1

Rational Approach to Hindi Literacy

(A Technical Report)

By

Virendra P Singh
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

Chapter 2: LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Chapter 3: DEVANAGARI SCRIPT AND HINDI

Chapter 4: HINDI AND ROMANIZATION

Chapter 5: ROMANAAGARII SCRIPT

Chapter 6: ROMANAAGARII TO SARAL SCRIPTS

Chapter 7: SIMPLIFICATION OF THE NUMBERING SYSTEM

Chapter 8: TEACHING ROMANAAGARII AND SARAL SCRIPTS

Chapter 9: SARAL SCRIPTS AND LITERACY

Chapter 10: SARAL SCRIPTS, COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET

Appendix 1: Hindi phonemes and fonts

Appendix 2: Comparative view of fonts

Appendix 3: Comparative view of IAST, SARAL Inglish(SI), Romanaagarii(RN),

SARAL Roman(SR) SARAL Hindi (SH), SARAL Gujarati(SG), SARAL Urdu(SU) and
Roman Urdu(RU) writing systems.

Appendix 4: Unicode and SARAL Hindi

Appendix 5: SARAL Numbering System

Appendix 6: Table of Phonemes (baaraakhar‟ii)

Appendix 7: Alphabet, lessons and Mandala/Yantra for SARAL scripts

Appendix 8: Internet usage in the world

Appendix 9: SARAL scripts and Shri Yantra

Bibliography
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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

Concept of Romanaagarii

The relationship between language and script is established through symbolic

representations of sounds for which there are no established rules. Different
people in different parts of the world have been using different symbols to
represent sounds. Thus, there are numerous scripts and the phonetic
relationship between symbols and sounds differs from script to script. In some
scripts, one symbol could represent more than one sound while one sound
could be represented by more than one symbol. Roman script of the English
language is known for this kind of irregularity. Arrangement of symbols could
also affect clarity and easy printability of a script. Change in symbols and
irregular combination of different symbols to produce sounds could cause
confusion and problems for typing and printing. From this point of view, the
uniform size of letters and systematic placement of vowels after consonants
are strong points of Roman script.

Devanagari script, which was originally developed for writing Sanskrit

language, contains phonetic merits but has printing weaknesses. Presently,
Hindi language is written in Devanagari script with some modifications. In
Devanagari, the use of different symbols for half consonants as well as their
irregular shape and placement of vowels cause printing problems. Although
most symbols represent a distinct sound, there are some sounds represented
by more than one symbol.

Through Romanaagarii script, an attempt has been made to combine the

printing advantages of Roman characters and phonetic merits of Devanagari
script. Romanaagarii script is based on the principle of one sound and one
symbol correspondence. The concept of Romanaagarii script can be adopted
to represent any number of symbols required to write any spoken language.
However, the exact number of letters would depend on the total number of
sounds used in a language. Some sounds not represented by a single letter
could be represented by two or more letters placed together in a systematic
way.
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Romanaagarii script has five basic short vowels [a], [i], [u], [e], and [o] and
corresponding five long vowels [aa], [ii], [uu], [ee], and [oo]. Essentially, these
vowels are commonly used in most languages of the world. There may be
some differences of accent but most vowel sounds could be covered by these
ten basic vowels. As in Devanagari script, the vowels in Romanaagarii script
are to be learnt separately because they have special significance from a
phonetic point of view.

Consonants in Romanaagarii script are similar to English consonants. Some

consonants of the English alphabet having more than one sound are used for
only one specific sound. Some sounds not represented by any letter in the
English alphabet are represented by combination of more than one letters or
through use of a diacritical mark. It is not considered necessary to use the
capital letters. The use of capital letters, however, for different purposes, could
be determined by the type of text used.

Envisaged uses of Romanaagarii

1. Romanaagarii script will be most useful for people who can speak their
language but can not read or write it. In most parts of India, a very large
number of people are illiterate and teaching them to read and write through
the conventional scripts is not easy. Twenty seven symbols and very few rules
of Romanaagarii script can be learnt and remembered easily while about two
hundred and fifty symbols and numerous rules and exceptions of Hindi script
are difficult to learn. The principles and methodology of Romanaagarii would
also be beneficial to people who speak languages other than Hindi.

2. A program for learning Romanaagarii script can be prepared on a computer

which could be made interactive, menu driven and user friendly. This will help
tutors as well the learners of Romanaagarii script. The program would include
main features of Romanaagarii script and a sequence of instructions to be
followed to learn it. Illustrations will make it easy to understand the lessons.

3. If computer facilities are not available, Romanaagarii script can be taught

through video cassettes. The instructions on video will be in the language
spoken by people in a target area. This will save manpower for teaching
Romanaagarii script and make it possible to cover even the remote areas.

4. The Roman characters of Romanaagarii script can be mapped into

phoneme based scripts and will facilitate use of computers for languages
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written in scripts other than Roman. This will motivate wider use of computers
for different languages. The existing ASCII code will facilitate computer
processing of any language written in Romanaagarii script.

5. Because of the phonetic regularity and sound-symbol correspondence, it

will be easy to learn spoken English through Romanaagarii script by those
whose mother tongue is not English. After acquiring the knowledge of spoken
English, learning written English with irregular spellings can be pursued. This
may be done with the help of a Romanaagarii-English dictionary.

6. Fast electronic communications and the computers being used all over the
world have popularized the Roman script. Machines and programs
incorporating ASCII code (which is based on Roman alphabet) are produced
in large quantities. For writing Romanaagarii script, there will be no necessity
to produce different programs or different machines. It will be economical to
use the existing technology and equipment rather than go for new
technologies to cater to the computer requirements of people who write their
languages in different scripts. The text in Romanaagarii script can also be
easily scanned and processed just like English text.

7. Rationalized and systematic spelling of words in Romanaagarii script will be

helpful in establishing accurate relationship between text and sound. Methodic
reading of characters, combining them into phonemes and producing their
respective sounds will facilitate correct articulation of any text written in
Romanaagarii script. Separation of letters in a text on the basis of phonemes
would make it easy to transform text into recognizable sounds. This feature
would be useful in accurate output through text to speech (TTS) program.

8. The phonetic character of Romanaagarii script could be helpful in research

of voice recognition technology. It will be easier to cope with a definite number
of clearly defined phonemes of Romanaagarii compared to a larger number of
not so well defined syllables of English. "...many English speakers feel
uncertain about how many syllables are found in at least a few of the following
words: fire, flour, feel, error, chasm, desirable, mysticism, cuddling, median"
(Robbins: 114).

Merits of romanaagarii script

1. Based on one sound and one symbol correspondence principle,

Romanaagarii script is simple to write and easy to learn. Only nine lessons
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are required to learn the Romanaagarii script including the numbers,

commonly used symbols and punctuation marks. It can be used to promote
literacy among people who can speak but cannot read and write a language.

2. It is alphabetic and is written like Roman script. It has all the merits of an
alphabetic script. Most of the text processing on computers and the Internet is
presently done in the Roman script due to its alphabetic nature.

3. It is phonetic and is based on one sound one symbol correspondence

principle. There are no symbols with more than one sound and no sounds with
more than one symbol. The pronunciation of consonants in combination with
vowels is clear, exact and uniform. It retains all the good phonetic qualities of
Devanagari script.

4. It is a scientific script in which rules are systematically applied and followed

without exceptions. It meets all the requirements of a scientific scrip
prescribed by scholars and linguists.

5. Romanaagarii script incorporates the numbers and arithmetic symbols in it.

This will help in learning calculations and general economic information which
is essential in daily life. It supports the concept of literacy as acquiring the
skills of reading, writing and arithmetic.

6. It is a computer friendly script. It has limited number of symbols and its

typing and printing is easy. All ASCII based programs can be used in
computers to process text in this script. E-mail can be sent and all programs
for use on Internet can be suitably made in this script. Being truly phonetic, it
is more suitable for developing voice recognition and text to speech (TTS)
programs.

7. It is a script that promotes functional literacy. By learning all symbols used

in writing language, making arithmetic calculations, using computers, surfing
on the Internet and for other common purposes, a person can perform several
tasks and be really functionally literate. As stated by The National Literacy
Mission (NLM) of India, “the acquisition of functional literacy results in
empowerment and a definite improvement in the quality of life. It helps to
ensure the participation of the masses in sharing the benefits of the
information era.”

8. The principles of Romanaagarii script can be applied for writing all

languages. Indian languages being phoneme based and having similar
sounds, Romanaagarii will be suitable for all of them. All the sounds used in
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Hindi and other languages can be covered by Romanaagarii script.

Romanaagarii script for languages other than Hindi is given in Appendix-3.
Uniform application of this script for different languages will facilitate learning
several languages. Romanaagarii is used in writing Email amd website
addresses aon the Internet and it can be considered as the basis of for
developing a common international script. This will be elaborated in
Chapter-10.

9. Romanaagarii script is related to Shri Yantra as shown in Appendix-9. It

has spiritual base in addition to all other qualities.

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Chapter 2
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Language and script

Language is generally considered to be the meaningful sound uttered to

convey something according to established conventions. Script is the written
representation of a language. The written symbols can be marked on any
surface such as stone, tree leaves, cloth, paper, screen etc.

Historically, script came after a language was developed and commonly used
by people. The need for script arose for communication as well as for
preservation of the spoken words for use at different times and different
places. Availability of a script and facilities for writing it have been important
factors in popularizing a language as well as expanding its literature. Scripts
have helped in proper maintenance of written records of arts and literature
and preserved the cultural heritage. Both languages and scripts have
developed in different parts of world independently, causing their diversity.
Communication, however, facilitated interaction and some common features
are noticeable among different languages and scripts.

Invention of paper and the printing machine revolutionized the writing.

Standard and uniform letters facilitated mass production of written literature.
Scripts backed by mass printing became better known and more popular. With
the arrival of computers, writing has undergone further major changes.

Meaning of literacy

Literacy could mean different things to different people. Dixon has referred to
literacy in language, science, mathematics, computers, culture, media, health,
international events and sex. (Dixon: 60-161) Randhawa in his paper " From
literacy to cognitive science" has also referred to basic (functional) literacy,
biblical literacy, economic literacy, technological literacy, scientific literacy and
computer literacy" (Leong: 56-62). For our purpose, however, language
literacy and computer literacy would be more relevant than other types of
literacy.
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO), defines literacy as follows:

A Literate person is a one who can with understanding both read and write a
short simple statement relevant to his everyday life.

Literacy is not the simple reading of word or a set of associated symbols and
sounds, but an act of critical understanding of men's situation in the world.

Literacy is not an end in itself but a means of personal liberation and

development and extending individuals educational efforts involving overall
inter-disciplinary responses to concrete problems

A literate person is one who has acquired all the essential knowledge and
skills which enable him to engage in all those activities in which literacy is
required for effective functioning in his group and community and whose
attaining in reading, writing and numeracy make it possible to use these skills
towards his own and his community's development.

The National Literacy Mission (NLM) of India defines literacy as acquiring the
skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's
day-to-day life. Thus the goal of the National Literacy Mission goes beyond
the simple achievement of self-reliance in literacy and numeracy of functional
literacy. The achievement of functional literacy implies:

· Self-reliance in 3 R's

· Becoming aware of the causes of deprivation and moving towards

amelioration of their condition by participating in the process of
development

· Acquiring skills to improve their economics status and general well-

being

· Imbibing values of national integration, conservation of

environment, women's equality, observance of small family norms,
etc.

According to NLM, the acquisition of functional literacy results in

empowerment and a definite improvement in the quality of life. It helps to
ensure the participation of the masses in sharing the benefits of the
information era.
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Gudschinsky, who pioneered literacy campaigns in the world (particularly in

Vietnam), gave her own definition of literacy which appears to be more explicit
and accurate. According to her definition, "that person is fully literate who, in a
language that he speaks, can read and understand anything that he would
have understood if it had been spoken to him; and who can write, so that it
can be read, anything that he can say" (Lee: 4). In this definition, literacy
includes: 1) the ability to hear and to read with understanding, and 2) the
ability to speak and to write comprehensibly. The definition implies that the
reading and writing will be done in a language which the person speaks.

Gudschinsky's definition excludes the ability to read and understand content

material beyond the person's capacity to understand orally. It also excludes
the ability to write better than one can speak. (Lee: 5) Illiterate people,
especially adults, already know the sounds and vocabulary of their language.
What is needed, therefore, is the teaching of shapes and not sounds.

In view of these definitions, the objective of promotion of literacy should be to

teach the script and not the language. The language spoken by illiterate
people should remain unchanged for reading and writing purposes. This does
not mean that there will be no improvement in the language. This
improvement will be in line with the improvement that takes place through
learning a spoken language. A person improves his/her language even when
learning only through speaking. The same pace of improvement should be
maintained while teaching reading and writing.

