want to comment, ask a question or correct a mistake, feel free to contact us: This is our e-mail address.