Literacy should be taught at home rather than at school. The campaign for
promotion of literacy need not disturb the school system of education.
"Education involves much more than teaching people to read and write. That
is the whole point. It is the "much more" which the world cannot afford.
Learning to read and write, whether by an adult or a child, is not in itself
education. It is the acquisition of a skill. It is in the same category as learning
to walk, to talk, to prepare food, to sow seeds, hoe a field, ride a bicycle or
swim. No one thinks of these things as education. They are skills which
people need in order to live as human beings, and they are reared and taught
within the circle of family or neighborhood. Anyone who has learned them can
teach others and does so as a matter of course, without any organized
system" (Jeffries: 164).

The objective being to make a person literate rather than educated, the focus
of teaching should be on help in communication and not on sophistication of
speaking style. The main purpose of literacy would be to support a person in
his normal activities in the environment in which he is living. The
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apprehension of a person being converted to some kind of "high-brow" culture

should be avoided.

Benefits of literacy

For those who doubt the wisdom of teaching everyone to read and write and
question the merits of making literacy universal, the following points may be
noted:

1. Literacy overcomes the limitations of time over spoken words which

disappear after they are uttered. Written words are preserved for use in future.
Through literacy, words become immortal.

2. Literacy also overcomes the limitations of space and promotes

communication among people at different places. Through literacy, languages
become universal.

3. Since reading and writing is done by seeing, mental activities based on the
sense of vision are strengthened. Literacy is enlightenment in a real sense.

4. Thoughts and records can be kept separately and there is no need to strain
the brain for memorizing everything. Accumulation of knowledge outside mind
is possible only through literacy.

5. Literacy promotes creativity. It helps people in experimenting with new

concepts and expressing new ideas generated in the mind. "Who knows how
many Virgils and Shakespeares, Newtons and Einstein, may await the
opportunities which literacy alone can make available?" (Jeffries: 23).

6. Literacy helps in developing different cognitive capacities of mind. Since

cognition requires memory, many things which cannot be remembered can be
made available in written form.

7. Literacy promotes and enforces honesty. A person may deny what he has
said but cannot deny what he has written.

8. Literacy opens new areas of real and conceptual worlds to be surveyed and
researched for economic development. The economic prosperity in literate
societies is generally more than in illiterate societies.
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9. Literacy promotes social justice and equality. The exploitation of people in

an illiterate society is more than in a literate society. In a literate society, there
is wider base for defending human values cherished by people.

10. Without organized literacy action, illiteracy will continue to stagnate

indefinitely along with the associated ills of poverty and underdevelopment.
One of the three components used in the calculation of “Human Development
Index” (HDI) by UN is “Literacy” as it is a cumulative measure of several
factors that contribute to human development.

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Chapter 3
DEVANAGARI SCRIPT AND HINDI

General

It is believed that Hindi (Khar‟i Boli or Hindustani) originated around 1000 A.D.
Its history is divided into three periods: 1. Ancient period (1000-1500 AD); 2.
Medieval period (1500-1800 AD); and 3. Modern period (1800 AD till now)
(Tiwari: 85).

In its modern form, the Devanagari script has been influenced and changed to
some extent by Persian, Marathi, Gujarati, and English languages.
Devanagari was also used to write Sanskrit language and has now become its
standard script. Apart from Hindi, Devanagari script is also used for writing
Sanskrit and Marathi languages in India.

Hindi language is written in Devanagari script which was evolved to write

Sanskrit language. The original alphabet of Sanskrit language had 16 vowels
and 36 consonants. Presently, some letters of Sanskrit language are not
generally used for writing Hindi. On the other hand, some sounds in words
borrowed from languages other than Sanskrit, specially Persian and Arabic,
are commonly used in Hindi. Letters for those sounds have been added to the
Hindi alphabet.

Hindi sounds not represented in Devanagari script are indicated either by

modifying a letter in Devanagari script or by using another letter of similar
sound. Some letters currently used in Hindi are, thus, somewhat different from
the original Devanagari letters of Sanskrit.

In Devanagari script, apart from learning the alphabet, one has to learn
symbols for vowels and half consonants. There are different ways of
positioning them in writing. Symbols for vowels are placed before, after,
above, under and within the consonant. This makes learning Devanagari
script somewhat tedious and irksome. Samples of Devanagari fonts are given
in Appendix 1.
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Symbols for Devanagari script

The number of symbols used for writing Devanagari script is over 250. They
can be divided into the following groups:

13 symbols for vowels.

15 grapheme signs used for vowels.

36 symbols for full consonants.

36 symbols for half consonants.

15 symbols for letters whose second form is also in common use.

9 symbols for half consonants of second form of symbols at sl. 5 above.

3 additional symbols for sound of [r].

10 symbols for letters representing non-Devanagari sounds.

9 symbols for half letters of symbols at sl. 8.

Several other symbols not falling in any of the above mentioned category.
They are used mostly in combining half letter with full letter.

Problems of Hindi orthography

1. Problem of vowels (shape and placement):

Vowel symbols are peculiar and their placement is erratic. It is not

understandable why the vowel [i] should be written before the consonant
qualified by it. Moreover, when the consonant is preceded by a half letter, the
vowel precedes even that or those letters such as in (indriyaam'/इन्द्रिम )ाँ in
which [i] which comes after [r] is placed before [n], [d] and [r]!

2. Problem of consonants (irregular half consonants):

Half consonants are as peculiar as vowel symbols in Hindi. There are some
patterns but many have no pattern and one has to do visual cramming.
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3. Peculiarities of [r] (different shapes and effect on vowels):

[r] has several symbols in Hindi which creates confusion and complications.

4. Problem of letters pronounced half but written full and vice versa:

It is utterly irrational to write a letter in full but pronounce half. This violates the
phonetic logic and creates confusion. Similar phonetic illogic is noticed when a
letter is pronounces full but written half. Sometimes the combination of half
and full letters creates peculiar figures and causes complications.

5. Problem of sounds in words borrowed from other languages:

Many words in Hindi have been taken from other languages particularly
English, Arabic and Persian. Numerous words in Hindi and Urdu are common.
Some sounds represented by different letters cannot be represented
accurately in Hindi. Hindi has only one letter for [j] and another is made by
putting dot under it. Arabic, on the other hand, has six variations of j/z.

6. Problem of punctuation:

Punctuation marks, particularly full stop, have no definite form. A dot and a
vertical line, both, are used for full stop which is confusing.

7. Problem of typing and printing:

The complexity of symbols for vowels and different symbols for half letters
make it difficult to type Hindi on an ordinary typewriter. To type all symbols for
all full and half letters would require more than 250 keys in a typewriter. Even
then some combination of letters may be difficult to type or print correctly.

8. Problem of processing in computer:

With the emergence of computer technology and prospects of scanning, voice

recognition etc. becoming common for input of a language, the problems of
Hindi and other scripts become more pronounced. Computer processing is
based on very regular principles and any irregular script system will have
difficulty in adjusting to it. As a result, there will either be resistance to the
introduction of new technology or improvisation which will not take full
advantage of the new technology.

9. Problem of communication through Internet:

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E-mail is now a standard form of communication all over the world. Internet is
used for transmission of information to millions of people. The commonly used
text in Internet is in Roman script. Non-Roman scripts have problems of easy
communication on Internet. Devanagari script is not compatible with Internet
and the only practical alternative would be the Romanaagarii Script.

Suggestion for improvement of Devanagari

One recent suggestion has been made in “Devanagari: Ek Nayaa Prayog” (A

new experiment by Mahesh Prasad published by Bhartiya Gyanpeeth with the
support of the Uttar Pradesh Government). After analysing the comparative
advantages and disadvantages of Devanagari and Romanaagarii Scripts, it
has been suggested that:

1) Vowels should have similar basic symbols.

2) Half letter should be indicated by addition of halant ( ) under the letter.

3) [f] and [z] which have no symbols in Devanagari should be incorporated in

Hindi.

Although there is logic in these suggestions, they have not been taken
seriously because they suggest some unorthodox remedies for vowels and
half letters. Moreover, they do not fully satisfy the criteria of a scientific script.

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Chapter 4
HINDI AND ROMANIZATION

General

At different times, there have been attempts to Romanize Hindi and other
languages in India. These attempts have been made mostly by people in the
armed forces, postal and tele- communications services, journalism etc. to
meet their requirements in view of existing communications facilities being
available only for writing Roman characters. These attempts have not been
successful because of the lack of coherence and regularity in the systems
adopted for writing Hindi in Roman script. In fact, the Romanization of Hindi
on the English model has been as irregular as English spelling system itself.
"The very common Hindi surname, चौधयी (choodharii in Romanaagarii) for
example, may be encountered in Romanized form as Chaudhary, Chaudharia,
Chaudhery, Chaudhori, Chaudri, Chaudhuri, Chaudhury, Choudri, Chaudry,
Chowdhari, Chowdhary, Chowdury, and Chowdhury, depending on the
predilection of the bearer of this name" (Wellish: 270).

Argument for Romanization

Another argument for Romanization of Indian languages, including Hindi, was

made by S.K. Chatterjee in his paper “A Roman Alphabet for India”. He has
forcefully argued that the advantages of the Roman script and its simplicity
should appeal to anyone who wants to spread literacy among the masses.
(Page 271). He has also observed that “....our attachment to our Indian
system of writing is primarily a matter of habit and sentiment” (page 281). He
has suggested the following Indo-Roman alphabet:

Vowels:

Short vowels:a, i, u, e, o

Long vowels:A, I, U, E, O
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Vocal Consonants:r‟ l‟R‟ L‟ m: h:

Chandrabindu: n: (to indicate nasalization of the vowel).

Consonants

k, kh, g, gh, n^

c, ch, j, jh, n”

T, Th, D, Dh, N

t, th, d, dh, n

p, ph, b, bh, m

y, r, l, w,(v)

s” S, s, h

R, Rh, L, Lh

The main characteristic of Chatterjee‟s alphabet is the use of capital Roman

letters for long vowels and some consonants. This is bound to create
confusion for people who know any language that uses Roman alphabet such
as English, French, Spanish, Italian etc. The confusion which may be created
by similarity of some capital and their small letters such as [o O, u U] is
obvious. Some transliteration has been done in this format but it has not been
popular.

English model for Romanization

To grasp the difficulties of writing the way English language is written, one has
to understand the peculiarities of its phonetics. It has 26 letters but not a
single one of them follows the principle of one sound and one symbol
correspondence. This entails learning and remembering the spelling of
practically every word of English language. Five vowels represent over 25
sounds and over 25 sounds are represented by compound vowels. Y and W
are used as vowels as well as consonants. Some consonants have more than
 19

one sound and more than one consonants represent the same sound. There
are silent letters and double letters used for single sounds.

Irregularity of Vowels in English

Ten vowels of Hindi (Romanaagarii) language have following variations in

English:

sound of [a] is indicated by <a> as in again.

Sound of [a] is also indicated by <e> as in merge.

Sound of [a] is also indicated by <i> as in firm.

Sound of [a] is also indicated by <o> as in work.

Sound of [a] is also indicated by <u> as in but.

Sound of [a] is also indicated by <ea> as in earn.

Sound of [a] is also indicated by <io> as in mission.

Sound of [aa] is indicated by <a> as in father.

Sound of [aa] is also indicated by <o> as in our.

Sound of [i] is indicated by <i> as in fit.

Sound of [i] is also indicated by <e> as in reward.

Sound of [i] is also indicated by <y> as in myth.

Sound of [ii] is indicated by <e> as in me.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <i> as in unique.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <o> as in women.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <ea> as in reach.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <ae> as in encyclopaedia.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <ei> as in receive.

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Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <ie> as in believe.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <ee> as in meet.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <y> as in rosy.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <ey> as in key.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <eo> as in people.

Sound of [ii] is also indicated by <ay> as in quay.

Sound of [u] is indicated by <u> as in put.

Sound of [u] is also indicated by <o> as in wolf.

Sound of [u] is also indicated by <w> as in owl.

Sound of [uu] is indicated by <u> as in jute.

Sound of [uu] is also indicated by <oo> as in tool.

Sound of [uu] is also indicated by <ui> as in suit.

Sound of [uu] is also indicated by <ew> as in shrewd.

Sound of [e] is indicated by <e> as in delta.

Sound of [e] is also indicated by <ai> as in faith.

Sound of [e] is also indicated by <a> as in late.

Sound of [e] is also indicated by <ay> as in pray.

Sound of [ee] is indicated by <a> as in rat.

Sound of [ee] is also indicated by <ai> as in said.

Sound of [ee] is also indicated by <e> as in wet.

Sound of [ee] is also indicated by <ea> as in bread

Sound of [o] is indicated by <o> as in vote.

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Sound of [o] is also indicated by <oa> as in boat.

Sound of [o] is also indicated by <ou> as in pour.

Sound of [o] is also indicated by <ow> as in show.

Sound of [o] is also indicated by <uo> as in quote.

Sound of [oo] is indicated by <o> as in pot.

Sound of [oo] is also indicated by <au> as in sauce.

Sound of [oo] is also indicated by <aw> as in saw.

Sound of [oo] is also indicated by <eo> as in George.

Sound of [aai] is indicated by <i> as in bite.

Sound of [eya] is indicated by <a> as in fare.

Sound of [yuu] is indicated by <u> as in cute.

Sound of [yuu] is also indicated by <eau> as in beauty.

Irregularity of Consonants in English

The irregular phonetic characteristics are also found in consonants of the

English language as may be seen from the following:

[c] is pronounced as <nothing?> as in rock.

[c] is pronounced as <k> as in coke.

[c] is pronounced as <s> as in ice.

[c] is pronounced as <ch> as suggested by IAST for Sanskrit texts.

<ch> is also pronounced as [c] as in choice.

<ch> is also pronounced as [k] as in chemist

 22

<ch> is also pronounced as [sh] as in chandelier

<chh> can also be pronounced as [ch] as suggested by IAST for Sanskrit

texts.

<ci> is also pronounced as [sh] as in special

<cc> is pronounced as [k] as in soccer

<cc> is also pronounced as [ks] as in success.

<c> is also represented by [t] as in nature

[k] is represented by <k> as in kite, by <c> as in coal, by <q> as in quote, by

<ck> as in shock, and by <ch> as in technical.

[g] is represented by <g> as in gate, by <gg> as in rugged.

[j] is represented by <j> as in joke, by <g> as in gem.

[t‟] is represented by <t> as in time, by <tt> as in button.

[d'] is represented by <d> as in day, by <dd> as in sudden.

[n] is represented by <n> as in name, by <nn> as in funny.

[p] is represented by <p> as in paper, by <pp> as in support.

[b] is represented by <b> as in boy, by <bb> as in rubber.

[m] is represented by <m> as in mother, by <mm> as in comment.

[y] is represented by <y> as in you, by <u> as in cute.

[r] is represented by <r> as in run, by <rr> as in barren.

[s] is represented by <s> as in son, by <c> as in rice, by <ss> as in> assess.

[f] is represented by <f> as in father, by <gh> as in rough.

[sh] is represented by <14 different symbols: nation, shoe, sugar, issue,

mansion, mission, suspicion, ocean, nauseous, conscious, chaperon, schist,
fuchsia, pshaw (Defrancis: 204).
 23

[z] is represented by <z> as in zoo, by <s> as in is.

Some consonants in English language are written but not pronounced. <gh>
before [t] in right, fight and <k> before [n] as in know, knight etc. are
examples.

This is not an exhaustive account of irregularities in English and more could

be added to these examples. In view of such state of affairs of the use of
vowels and consonants, any attempt to Romanize any language like English
is bound to fail.

Phonetic English

Some linguists have however, defended English spelling and tried to discover
complicated explanations to rationalize relationship between spelling and the
sound pattern. These relationships, however, have not been accepted by
other linguists. "Some of the hypothetical relationships, which are often not
obvious even to trained linguists, much less ordinary mortals, are complex to
the point of absurdity. The defense of English orthography is arid and of no
value outside the rarefied world of a peculiar school of linguistics" (DeFrancis:
205-206).

Changes have been made in the spelling of some words in the United States
to simplify and rationalize the spellings (such as PROGRAM for
PROGRAMME, COLOR for COLOUR, CENTER for CENTRE etc.). However,
this does not go very far in making the script phonetic.

In view of the complications due to the non-phonetic use of both vowels and
consonants in English, it will not be helpful to use its irregular system for
writing any language including Hindi. It would also not be possible to make
any computer program for voice recognition of languages which are phoneme
based. Romanaagarii would be a more appropriate and accurate way of
Romanization. In Romanaagarii, there is only one way to spell “चौधयी” as
“coodharii”. No sound has more than one symbol and no symbol has more
than one sound.

The phonetic principles of Romanaagarii could be applied to learning English

also. Those who find the irregular spelling system of English difficult, simple
and systematic alphabet of Romanaagarii would provide a simpler method of
learning spoken English. Since all letters and symbols are based on sound-
 24

shape correspondence, there would be no need to cram spellings. If someone

wants to learn the normal non-phonetic English words, it could be done easily
with the help of an English-Romanaagarii dictionary. The text can be entered
into the computer in Romanaagarii format which will be automatically
transliterated into commonly spelled English. Romanaagarii compared to the
prevailing English spelling system would appear simple and systematic like
decimal numbers compared to the Roman numbering system.

Romanaagarii and the IPA

The International Phonetic Association (IPA) is an organization for

standardization of written symbols for sounds of different languages of the
world. The International Phonetic Alphabet (also called IPA) as revised in
1989, gives a total number of 171 symbols. They comprise 74 consonants, 25
vowels, 31 diacritical marks, 18 other symbols and 23 suprasegmentals
(Crystal: xiv).

It could be suggested that the IPA may be adopted as basis for transliteration
of various languages of the world including Hindi. It may be true that the IPA is
accurate in establishing sound-symbol correspondence and is devised for
universal usage. However, the IPA would not be suitable either for promotion
of literacy or for use in computers for the following reasons:

1. IPA symbols are too numerous to be learnt easily. Even literate people
would find it difficult to use them and they can not be grasped by illiterate
people. 26 letters and 3 diacritical marks of Romanaagarii would obviously be
easier to learn and more suitable for promotion of literacy.

2. It is generally believed that too many diacritical marks are not conducive to
popularization of any language. Only phonetics experts who prescribe them
are enamoured of them. People are bound to be confused by seeing so many
strange diacritical marks and other symbols in the IPA.

3. Typing and printing facilities generally available in offices are not

compatible with the IPA. The QWERTY typewriters in common use would
suffice for Romanaagarii but they can not cope with the IPA.

4. ASCII code for computers does not cover the IPA. Even the extended
ASCII with 256 characters would not support all the IPA symbols. IPA would,
therefore, not be suitable for use in computers.
 25

5. Several symbols of the IPA are very similar to each other and their use will
create confusion. [t], [d], [n], [r] are some of them which have other variations
representing different sounds but having similar shape.

6. All symbols in the IPA are not of uniform size and may cause problem in
typing and printing.

Apart from these factors, the use of IPA will result in a totally new and artificial
writing system and would not be a practical proposition for use by common
people to meet their daily requirements. On the other hand, Romanaagarii
having similarity to Roman characters currently used for many languages,
would provide a familiar and better script.

Romanaagarii and Unicode

Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all
of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and
manipulated by computers. Developed in tandem with the Universal Character
Set standard and published in book form as The Unicode Standard, Unicode
consists of a character repertoire, an encoding methodology and set of
standard character encodings, a set of code charts for visual reference, an
enumeration of character properties such as upper and lower case, a set of
reference data computer files, and rules for normalization, decomposition,
collation and rendering.

The Unicode Consortium, the non-profit organization that coordinates

Unicode's development, has the ambitious goal of eventually replacing
existing character encoding schemes with Unicode and its standard Unicode
Transformation Format (UTF) schemes, as many of the existing schemes are
limited in size and scope, and are incompatible with multilingual environments.
Unicode's success at unifying character sets has led to its widespread and
predominant use in the internationalization and localization of computer
software. The standard has been implemented in many recent technologies,
including XML, the Java programming language, and modern operating
systems.

Another suggestion for writing different scripts on the computers and Internet
is to use the Unicode. Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the
language.
 26

Despite claims that the emergence of the Unicode Standard, and the
availability of tools supporting it, is among the most significant software
technology achievements, there are problems in its practical application. It is a
solution based on high powered processing and storing capacity of the
computers. It requires minimum 32 bits processor and special text operating
system. All computers and operating systems would not be able to use the
facilities of Unicode. In the Unicode system, the fonts used are combination of
the fonts proposed to be used for all the languages and the font file becomes
very bulky. The Unicode font file is as big as 23 megabyte (22700 kilobyte)
while the normal ASCII font file is only 40 kilobyte capacity.

It may be noticed that about one hundred characters are suggested to be

used to write Hindi in Unicode. It is not clear how the half letters are going to
be formed in Unicode. If several keys are used for writing a letter in the
Unicode, it will lose its alphabetic character and become partly pictorial script.

The Unicode is not a unique suggestion for Hindi alone and it is being
projected as solution for writing numerous other scripts of the world. It is still
not a complete project and has no practical use for common user.

The Hindi characters used in Unicode and the Romanaagarii alternative are
shown in Appendix-4.

In 2005, the 100,000th character to be entered into the pipeline for

standardization was the MALAYALAM PRASLESHAM.

Detailed comments on Unicode for Indian scripts and multilingual computing

with Indian languages are available on the internet link
http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/sdi.html .The summary of issues that confront us in
this respect are as follows:

· Rendering text in a manner that is uniform across

applications is quite difficult. Windowing applications with
cut, copy/paste features suffer due to problems in correctly
identifying the width of each syllable on the screen. Also,
applications have to worry about specific rendering issues
when modifier codes are present. How applications run into
difficulties in rendering even simple strings is illustrated with
examples in a separate page.
 27

· Interpreting the syllabic content involves context dependent

processing, that too with a variable number of codes for
each syllable.

· A complete set of symbols used in standard printed text has

not been included in Unicode for almost all the Indian
scripts.

· Displaying text in scripts other that what Unicode supports is

not possible. For instance, many of the scripts used in the
past such as the Grantha Script, Modi, Sharada etc., cannot
be used to display Sanskrit text. This will be a fairly serious
limitation in practice when thousands of manuscripts written
over the centuries have to be preserved and interpreted.

· Transliteration across Indian scripts will not be easy to

implement since appropriate symbols currently
recommended for transliteration are not part of the Unicode
set. In the Indian context, transliteration very much a
requirement.

· The Unicode assignments bear little resemblance to the

linguistic base on which the aksharas of Indian scripts are
founded. While this is not a critical issue, it is desirable to
have codes whose values are based on some linguistic
properties assigned to the vowels and consonants, as has
been the practice in India.

Some other transliteration methods for Hindi:

IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is the most

popular academic standard for the Romanization of Sanskrit. IAST is the de-
facto standard used in printed publications, like books and magazines, and
with the wider availability of Unicode fonts, it is also increasingly used for
electronic texts. It is based on a standard established by the Congress of
Orientalists at Athens in 1912. The National Library at Kolkata Romanization,
intended for the Romanization of all Indic scripts, is an extension of IAST.
 28

ISO 15919

A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard

of 2001. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmi graphemes to
the Latin script. See also Transliteration of Indic scripts: how to use ISO
15919. The Devanagari-specific portion is nearly identical to the academic
standard, IAST: "International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration", and to the
United States Library of Congress standard, ALA-LC: [1]

Harvard-Kyoto

Compared to IAST, Harvard-Kyoto looks much simpler. It does not contain all
the diacritic marks that IAST contains. This makes typing in Harvard-Kyoto
much easier than IAST. Harvard-Kyoto uses capital letters that can be difficult
to read in the middle of words.

ITRANS scheme

ITRANS is an extension of Harvard-Kyoto. Many web pages are written in

ITRANS. Many forums are also written in ITRANS.

ITRANS is not only used as transliteration, it is also a pre-processor for typing

in Indic scripts. The user inputs in roman letters and the ITRANS preprocessor
displays the roman letters into Devanāgarī (or other Indic languages).

ISCII

Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) is a coding scheme for
representing various writing systems of India. It encodes the main Indic scripts
and a Roman transliteration. The supported scripts are: Assamese, Bengali,
Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, and
Telugu. ISCII does not encode the writing systems of India based on Arabic,
but its writing system switching codes nonetheless provide for Kashmiri,
Sindhi, Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Arabic. The Arabic-based writing systems
have subsequently been encoded in the PASCII encoding. (From Wikipedia)
 29

PASCII

Perso-Arabic Script Code for Information Interchange (PASCII) is the Indian

government standard for encoding languages using writing systems based on
that of Arabic, in particular Kashmiri, Persian, Sindhi, and Urdu. The ISCII
encoding was originally intended to cover both the Brahmi-derived writing
systems of India and the Arabic-based systems, but this approach was
subsequently abandoned. (From Wikipedia)

TOP
 30

Chapter 5
ROMANAAGARII SCRIPT

Scientific script

The famous scholar of Hindi language and script, Dr. Bhola Nath Tiwari, in his
book "Hindi Bhaashaa" (page 210) has prescribed the following qualities of a
scientific script:

1- The script should be alphabetical and not syllabic.

2- The script should have symbols for each sound of a particular language.

3- One symbol should represent only one sound and no more.

4- One sound should have only one symbol and no more.

5- In writing, the symbols should come in the same order in which they are
pronounced.

6- The script should not be ambiguous in reading the symbols.

7- The script should facilitate easy typing and printing.

In addition, the following two more qualities are desirable:

1. The script should be easily processed on computer.

2. The script should be usable for communications on Internet.

Evidently, the existing Devanagari script does not have these qualities. There
have been suggestions for reforms and modification of Devanagari script for
writing Hindi.
 31

Romanaagarii Script

Romanaagarii is based on English (Roman) script, Devanagari script and

ASCII of computers.

Roman script: English language is written in Roman script and has the
following letters:
Small letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z
Capital letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V,
W, X, Y, Z
One more symbol [„] called apostrophe, is used in writing English text. In
addition, various symbols for numbers, punctuation, arithmetic etc. are used.
Romanaagarii follows the alphabetic principles of Roman script. However, to
make it simple, only the small letters are used.

Devanagari script: Devanagari (also called Naagarii) has several merits.

Separate study of vowels in Devanagari is correct and scientific. The names
of letters in Devanagari are in accordance with their sounds, and one symbol
represents only one sound. It has enough symbols for all sounds and its
reading is comparatively easy.
However, Devanagari has some weaknesses and improvements are
necessary. Its vowels have several base symbols that create confusion. To
write Devanagari, one has to learn over 200 symbols. Devanagari has more
than one symbol for some sounds which should be avoided. Its vowel symbols
are different from vowel letters and they are placed before, after, above and
under a letter. In Devanagari, the letters change their shape when writing and
make the script somewhat pictorial and non-alphabetic. There are several
rules for writing the half letters in Devanagari, which make the script
complicated. It also has the complex rules for combining half letters with other
letters. It is also not easy to type Devanagari script and use it in the
computers.

Devanagari has, however, undergone changes. The currently commonly used

Hindi (Devanagari) phonemes (Akshar) are 54 in number and represent
symbols for most sounds of Hindi and Urdu languages.

ASCII of Computers: ASCII (American Standard Code for Information

Interchange), is a character encoding based on the English writing system. All
the symbols used for writing English are represented in 95 characters of
ASCII in the computers as given below:
 32

¡ “ # $ % & „ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p t‟ r s t u v d‟ x y z m‟ v‟ m‟ ~

These characters, except the capital letters, are also used for Romanaagarii.
We can write Roman characters (small) like Devanaagari as follows:

a e i o u

bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz

These letters do not cover all the sounds of Hindi and Urdu languages. We
will, therefore, use more than one letter (grapheme) for writing all the
phonemes of Hindi. Long vowel will be written by repeating the short vowel.
For expressing the aspirated sounds, [h] is added to some letters such as bh,
ch, dh etc. This is common in English language. For other sounds still not
covered, the diacritical mark [„] would be used.

Romanaagarii symbols for the table of 54 basic Hindi phonemes (Akshar

maalaa) would be as follows:

a aa i ii u uu e ee o oo m‟ h‟
ka kha ga gha m‟a
ca cha ja jha m‟a
t‟a t‟ha d‟a d‟ha n‟a
ta tha da dha na
pa pha ba bha ma
ya ra la va sha s‟a sa ha
‟a k‟a k‟ha g‟a r‟a r‟ha za fa v‟a

A close view of Romanaagarii Script which combines the advantages of

Devanagari and Roman scripts would confirm its scientific character and
practical utility. We may examine each of the qualities indicated above for a
scientific and practical script as follows:
 33

1) It is purely alphabetic. There are distinct alphabets for vowels as well as

consonants and they are written differently according to the sounds
represented by them.

2) In Romanaagarii there is unique symbol for every sound and no sound

has more than one symbol.

3) Each symbol in Romanaagarii represents one sound only.

4) There are not more than one symbol for any sound in Romanaagarii.

5) The vowels follow consonants uniformly in the sequence in which they

are pronounced.

6) All symbols have different shapes and there is no confusion in their

visual perception.

7) It is practicable for typing and printing on machines.

8) All Romanaagarii characters are incorporated in ascii code of the

computers and can be easily processed.

9) Romanaagarii Script is the most convenient and practicable script for

modern communication technology via internet. This script can be
programmed like any text in other Roman script.

Romanaagarii script has been developed by combining the merits of Roman

and Devanagari scripts. The form of letters and the sequence of writing
vowels after consonants is similar to English. The relationship between the
letters and sounds represented by them, however, does not follow the
irregular English phonetic system. Learning Romanaagarii script would,
therefore, be different from learning English. The sequence of vowels and
consonants follows the Devanagari pattern.

To learn Romanaagarii Script, one has to learn the following:-

1. Learn 5 letters for short vowels.

2. Learn 19 symbols for single letter consonants.

3. Learn long vowels and compound consonants by joining aspirated [h] and
diacritical [„] symbols to single consonants.
 34

4. Learn to make phonemes by combining vowels after the consonants; and

5. Learn to make words by combining phonemes.

Vowels

[a] as in amiir, piital, mitra

[aa] as in aag, kaam, lataa

[i] as in imlii, din, kavi

[ii] as in iikh, jhiil, bhaaii

[u] as in ujaalaa, kul, madhu

[uu] as in uupar, puut, vadhuu

[e] as in ek, tek, lar‟ake

[ee] as in eenak, beel, hee

[o] as in okhalii, golaa, aao

[oo] as in oorat, boonaa

[m‟] as in aam‟kh, maam‟

[h‟] as in duh‟kh, punah‟

Nasalized vowels:

[am‟] am‟gaar

[aam‟] aam‟kh

[im‟] sim‟gaar

[iim‟] iim‟t', kahiim‟

 35

[um‟] um‟galii

[uum‟] uum‟caa

[em‟] gem‟d

[eem‟] eem‟t'h

[om‟] gom‟d

[oom‟] coom‟k

Consonants:

[k] as in kamal, nakal, naak

[kh] as in kharbuuj, akhrot', bhuukh

[g] as in garmii, saagar, aag

[gh] as in ghantaa, laghu, baagha

[m‟] (not in common use in Hindi)

[c] as in cakkii, macal, soca

[ch] as in chajjaa, bachar‟aa, riicha

[j] as in jangal, ajgar, raaj

[jh] as in jhandaa, uljhan, bojh

[m‟] (not in common use in Hindi)

[t'] as in t'amaat'ar, gut'a

[th'] as in t'hat'heraa, gat'han, aat'h

[d'] as in d'amruu, nid'ar

['h] as in d'hakkan, nid'haal

 36

[n‟] as in kripaan‟a, gan‟anaa

[t] as in totaa, piital, sapuut

[th] as in thaalii, haathii, saath

[d] as in davaa, meedaan, had

[dh] as in dhanush, iim‟dhan, aam‟dhii

[n] as in namak, candan, gyaanii

[p] as in paanii, uupar, aap

[ph] as in phal, phaam‟sii

[b] as in bakarii, rabar‟ii, sharaab

[bh] as in bhut't'aa, abhii, aabhaa

[m] as in makaan, namak, raam

[y] as in yagya, raayataa, vis'aya

[r] as in rassii, garmii, magar

[l] as in liilaa, baalt'ii, vishaal

[v] as in vaayu, maveshii, caav

[sh] as in shariir, mashiin, aakaash

[s'] as in manus'ya, s'at'akon‟a

[s] as in samaaj, baseraa, paas

[h] as in hinsaa, mahiinaa, caaha

Symbols for sounds not found in Devanagari script.

[f] as in farishtaa, aafat, sirfa

 37

[z] as in zamaanaa, mazhab

[r‟] as in bad‟aa, lar‟naa

[r‟h] as in barh‟aii, daar‟hii

[„] as in „‟aksa‟ (The vowel base, as in other vowels, is not visible.)

[k‟] as in k‟avvaalii

[kh‟] as in kh‟raab, aakh‟ir

[g‟] as in g‟ariib, mag‟ruur

[v‟] (not in common use in Hindi but may be used to represent the sound of
English [w])

Some clarifications

The basic single vowels of Romanaagarii script are close to English vowels,
but phonetically, each one of them represents only one sound. The
pronunciation of Romanaagarii vowels is close to the vowels in Spanish
language. The doubled form of these vowels is used to represent the long
form of the five vowels. Use of more than one letter for a vowel is quite
common in English, for example, meet, meat, fool, etc. Some times English
language uses even more than two letters for a vowel as in beauty, queue etc.

Sounds not represented by Roman letters have been indicated in

Romanaagarii script by combining two letters. Even in English it is common to
add [h] to indicate aspirated sounds such as shop, ghost, think etc. Main
sounds represented this way are those of aspirated and glottal letters of Hindi
language such as [kh], [gh], [sh], [n‟], [r‟], [r‟h], [k‟] etc.

To facilitate writing and printing through computer as well as indicate special

sounds not found in Roman script, the diacritical mark ['] has been added to
some letters. These letters are [t‟] and [d'] and their aspirated formations.
When alterations are made to substitute [q] and [w] and single letters are
introduced to represent [t‟] and [d'] respectively, there will be no need to use
[']. In [s'], ['] is used to distinguish it from [sh]. The difference between the two
is not recognized in commonly spoken Hindi.
 38

Most consonants of Romanaagarii are the same as in English and have

corresponding sounds. However, sounds of some consonants of
Romanaagarii differ from the sound represented by letters in English. This
may be noted specially by those who are familiar with English use of these
letters. Following are the few variations of such consonants:

[g] is used only to represent the sound of g and not the sound of [j].

[c] is used to represent the sound of [ch] as in choke of English.

[ch] is used only to represent the sound of chh as in chot‟aa.

[t'h] is used only to represent one sound as in t'hand'aa and not the sounds of
english words the and throw respectively.

[v] is used to represent the sound of both [v] and [w] since Hindi does not
recognize difference between them. In case a different letter to represent [w]
is needed, [v‟] could be used.

[„] is used only to represent the glottal sound. By adding it to another

consonant, we get glottal consonants such as [k‟], [kh‟] [g‟] etc.

[y] is used only as a consonant to represent the sound as in "yagya". It is

never used as a vowel.

The symbol of Halant [् शररत] is used in Hindi to indicate that a letter is to be

pronounced without vowel. In Romanaagarii, all phonemes without vowel are
to be pronounced half. Therefore there is no symbol for Halant in
Romanaagarii.

All punctuation marks in Romanaagarii script are similar to standard

international punctuation marks. However, ['] which is used for special sounds,
should not be used as single quote. Only double quote ("....") is to be used for
quotation mark.

International digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used for numbers in

Romanaagarii script. People are familiar with them and they would be easy to
learn. In fact almost all electronic calculators and other number crunching
machines in India use the international form of digits.

Romanaagarii and phonemes

 39

Although the structure of Romanaagarii is similar to Devanagari, it is not

phoneme based. Phonemes in Romanaagarii are made by combining two or
more graphemes. That is how we make the table of 54 basic Hindi phonemes
(Akshar maalaa).

Devanagari is not truly alphabetic and follows a writing system called abiguda.
This abiguda system is composed of signs (graphemes) denoting consonants
with an inherent following vowel. For example, there is no basic sign
representing the consonant [k]; rather the unmodified letter represents the
syllable [ka]; the a is not marked on the symbol, and thus is the so-called
inherent vowel. To make Devanagari alphabetic, we have to exclude the
inherent vowel.

In Roman script, some sounds of Devanagari, not covered by single letters,

are expressed by using two letters and the apostrophe symbol. The long
vowels of Devanagari are represented by repeating the short vowel as /aa/ /ii/
etc. To cover the 54 basic characters of Devanagari (Varn'a maalaa), the
Roman characters (small) are rearranged. They are separated in groups of
vowels and consonants. The letters and the apostrophe symbol are used to
make phonemes. To facilitate integration of Roman script with Devanagari, we
make graphemes as follows:

[x], [a], [e], [i], [o], [u]

[k], [c], [t‟], [t], [p], [y], [s], [n]

[g], [j], [d‟], [d], [b], [m], [r], [l], [v], [h]

[f], [z]

[aa], [ee], [ii], [oo], [uu], [m‟], [h‟]

[kh], [gh], [ch], [jh], [t‟h], [d‟h], [ph], [bh]

[sh], [s‟], [n‟]

[r‟], [r‟h], [x‟], [k‟], [k‟h], [g‟], [v‟]

 40

[x] is the vowel base that is not used in Roman scripts. Its importance will be
known when transliterating Roman into SARAL scripts.

By rearranging the Roman characters on Devanagari pattern, we get the

following Romanaagarii alphabet :

[x] (not used)

[a] [aa] [i] [ii] [u] [uu]

[e] [ee] [o] [oo] [m‟] [h‟]

[k] [kh] [g] [gh] [m‟]

[c] [ch] [j] [jh] [m‟]

[t‟] [t‟h] [d‟] [d‟h] [n‟]

[t] [th] [d] [dh] [n]

[p] [ph] [b] [bh] [m]

[y] [r] [l] [v]

[s] [sh] [s‟] [h]

[„] [k‟] [k‟h] [g‟] [r‟] [r‟h] [z] [f] [v‟]

To make consonant phonemes, vowel [a] is added to the basic grapheme.

Devanagari phonemes (Akshar maalaa) based on the Roman characters
(small) are as follows:

/a/ /aa/ /i/ /ii/ /u/ /uu/

/e/ /ee/ /o/ /oo/ /m‟/ /h‟/

 41

/ka/ /kha/ /ga/ /gha/ /m‟a/

/ca/ /cha/ /ja/ /jha/ /m‟a/

/t‟a/ /t‟ha/ /d‟a/ /d‟ha/ /n‟a/

/ta/ /tha/ /da/ /dha/ /na/

/pa/ /pha/ /ba/ /bha/ /ma/

/ya/ /ra/ /la/ /va/ /sha/ /s‟a/ /sa/ /ha/

/„a/ /k‟a/ /k‟ha/ /g‟a/ /r‟a/ /r‟ha/ /za/ /fa/ /v‟a/

TOP
 42

Chapter 6
ROMANAAGARII TO SARAL SCRIPTS

ASCII and Romanaagarii

To use ASCII for all phonemes of Romanaagarii, the capital letters are
substituted by phonemes made of more than one Roman character. The
inherent vowel [a] is excluded. The phonemes in place of the capital letters in
the ASCII of the computers used for Romanaagarii would be as follows:

A=aa; B=bh; C=ch; D=dh; E=ee; F=s‟; G=gh; H=h‟; I=ii; J=jh; K=kh; L=r‟;
M=m‟; N=n‟; O=oo; P=ph; Q=t‟h; R=r‟h; S=sh; T=th; U=uu; V=v‟; W=d‟h; X=„;
Y=k‟h; Z=z‟

As mentioned earlier, [x] as vowel base is not used in languages written in

Roman script. The use of vowel base is required in all Indic scripts including
Devanagari. Scripts based on Arabic script also use the vowel base and vowel
modifiers. [x] of ASCII is used in SARAL scripts for vowel base.

ASCII for Romanaagarii phonemes would be different from the ASCII for
English. In the ASCII for Romanaagarii, the phoneme made of more than one
character, is considered one single symbol and the fonts are made
accordingly. For example, [kh] in Romanaagarii requires two strokes on
keyboard but in SARAL Roman, it will require only one stroke. We call the
new Romanaagarii fonts as SARAL Roman fonts and the script as SARAL
Roman script.

Romanaagarii uses the fonts commonly used in English, but SARAL Roman
uses the fonts specially made for it. It may be noted that there is no difference
in the appearance of Romanaagarii and SARAL Roman except the use of [x].
In SARAL Roman, [x] is there but almost invisible. SARAL Roman fonts are as
follows:

¡ “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
 43

` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p t’ r s t u v d’ x y z m’ v’ m’ ~

A variation of SARAL Roman is SARAL Ingles (phonetic spelling of English in

Romanaagarii like ingles in Spanish) in which the text is written as suggested by the
International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST). It is based on a standard
established by the Congress of Orientalists at Athens in 1912. Those who are familiar
with Sanskrit and Urdu texts with dots below the letters may like this format. SARAL
Ingles ASCII/fonts are as follows:

¡ “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p t’ r s t u v d’ x y z m’ v’ m’ ~

To use the SARAL Roman ASCII format for Devanagari will be easy because
all the phoneme bases and vowel modifiers are included in it. However, we
have to alphabetize the Devanagari writing symbols and convert phonemes
(Akshar) into graphemes (Varn‟a). To make Devanagari script alphabetic like
Roman script, we do the following:

-Use only one vowel base and twelve vowel modifiers;

-Make the vowel modifier [i] to follow the base like other vowel modifiers; and

-Remove the line over consonants to make them alphabetic graphemes from
phonemic graphemes.

These measures are based on the suggestions of Hindi scholars and linguists.
The set of Hindi alphabet symbols will have 55 characters or graphemes and
would be as follows:
 44

We arrange these symbols in the ASCII to construct SARAL Hindi fonts on the
pattern of SARAL Roman. Hindi characters in this format of ASCII will be as
follows:

To make phoneme (Akshar) from ASCII characters for Hindi, we add vowel
modifiers to the vowel base and add vowel modifier [a] to the consonant
bases. The set of 54 Hindi phonemes (Akshar maalaa) will be as follows:
 45

These SARAL phonemes may be compared to Hindi that is usually written in

Devanagari script and has 54 basic phonemes (Akshar maalaa) as shown
earlier.
SARAL Roman and SARAL Hindi fonts are two different visual
representations of one phonemic sound system. This implies that they are
interchangeable. The text written in one SARAL font system can be
transcribed into other SARAL font system. This is the magic of the
Romanaagarii based SARAL scripts!

The technique of SARAL Hindi can be applied to any script provided it is

alphabetized, made phonetic, based on phonemes and set in ASCII like
SARAL Roman. What has been done for Hindi, can be done for Gujarati,
Panjabi, Urdu etc. In case of Urdu, however, the difference will be that the text
will be written from right to left instead of left to right and the consonant
phonemes will br pronounced with the vowel modifier [e].

Following is the table of phonemes (Akshar maalaa) of SARAL Urdu:

 46

SARAL Urdu characters in ASCII format will be as follows:

¡ “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
` A b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p T’ r s t u v d’ x y z m’ v’ m’ ~

TOP
 47

Chapter 7
SIMPLIFICATION OF THE NUMBERING SYSTEM

Counting numbers

Numbers are essential for accurate communication and constitute an

important element of any language. No language can be complete without
words for numbers. Easiness in counting is indicative of simplicity of the
language.

The system of counting numbers up to 10 could be related to 10 fingers of

both hands. That suggests the rationale behind universal usage of base 10
system also known as decimal system. The concept of zero (0) and increased
powers of digits on the left side are directly related to decimal system and
positional notation. It is well known that these concepts originated in India.

While the digital notation of numbers is simple and systematic, their text
representation in different languages is not always so simple. Although only
10 symbols are used for writing any number in digits (0, 1 to 9), there are
numerous words to express them in text form in different languages. For
example, in Hindi and most other languages of India, every number up to 100
has a single and unique word. One has to learn 100 words to count up to 100.
Knowing every number from 1 to 98 would still not be enough to tell the word
for 99. Chinese language, on the other hand, is systematic and has distinct
words for the numbers from 1 to 10, and combinations of these 10 words are
used all the way up to 100(Burling: 52).

In the English language, although compound words are used to express most
numbers of more than one digit, there are complications due to use of single
words for numbers of more than one digit from 10 to 19 and differently spelled
words for 20, 30, 40 and 50. The positional factor of digital system suggests
that the digits and the powers in numbers should be indicated explicitly for
accurate counting.

There is no problem in counting single digit numbers in any language since

they are expressed in single words which can be written and remembered
correctly and accurately. More than one digit numbers, however, imply
 48

presence of powers of 10, 100, 1000 or more. In text forms of most

languages, higher positional powers of 100, 1000 and more are expressed
distinctly but lower power of 10 is not given proper recognition and implied in
the word for the digit with which it is associated producing numerous words in
different languages.The recognition of the positional power of 10 and its
explicit indication in numbering system would simplify counting numbers in
any language.

Counting in English

We look at the English language first in which the distortion is minimal and
correction would be the simpler. There are three irregularities in English
language which may be described as follows:

1- The power of 10 is distinctly recognized in all numbers from 20 to 99

through suffix of -ty (as in six-ty, nine-ty etc.), but not given the status of a
separate word along lines of other powers such as hundred, thousand, million
etc. WE always say nine hundred (900), five thousand (5000) and eight million
(8000000).

2- Four digits, namely, two, three, four and five get distorted when they are
associated with the positional power of 10. Thus two becomes twen(-ty), three
becomes thir(-ty), four becomes for(-ty) and five becomes fif(-ty). Interestingly,
there is no change in six, seven, eight and nine.

3- The numbers from 10 to 19 are represented by single words although they

incorporate the positional power of 10. They do not follow the logic of the -ty
suffix which is started from 20.

Correction of these distortions is easy. "ty" could be treated a separate word.

"twen", "thir", "for" and "fif" could be replaced by "two", "three", "four" and
"five" respectively. Logic of numbering from 20 to 99 could be applied to
numbers from 10 to 19 also. Thus, counting of numbers after nine would
follow the system of identification of digits and powers distinctly. This way, one
has to use only 10 words(9 digits and ty) to count up to 99. Moreover,
numbers of up to 15 digits can be counted by using only 15 words! Additional
5 words would be: hundred, thousand, million, billion, and trillion. Thus 10
could be expressed as "one ty" followed by "one ty one", "one ty two", "one ty
 49

three" etc. up to "one ty nine". Twenty, thirty, forty and fifty would become two
ty, three ty, four ty, and five ty for considerations of uniformity. Six ty, seven ty
eigh ty and nine ty will remain as they are. Writing "ty" or "tii" or "ti" as
separate word is required in view of its representation of the power of 10
which is similar to "hundred" and "thousand" used as separate words to
indicate the power of 100 and 1000 respectively. The number
123456789012345 will be read as "one hundred two ty three trillion four
hundred five ty six billion seven hundred eight ty nine million one ty two
thousand three hundred four ty five".

For other languages also, the same logic could be applied for text
representation of numbers. Single digits would have one word but numbers
with more than one digit should be expressed in combination of words
representing digits and positional powers.

Counting in Romanaagarii

For languages of India, this suggestion should not be considered too awkward
or strange. Sanskrit language uses compound words for numbers with more
than one digit. It also incorporates the concept of suffix "tii" to some extent.
Shash(6) becomes shashti (60), sapta(7) becomes saptati(70), asht'a(8)
becomes asht'i(80) and nava(9) becomes navati (Ballantyne: 10, 14,16). In
the most ancient and sacred scripture of India, Rig Veda (1.53.9), there is
reference to “Shasti Sahastra Navati Nava” (60099). This is not only the proof
of advanced counting system of high numbers known in the Vedic era, but
also an indication of a very simple and systematic expression of positional
power of digits for counting up to 99 (Navati Nava). Both Shasti and Navati
use "ti" as suffix to convey the positional power and imply that 6 and 9 have
the values of 60 and 90 respectively. The expression 'navati nava' also implies
that counting after each segment of 10 is done through repetition of numbers
from 1 to 9 in the same way as it is done in English language counting from 20
onwards. The English language counting is, interestingly, close to the notation
of positional power found in the Rig Veda!

It is not clear why the Indian languages did not follow the logic and simplicity
of decimal system originated in India long before its use in the western world.
"Hindu mathematicians invented zero more than 2,000 years ago. Their
discovery led them to positional numbers, simpler arithmetic calculations,
negative numbers, algebra with a symbolic notation, as well as the notions of
infinitesimals, infinity, fractions, and irrational numbers" (Logan: 152). If the
 50

Indian mind could produce such abstract and rational concepts of

mathematics, there should be no hesitation in simplifying and rationalizing the
numbering system through Romanaagarii not only for Hindi but for other
languages also.

While simplifying the numbering system for Hindi, the existing words for digits
up to 9, a separate word for positional power of 10(tii), and existing words for
powers of 100(soo), 1000(hazaar) may be used. Hindi usage of powers of
laakh, karorx etc. is, however, computationally problematic because their
progression is based on sequence of groups of two digits which is different
from three digit positional power of 1000 which comes before them on the
right side. Dividing all the number into groups of three digits would be more
logical and systematic. For example, 123456789 would require separate
indication of first six digits in groups of two (12 karorx, 34 laakh, 56 hazaar)
and then last three digits will be counted as one group. A computer program in
this situation will be too complicated. Equal division in groups of three (123
million, 456 hazaar etc.) is simple and systematic. It is, therefore, suggested
that million, billion and trillion should be used for higher powered numbers.

The systematic and logical method of writing (and speaking) numbers in text
form as suggested here for Romanaagarii will simplify the learning of
numbers. Learning 15 words for counting numbers up to trillions may be
compared to the existing system of counting in Hindi by learning one hundred
words to count up to one hundred only. The table in Appendix-5 incorporates
the existing Hindi and suggested Romanaagarii and English versions of text
representation of numbers from 0 to 100.

This suggestion may appear to be new but it is not unprecedented. It may be

mentioned that modern Welsh has abandoned the vigesimal (reckoning by
twenties) system and adopted a wholly decimal system on lines exactly as
indicated above (Hurford: 84). It uses the existing words for 1-10 and repeats
them after indicating the power of 10. It looks as follows:

10 un deg 20 dau deg 90 nau deg

1 un 11 un deg un 21 dau deg un 91 nau deg
un
2 dau 12 un deg dau 22 dau deg dau 92 naw deg
nau
.......... ......................... .......................... ......................
.......... ......................... .......................... ......................
.......... ......................... .......................... ......................
 51

8 wyth 18 un deg wyth 28 dau deg wyth 98 nau deg

wyth
9 naw 19 un deg naw 29 dau deg nau 99 nau deg
nau

Apart from easy method of counting numbers, other justification for accepting
the simplified numbering system is its computer compatibility. No program
based on the existing text representation of numbers in Hindi can properly
transform digits into text or vice-versa. By adopting Romanaagarii's numbering
system, this task will be made very easy.

Before giving an algorithm or program for this purpose, we should clarify some
conventions to be followed in counting numbers and their text and digit
representation. We should also mark distinction between small powers (10
and 100) and big powers (1,000, 1,000,000, 1,000,000,000 and
beyond).Correct indication of powers and uniformity in expression is essential
for accurate manipulation of any number system. The following rules and
conventions are to be followed in this simplified numbering system.

Conventions regarding numbers and digits:

a. There are only 10 digits and a digit is represented by one word, namely,
zero, one, two, three, etc. up to nine.

b. In a number of more then one digit, power of the digit is always implied
and expressed. 11 is expressed as “one ti one”.

c. First digit of a number cannot be zero(0).

d. In numbers of 3 digits, only small powers of ti (10) and hundred (100)

are recognized. 999 is read as “nine hundred nine ti nine”.

e. Numbers of more than 3 digits are to be divided into groups of 3 starting

from the right hand side. Groups are to be counted from left side. 1234567890
will have four groups: first group of 1, second group of 234, third group of 567,
and fourth group of 890.
 52

f. Leftmost group (first group) may have one, two or three digits. In
123456789 the first group will have 123. In 23456789, the first group will have
23 and in 3456789, the first group will have 3.

g. Digits are read in group from left to right and converted into text
accordingly.

h. Zero (0) is counted for grouping but not converted into text.

i.No conjuction is to be used in text. It will not be correct to say “nine hundred
and nine ty nine”. It should be “nine hundred nine ty nine”.

j. Powers are mentioned only after non-zero digit. In 203 (two hundred
three), no power of 0 is indicated.

k. Power of 100 is expressed after first non-zero digit of 3 digit group.

l.Power of 10 is expressed after second non-zero digit of 3 digit group or first

digit of 2 digit number or group (group one only)

m. Small powers may come in any group of the number. In first group,
however, if there are three digits, both powers of hundred (100) and ty(10) will
be present while in group of two digits, only the power of ty(10) will be present
and in group of one digit, no power will be present.

n. Big powers come only when there are more than 3 digits. In a number
up to 999, there are only hundreds but in 1000, there is the power of
thousand.

o. Big power after group one (in more than 3 digit number) is always
implied and expressed.

p. Power after first group is expressed if there is a non-zero digit in the

group. In number 1,000,000,000, we say one billion and do not refer to any
other power because all digits are zeros.

q. Big powers come sequentially starting from the biggest power. In a

number of 13, 14 or 15 digits, the first power will be trillion, then billion, then
million and then thousand.
 53

r. A big power cannot be repeated in a number. In number

1,000,000,000,000 we should not say one million million but we should say
one trillion.

s. Big power of a group is expressed immediately after last digit (non-zero)

of the group or small power of previous non-zero digit in the group but not
after a big power. We can say so many hundred million or so many ty
thousand but we should not say so many thousand billion or so many million
thousand.

Number processing programs

Following the above mentioned conventions, we may develop a program for

converting text into digit. The algorithm for such a program will be as follows:

-initialize number to 0.

-identify word and convert into digit or power. First word will always be a
non-zero digit.

-if the word is for digit, add it to number.

-if the word is for power, multiply it to number.

-follow conventions for correct transformation and indicate errors, if any.

-exit after reading the last word.

-print digit version of text.

The algorithm for converting number from digit to text form will be as follows:

-count total number of digits and divide them into groups of 3.

-convert group one (left side) into text.

-identify power after group one and indicate it in the text.

-identify digits of subsequent groups and transform them into text.

 54

-indicate big powers after each group as appropriate according to

conventions.

-exit after last digit of last group is identified.

-print text version of number.

Based on these algorithms and conventions, it would be easy to make a

computer program to convert numbers from digit form to text form and vice
versa, in any language written in Romanaagarii. In fact the proposed
numbering system is language and script independent. By using the
Romanized version of proposed notations of 16 words, the computer program
for converting text into digits and vice-versa would be made equally valid for
all languages. On the other hand, any program on basis of existing textual
notation of numbers in Hindi would be too complicated and long.

TOP
 55

Chapter 8
TEACHING ROMANAAGARII

Main principles and steps

Laubach, in his book "India shall be literate" (Mission Press, Jubbulpore;

1940) suggested some principles for teaching adult illiterates. These
principles are:

1. Learnability: the lesson will be absorbingly interesting, easy and swift

2. Teachability: the lesson can be taught by anybody, taught as soon as

learned, partly self-taught and without a teacher present.

Keeping in mind the above mentioned steps, elaborate lessons can be

prepared to cover them in accordance with the grasping power of people
being taught to read and write. Most important elements in lessons would be
the recognition of letters on the basis of sound-symbol correspondence.
Vocabulary and language used should be familiar to the students. Illustrations
and pictorial representation of words would help in quick learning. The
teaching methods should be reviewed so as to make improvements in light of
suggestions and progress in the process of learning.

On basis of these guidelines, instruction books, video cassettes and

interactive computer programs can be prepared to teach the Romanaagarii
script.

Mandala approach to rational alphabetic script (MATRAS)

Mandala or Yantra is a symbolic depiction of the manifest and non-manifest

realities in the universe. People in India and elsewhere have been practicing
different techniques of meditations for thousands of years on the Shri Yantra
(Shri Vidya Mandala). It is also considered to be the abode of the Divine
Mother or the Goddess of Supreme Knowledge (Shri Vidya). Shri Yantra‟s
beauty, complex design and geometry has always amazed and puzzled the
artists and scientists.
 56

Shri Yantra also contains the mysteries of the origin and evolution of language
and knowledge. It is the abode of the Supreme Intelligence and incorporates
the code of phonetic alphabet.

The inner part of Shri Yantra has four triangles with apexes upwards and five
triangles with apexes downwards. Intersection of lines of the nine triangles are
called Chakras (circles) although they appear as hexagons. These hexagons
constitute the base of 42 blue triangles called Shiva or consciousness areas.
There is one more blue triangle inside the smallest hexagon. Other 46 areas
are called Shakti or energy areas and are colored pink. When hexagons are
converted into circles, the total number of blue and pink areas remains 89 (43
blue and 46 pink). The inner part of Shri Yantra may be depicted as a
Mandala or Yantra as follows:

We may consider this mandala as a flower of writing symbols or script.

Learning to read and write the writing symbols would be to arrange the petals
of the flower in a tray (tray=yellow; blue petals=43; pink petals=46; rows of
petals=9 including the central circle‟s petals). Each petal is assigned a writing
symbol and the 9 rows are arranged in 9 steps or 9 lessons for teaching the
script. We will call the circular petals as chakras and the full form of flower in a
tray like frame as Alphabet Yantra.
 57

The 9 lessons (paat'ha) or steps for learning Romanaagarii or SARAL Roman

script are as follows:

Step-1

(Basic vowels)

Writing symbols:

a aa i ii

There is no vowel base in Romanaagarii

Step-2

(Basic consonants)

Writing symbols:

k c t‟ t p y s n

Phonemes:

ka ca t‟a ta pa ya sa na

Step-3

(Other vowels)

Writing symbols:

u uu e ee o oo m' h'

All vowels:

a aa i ii u uu e ee o oo m' h'
 58

Step-4

(Associate consonants)

Writing symbols:

g j d‟ d b m r l v h

Phonemes:

ga ja d‟a da ba ma ra la va ha

baaraha khar‟ii:

ka kaa ki kii ku kuu ke kee ko koo kam' kah'

Step-5

( Numbers and counting)

Writing symbols:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

In words:

shuunya eka do tiin caara paam'ca chah' saat aat‟ha noo

Step-6

(Aspirated consonants)

Writing symbols:

kh gh ch jh t‟h d‟h th dh ph bh

Phonemes:
 59

kha gha cha jha t‟ha d‟ha tha dha pha bha

Step-7

(Text punctuation and arithmetic symbols)

Writing symbols:

. , ; ? ! + - * / =

Step-8

(Other consonants)

Writing symbols:

sh s‟ n‟ m‟ ñ r‟ r‟h

‟ k‟ k‟h g‟ z f v‟

Phonemes:

sha s‟a n‟a m‟a ña r‟a r‟ha

‟a k‟a k‟ha g‟a za fa v‟a

Step-9

Writing symbols:

( ) / \ < > :

* @ & ' " # %

SARAL and conventional Hindi

 60

If anyone wants to learn the current script for Hindi (conventional Hindi) or
wants to learn only that script, he may refer to appendix-5 which shows both
SARAL and conventional Hindi writing symbols through a comparative table.
Careful study of this table will not only facilitate learning conventional Hindi,
but also help in comprehending its complexities. In this way, SARAL Hindi will
become a ladder for climbing up to the level of conventional Hindi.

SARAL Method for learning other languages

It may be mentioned that the suggestions for Hindi language would be equally
relevant and valid for Urdu and Panjabi languages. Hindi, Urdu and Panjabi
languages have the common alphabet, same grammar and mostly similar
vocabulary. People speaking these languages can generally understand each
other orally, but find difficulty in communicating in writing due to different
scripts. A common script for these languages will go a long way in promoting
better communications and mutual understanding among people who speak
these three languages.

As regards other languages of India, very few and minor adjustments would
be required in Romanaagarii format to write those languages. The fact that all
Indian languages are phoneme based and have similar sound characteristics
makes the Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts an ideal instrument to promote
literacy, communications and computerization.

TOP
 61

Chapter 9
LITERACY PROBLEM IN INDIA

Languages and literacy in India

India has numerous languages and dialects and the problem of illiteracy is
widespread and serious. According to 2001 census, 34.62 per cent of Indians
cannot read or write. That means about 350 million illiterate people, assuming
the country's population to be in excess of 1 billion. Accordingly, almost one-
third of the world's non-literate people aged 15 and above are in India.

Hindi is the national language of India and spoken by the largest number of
people in the country. Interestingly, the four Hindi speaking states of India
(Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (BIMARU)) account for
nearly half of India's illiterates. This suggests that special efforts are required
for promotion of literacy in Hindi speaking areas.

Scripts in India

There are three well defined systems of writing in India namely 1) the native
Indian system, 2) the Perso-Arabic system and 3) the Roman and Latin
system. While English is written in Roman system, Urdu, Sindhi and Kashmiri
are written in Perso-Arabic system. All other languages of India follow the
native Indian system. The main feature of Indian system is the clear
demarcation of vowels from consonants.After anlysing the problem of Indian
scripts, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, an eminenent linguist of India, concluded
that Roman script should appeal to anyone who wants to spread literacy
among the masses. “The problem of the Babel of scripts in India presents
itself to me asbeing capable of final solution only through an Indo-Roman
Script, i.e. a Roman Script modified and extended for Indian languages”
(Chatterji: 272).

Many other leaders and thinkers of India such as Netaji Subhash Chandra
Bose, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Raghupati
Sahaya Firaq, have spoken in favour of Roman script for India. According to
Firaq, millions of people in India feel that the Roman script is more suitable
 62

than any other for office and other work. “No other script can compete with it
for ease of writing and printing” (Shauq: 50).

Problems in promotion of literacy in India

In the past, some efforts have been made to promote literacy in India but
results have not been very successful. Reasons for this failure in eradicating
illiteracy from the country could be the following:

1. Time required for learning has been too long and usually demands
occupational sacrifices.

2. Teaching has been based on existing complicated and irregular writing

systems. The technique of writing has demanded learning of numerous rules
and exceptions and calligraphy skills.

3. There has been no technical support to teaching. Everything depends on

the manual skill of teachers who have to be taught before they can teach the
students. There has been lack of any "teach yourself" material for promotion
of literacy.

4. Teaching has been conducted in so called "high-brow" style of urban elite

which causes feeling of inferiority and resistance among common people
living mostly in rural areas. The teachers have generally had feeling of
superiority and aversion towards illiterates. People usually resist being taught
to learn a language different from what they speak and consider to be their
mother tongue.

5. Teaching has been confined to schools or school type classes where

special arrangements for teaching a language and appropriate facilities are to
be provided. If a person can learn spoken language at home in family
atmosphere, it should be possible to learn to read and write also at home.

6. Lack of support by mass media and cultural factors responsible for lack of
awareness of masses to have their right to learn read and write have
dampened the enthusiasm of people.

7. Reading materials have been prepared without consideration of its

relevance to the functional requirements of the people. There has been
 63

concentration of efforts to educate people in political, religious and other areas

rather than make them functionally literate.

8. Lack of uniformity in scripts of languages commonly spoken by different

people in same area has also hampered learning to read and write leaving
people illiterate. While people pick up spoken language of their neighbors,
script causes problems. Since literacy requires capability to write as well as
speak, difficulty in writing the language becomes a major problem in areas
where some minorities speak different language.

9. There has been no technical support to teaching through use of

electronic gadgets which can be effective in learning languages. Interactive
programme on computers for learning languages could be effective instrument
for acquiring skills to read and write.

Literacy among Indians abroad

Indians who live outside India face different problem pertaining to literacy.
While living among people speaking language different from their native
language, they have to learn and mostly use the language of that country. For
cultural and emotional reasons, they are attached to their heritage language
and want to preserve it. Younger people who are educated and brought up in
foreign environment, find it even more difficult to preserve the language of
their native land.

Some interesting facts have come out in this respect through a study of
National Indo-Canadian Council (NIIC) on Indo-Canadian youth issues on
parenting and adaptation compiled by Prof. John Curien of McGill University,
Montreal. It has been revealed that 75 to 80 % of young adults have not
acquired reading and writing skills in their ancestral language. In another
generation, the proportion of ethnic Indo-Canadians who would have retained
their language would have declined precipitously (Kurien: 15).

Romantic attachment to the idea of retaining the heritage language by Indians

is not peculiar to Canada and would be valid in all parts of the world. There is
strong commitment among all Indian anywhere to learn and use the heritage
language, but there is no easy and practical way to translate the aspirations
into reality. One major factor in this predicament would be the script used for
writing the Indian languages. The relevance and efficacy of Romanaagarii in
this situation is obvious.
 64

Official languages in India

The constitution of India recognizes 15 languages and there are an additional

3 languages recognized as administrative languages. The languages and
percentage of people who speak them is as follows:

main languages and the percentage of population

1 Hindi 39.8%

2 Bengali8.2%

3 Telugu7.8%

4 Marathi 7.3%

5 Tamil 6.2%

6 Urdu 5.13%

7 Gujarati 4.81%

8 Kannada 3.87%

9 Malayalam 3.59%

10 Oriya 3.32%

11 Punjabi 2.76%

12 Assamese 1.55%

13 Sindhi 0.25%

14 Sanskrit 0.01%

15 Kashmiri ...
 65

Additional administrative languages:

16 Konkani 0.3

17 Manipuri 0.14

18 English (1.9 million)

Source: Census of India, 1991, "Paper 1 of 1997 (Language), Table C-7".

Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts for India

India's problem of illiteracy, difficulties in communications in a multi-lingual

society and lack of progress in introducing computers on a large scale can be
appropriately tackled through Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts. The learning
of Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts by common people should cause no
serious problems if a decision is taken by the authorities in this respect. Since
the worst problem of illiteracy is in the Hindi speaking parts of the country,
suggestions in this book would be most practical and pertinent. Romanaagarii
and SARAL scripts are geared to avoid the problems which have hindered the
promotion of literacy in India.

TOP
 66

Chapter 10
SARAL SCRIPTS, COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET

Languages and machines

The importance of machines for writing language has been increasing ever
since the introduction of typewriters and printers. Writing any language with
the help of a machine is faster and makes its reading easy. The machines are
responsible for clear and cheaper production of printed material in different
languages for wide circulation throughout the world. The ordinary machines
used for typing and printing can be easily manipulated to accept any shape or
sequence of symbols used for writing a script on a surface.

Computers have introduced new elements of handling symbols for languages

through electronic processing. All symbols which are fed into computers for
processing get converted into binary code. After processing, they are
re-converted into different shapes for output. The processing inside the
computer is based on rational principles. It would be difficult to process scripts
or languages that are not compatible with the code for characters commonly
used in the central processing unit of the computer.

The processing in most computers at present is based on ASCII code which

has the Roman alphabet as the main units for text manipulation. It is,
therefore, easier to process languages which are written in Roman script
compared to those written in other scripts. Word processing programs for
Roman characters are in abundance in the market. Romanaagarii can utilize
any word processing program valid for English.

The increase in the processing speed of computers and their capacity to

handle very large quantity of information has created the possibility and
desirability of faster input of languages. This can be done either through the
scanning process or oral input. While scanning process is now common for
texts written in Roman characters, technology for voice input has not yet fully
developed. Romanaagarii script being based on rational principle of
sound-symbol correspondence, and its characters being in Roman script, has
the possibility of accepting input through scanning and may also facilitate oral
input through voice recognition.
 67

Computers and writing systems

Recent researches in the field of cognitive psychology have revealed that

there has been a shift of emphasis even in educational practice as far as
writing is concerned. "In the 1920s the emphasis was on handwriting skills, in
the 1950s it was on the grammatical quality of the written products, and in the
1990s it is on the process of writing -- how writers arrive at their end products"
(Hartley: 18).

The computer has introduced significant changes in the process of writing. A

computer does not require the conventional method or instrument to make a
mark on a surface. It needs only the skill to recognize symbols on a keyboard
so as to produce similar symbols on the screen. If some voice recognition
device is added to the computer, the keyboard may also be dispensed with.

The transformation of writing after the advent of computers could be

compared to the transformations that took place in different societies after
introduction of script to convert the spoken words into writing. Basically,
microchips are merely a technical improvement over clay tablets (Wellish: 9).
However, in some ways the changes brought about by computers during the
past fifty years are more startling than the changes brought about by written
languages during the past five thousand years. Computers have introduced a
qualitative change in the technique and art of writing. This technique can be
utilized for the promotion of literacy.

Computers and literacy

Although promotion of literacy is not dependent upon computers, they can be

of great assistance in this task. The following points highlight the beneficial
impact of computers on promotion of literacy:

1. Through interactive programs on computers, learning can be facilitated

even for those who are slow. Computers have infinite patience and learning
through them would be friendlier and less fearful.

2. They are accessible to people in remote areas in which human beings may
not easily reach and stay for long to teach reading and writing. Battery
operated computers may be used at places where electricity supply is not
available or is precarious. Computers also reduce dependency on schools.
 68

3. With their increased memory, computers can teach a variety of subjects

and cover more areas than a human teacher. The capacity, speed and
accuracy of computers enable a person to achieve many things in a short time
which would be difficult through human efforts. Along with the teaching of
languages, computers could also be used to produce reading material for
learning the languages.

4. With the help of uniform script and suitable programs, computers can
promote communication among different parts of the world. They can be
helpful in sending reading material for promotion of literacy from one place to
another on global basis.

5. As an aid to intellectual pursuits, computers support and promote creativity.

By doing the routine, dull and repetitive jobs, computers release the mind for
other useful things. They also accelerate the learning process.

6. Computers can be helpful in teaching handicapped people. There are

possibilities of computers being operated by blind or dumb people through
special programs.

Computer literacy

Apart from being an aid to promote literacy, computers themselves deserve to

be known, understood and used. Computer literacy in modern times is
becoming as important as language literacy. It is being realized that in the
21st century, a person who is ignorant about computers would be considered
illiterate.

Although computer literacy is ambiguous and has not been explained as

precisely as language literacy, its general goals are considered to be: some
knowledge of computers and their technology; the ability to use a few
standard types of software; some knowledge of computer applications and
their use in a variety of contexts; some knowledge or understanding of the
current and future impact of computers on society; and the ability to write
some simple computer programs. (Eraut: 27)

A conference for a national literacy program in the United States found some
key components for achieving computer literacy. (Seidel: 5) They are as
follows:
 69

1. The recognition that the concept of computer literacy is multi-faceted.

"Diversity of opinion and even fervent advocacy is a characteristic of any
rapidly advancing field and should be viewed as an opportunity. It should not
be used as an excuse for lack of action. Ideas should be advanced,
developed and disseminated for users to judge their worth and value" (Seidel:
5).

2. The identification and development of a significant number of

knowledgeable people both to create new tools and materials and effectively
use them. People are the most important resources.

3. The involvement of the home, the workplace and the community as well as
school in creating literate society.

4. The presence of computers for instruction in all schools for all students.

5. The availability of high quality curricula and courses.

6. Continued innovation, research and development to identify new

opportunities for the use of computers.

Most of these components would be relevant and applicable to language

literacy also. The goals of computer literacy would differ from country to
country and depend upon the existing resources and interest. What is needed
is the recognition of computers as an important factor in the living and working
environment of the modern times and awareness of their impact on
technology, culture and thinking.

Computer literacy in India

Despite widespread illiteracy in India, there is awareness of modern science

and technology developments in academic, official and business circles. Due
to lack of resources, however, computers have had limited impact in the
country. Their use is now on the increase. There are concerted efforts in some
places even to compete with other countries in hardware and software
production.

An organized approach to the introduction of micro computers into schools

began in 1984, which marked the beginning of a program of introducing
computers into the schools in a limited way with an approach which was
 70

conditioned by limited resources, non-availability of trained teachers and wide

disparities in the social strata of the children who live in modern towns or in
backward villages (Nag/Howie: 126).

Importance of Computers in India

In his address to the nation on the eve of 58th Independence Day (14 August,
2004), The President of India highlighted the concept of Education for Dignity
of Human life and emphasized Technology Enhanced Education in the
country. He stated: “Constraints of time and space together with the rapid
obsolescence of knowledge in some areas of science and technology, have
created a huge demand for different courses from different institutions in the
distance mode. There is a need for a working digital library system that alone
can, in the long run, provide the kind of access required for a Knowledge
Society. Technology Enhanced Learning is a solution. It attempts to exploit
the rapid developments in Information and Communication Technology. As
the communications band-width continues to increase and the cost of
computer power continues to drop, Technology Enhanced Learning will
become an economically viable solution. Virtual classrooms of the future will
have students from many locations taught by a team of geographically
distributed Instructors through tele-education delivery system.”

Internet and its impact

Internet began in the nineteen sixties as a Defense Department project of the

United States. It was designed to link researchers around the country. The
designers linked together a network of networks, with no point of central
control over the system. That way, messages could get through even if one
or more links were lost. It was built sort of like a spider's web. The Internet
came into popular use in the nineteen nineties.

Internet is the system of communications organized with the help of

computers and telephones. A network is created by connecting several
computers in order to facilitate communication and exchange information.
Several networks of this type have been connected into a vast global net
which is called Internet. In reality, Internet is a net of computer networks
through which information can be exchanged from one place to another at
very fast speed. It is being used extensively in offices, educational institutions,
 71

and commercial organizations as well as by individuals. It is estimated that the

number of people using Internet all over the world are several millions and it is
increasing rapidly.

The electronic revolution has introduced new machines and new technologies.
In the worlds of Bill Gates: "We stand at the brink of another revolution. This
one will involve unprecedentedly inexpensive communication; all computers
will join together to communicate with us and for us. Interconnected globally,
they will form a network, which is being called the information highway. A
direct precursor is the present Internet, which is a group of computers joined
and exchanging information using current technology."

It is not necessary to give any further arguments in favor of the use of Internet
for international communications.

Hindi on the Internet

Presently, the Internet in the world (except China, Japan and Korea) is mainly
used for languages written in Roman scripts. The reason for this is the use of
Roman characters in ASCII for text processing in computers. The word
processing in standard ASCII facilitates text transmission and text
manipulation in computers. The vast reservoir of information stored in
standard ASCII computers connected to Internet, makes it possible to access
it anywhere in the world.

Notably absent from the table above is Hindi, one of the most commonly
spoken languages of the world, as well as the national language of India, the
second most populated country in the world. This is due to factors such as the
lack of access to the Internet by the large majority of the Indian population,
and a preference for English among those users who have Internet access.
The Indian population online is also increasing at a high rate; this is also
expected to have a great impact on the Internet in the near future. (From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on Internet)

It may be asked why we cannot use Internet for communication in other

non-Roman scripts such as Devanagari. We have the technology for writing
Hindi in Devanagari Script through graphic processing but this technique is
possible through special programs which are not easily available everywhere.
These programs are very complicated and cannot do scanning and text
processing as easily as programs for Roman script. Moreover, the knowledge
 72

of Roman letters is essential for writing addresses and understanding the

vocabulary of computers and Internet. Acronyms such as FTP., WWW, BBS,
HTML etc. are commonly used in Internet. It is not possible to translate or
transliterate them in any other non-Roman Script.

Hindi speaking people living in all parts of the world would like to
communicate with each other through Internet. Due to the constraints of
script, it has not been possible to use Hindi for international communications
through computers. Now we have the possibility of communicating in Hindi on
Internet by using the Romanaagarii Script. This suggestion is very scientific,
logical and practical. This will help in propagating Hindi all over the world and
popularizing it on a wider scale.

The suggestion of using Romanaagarii for writing Hindi may appear

revolutionary but it is essential under present circumstances.

Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts on the Internet

Through Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts, reading and study skills can be
delivered over the Internet as easily as in Roman script. The resource-
assisted reading connects a reader‟s chosen text, at his or her interest and
proficiency level.

Some infrastructure and technology issues will have to be tackled for which
there are plenty of resources available at present.

We have to understand this electronic miracle and adjust ourselves to it. The
suggestion to use Romanaagarii for writing Hindi has been made with this
perspective in view. Hindi Speaking world cannot ignore the fast progress
being made by others using modern technology and lag behind in the use of
electronic communication. Internet has brought a new dimension to the
dissemination of knowledge. Through Internet, knowledge can be available
from one single source at a very low cost almost instantly!

Internet can integrate literacy and self-study training. The potential

advantages of the Internet in education are well known. Online learning
reaches the learner more successfully than ever before. Through
Romanaagarii, reading and study skills can be delivered over the Internet
easily in the remotest areas. The resource-assisted reading connects a
reader's chosen text, at his or her interest and proficiency level.
 73

Some infrastructure and technology issues will have to be tackled for which
there are plenty of resources available at present.

An Internet and Romanaagarii based solution to India's illiteracy problem.

Internet can also pave the way to addressing other societal issues. Internet
can be used in educating children. On Internet, we can make material
available for healthcare or agriculture. We could take people through the
basics of fertilizers, or the entire vaccination program. All that is needed is the
material, through Internet.

TOP
 74

Appendix 1

Hindi Phonemes (Akshar Maalaa)

 75

Hindi Fonts-Nai Dunia

TOP
 76

Appendix 2

ASCII Number (AN), ASCII Character (AC), Nai Dunia (ND), SARAL Hindi
(SH) and SARAL Roman (SR) characters
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
 85

TOP
 86

Appendix 3
 87

TOP
 88

Appendix 4

Unicode, SARAL Roman (SR) and SARAL Hindi (SH)

Sl.No.: Unicode = SR = SH

1: ्ाँ = M = M

2: ् = M = M

3: ् = : =:

4: अ = xa = xa

5: आ = xA = xA

6: इ = xi = xi

7: ई = xI = xI

8: उ = xu = xu

9: ऊ = xU = xU

10: ऋ = ri = ri

11: ऌ = lri = lri

12: ऍ = x’ = x’
 89

13: ऎ = xe’ = xe’

14: ए = xe = xe

15: ऐ = xE = xE

16: ऑ = xA’ = xA’

17: ऒ = xo’ = xo’

18: ओ = xo = xo

19: औ = xO = xO

20: क = ka = ka

21: ख = Ka = Ka

22: ग = ga = ga

23: घ = Ga = Ga

24: ङ = {a = {a

25: च = ca = ca

26: छ = Ca = Ca

27: ज = ja = ja

28: झ = Ja = Ja
 90

29: ञ = }a = }a

30: ट = qa = qa

31: ठ = Qa = Qa

32: ड = wa = wa

33: ढ = Wa = Wa

34: ण = Na = Na

35: त = ta = ta

36: थ = Ta = Ta

37: द = da = da

38: ध = Da = Da

39: न = na = na

40: ऩ = ‘na = ‘na

41: ऩ = pa = pa

42: प = Pa = Pa

43: फ = ba = ba

44: ब = Ba = Ba
 91

45: भ = ma = ma

46: म = ya = ya

47: य = ra = ra

48: ऱ = ‘ra = ‘ra

49: र = la = la

50: ऱ = La = La

51: ऴ = Ra = Ra

52: ल = va = va

53: ळ = Sa = Sa

54: ऴ = Fa = Fa

55: व = sa = sa

56: ्श = ha = ha

57: ््् = ` = `

58: ॱ = x = x

59: ् = A = A

60: न्द्् = i = i
 92

61: ् = I = I

62: ् = u = u

63: ् = U = U

64: ् = ri = ri

65: ् = rri = rri

66: ् = ` = `

67: ् = e’ = e’

68: ् = e = e

69: ् = E = E

70: ् = A’ = A’

71: ् = o’ = o’

72: ् = o = o

73: ्ौ = O = O

74: ् = =

75: ॲ = xo~ = xo~

76: ् = ‘ = ‘
 93

77: ् = - = -

78: ् = ‘ = ‘

79: ् = ‘ = ‘

80: क़ = V = V

81: ख़ = Ya = Ya

82: ग़ = Za = Za

83: ज़ = za = za

84: ड़ = La = La

85: ढ़ = Ra = Ra

86: फ़ = fa = fa

87: य़ = ‘ya = ‘ya

88: क = rri = rri

89: ख = lrra = lrra

90: ् = lr = lr

91: ् = lrr = lrr

92: । = . = .
 94

93: ॥ = .. = ..

94: ० = 0 = 0

95: १ = 1 = 1

96: २ = 2 = 2

97: ३ = 3 = 3

98: ४ = 4 = 4

99: ५ = 5 = 5

100: ६ = 6 = 6

101: ७ = 7 = 7

102: ८ = 8 = 8

103: ९ = 9 = 9

104: ॰ = 0 = 0

TOP
 95

Appendix 5

SARAL Numbering System

0 zIro 20 do tI 41 cAr tI xek
1 Xek 21 do tI xek 42 cAr tI do
2 Do 22 do tI do 43 cAr tI tIn
3 tIn 23 do tI tIn 44 cAr tI cAr
4 cAr 24 do tI cAr 45 cArtI pAMc
5 pAMc 25 do tI pAMc 46 cAr tI Ca:
6 Ca: 26 do tI Ca: 47 cAr tI sAt
7 sAt 27 do tI sAt 48 cAr tI xAQ
8 xAQ 28 do tI xAQ 49 cAr tI nO
9 nO 29 do tI nO 50 pAMc tI
10 xek tI 30 tIn tI 51 pAMc tI xek
11 xek tI xek 31 tIn tI xek 52 pAMc ti do
12 xek tI do 32 tIn tI do 53 pAMc tI tIn
13 xek tI tIn 33 tIn tI tIn 54 pAMc tI cAr
14 xek tI cAr 34 tIntI cAr 55 pAMc tI pAMc
15 xek tI pAMc 35 tIn tI pAMc 56 pAMc tI Ca:
16 xek tI Ca: 36 tIn tI Ca: 57 pAMc tI sAt
17 xek tI sAt 37 tIn tI sAt 58 pAMc tI xAQ
18 xek tI xAQ 38 tIn tI xAQ 59 pAMc tI nO
19 xek tI nO 39 tIn tI nO 60 Ca: tI
20 do tI 40 cAr tI 61 Ca: tI xek

62 Ca: tI do 76 sAt tI Ca: 90 nO tI

63 Ca: tI tIn 77 sAt tI sAt 91 nO tI xek
 96

64 Ca: tI cAr 78 sAt tI xAQ 92 nO tI do

65 Ca: tI pAMc 79 sAt tI nO 93 nO tI tIn
66 Ca: tI Ca: 80 xAQ tI 94 nO tI cAr
67 Ca: tI sAt 81 xAQ tI xek 95 nO tI pAMc
68 Ca: tI xAQ 82 xAQ tI do 96 nO tI Ca:
69 Ca: tI nO 83 xAQ tI tIn 97 nO tI sAt
70 sAt tI 84 xAQ tI cAr 98 nO tI xAQ
71 sAt tI xek 85 xAQ tI pAMc 99 nO tI nO
72 sAt tI do 86 xAQ tI Ca: 100 xek sO
73 sAt tI tIn 87 xAQ tI sAt 101 xek sO xek
74 sAt tI cAr 88 xAQ tI xAQ 102 xek sO do
75 sAt tI pAMc 89 xAQ tI nO 109 xek sO nO

1000 xek hazAr 1099 xek hazAr nO tI nO

9999 nO hazAr nO sO nO tI nO 999000 nO so nO tI nO hazAr
100099 xek sO hazAr nO tI nO 200099 do sO hazAr nO tI nO
222000 do sO do tI do hazAr 999009 nO sO nO tI nO hazAr nO
1100000 xek miliyan xek sO hazAr 9000000 nO miliyan
999000000999 nO sO nO tI nO biliyan nO sO nO tI nO.
TOP
 97

Appendix 6

Table of Hindi Phonemes (baaraakhar‟ii)

a A i I u U e E o O M H
x xa xA xi xI xu xU xe xE xo xO xM xH
k ka kA ki kI ku kU ke kE ko kO kM kH
c ca cA ci cI cu cU ce cE co cO cM cH
q qa qA qi qI qu qU qe qE qo qO qM qH
t ta tA ti tI tu tU te tE to tO tM tH
p pa pA pi pI pu pU pe pE po pO pM pH
y ya yA yi yI yu yU ye yE yo yO yM yH
s sa sA si sI su sU se sE so sO sM sH
n na nA ni nI nu nU ne nE no nO nM nH
g ga gA gi gI gu gU ge gE go gO gM gH
j ja jA ji jI ju jU je jE jo jO jM jH
w wa wA wi wI wu wU we wE wo wO wM wH
d da dA di dI du dU de dE do dO dM dH
b ba bA bi bI bu bU be bE bo bO bM bH
m ma mA mi mI mu mU me mE mo mO mM mH
r ra rA ri rI ru rU re rE ro rO rM rH
l la lA li lI lu lU le lE lo lO lM lH
v va vA vi vI vu vU ve vE vo vO vM vH
h ha hA hi hI hu hU he hE ho hO hM hH
K Ka KA Ki KI Ku KU Ke KE Ko KO KM KH
G Ga GA Gi GI Gu GU Ge GE Go GO GM GH
C Ca CA Ci CI Cu CU Ce CE Co CO CM CH
J Ja JA Ji JI Ju JU Je JE Jo JO JM JH
 98

Q Qa QA Qi QI Qu QU Qe QE Qo QO QM QH
W Wa WA Wi WI Wu WU We WE Wo WO WM WH
T Ta TA Ti TI Tu TU Te TE To TO TM TH
D Da DA Di DI Du DU De DE Do DO DM DH
P Pa PA Pi PI Pu PU Pe PE Po PO PM PH
B Ba BA Bi BI Bu BU Be BE Bo BO BM BH
S Sa SA Si SI Su SU Se SE So SO SM SH
F Fa FA Fi FI Fu FU Fe FE Fo FO FM FH
N Na NA Ni NI Nu NU Ne NE No NO NM NH
{ {a {A {i {I {u {U {e {E {o {O {M {H
} }a }A }i }I }u }U }e }E }o }O }M }H
L La LA Li LI Lu LU Le LE Lo LO LM LH
R Ra RA Ri RI Ru RU Re RE Ro RO RM RH
X Xa XA Xi XI Xu XU Xe XE Xo XO XM XH
V Va VA Vi VI Vu VU Ve VE Vo VO VM VH
Y Ya YA Yi YI Yu YU Ye YE Yo YO YM YH
Z Za ZA Zi ZI Zu ZU Ze ZE Zo ZO ZM ZH
z za zA zi zI zu zU ze zE zo zO zM zH
f fa fA fi fI fu fU fe fE fo fO fM fH
| |a |A |i |I |u |U |e |E |o |O |M |H
TOP
 99

Appendix 7

Alphabet, lessons and Mandala/Yantra for

SARAL scripts

SARAL Hindi
 100

SARAL Hindi and Mandala/Yantra

 101

SARAL Gujarati
 102

SARAL Gujarati and Mandala/Yantra

 103

SARAL Panjabi
 104

SARAL Panjabi and Mandala/Yantra

 105

SARAL Marathi
 106

SARAL Marathi and Mandala/Yantra

 107

SARAL Urdu
 108

SARAL Urdu and Mandala/Yantra

 109

SARAL Roman
 110

SARAL Roman and Mandala/Yantra

 111

SARAL Ingles
 112

SARAL Ingles and Mandala/Yantra

TOP
 113

Appendix 8

Global picture of Internet users

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF COUNTRIES
Including the latest (July 2009) Internet Usage, Penetration Rates, Gross
National Income per capita, Country size and ISO 3316 Symbol
(Source:http://www.internetworldstats.com/list2.htm)

Country or
Sym Size Population Internet Internet GDP p.c.
Region
-bol (sq. km.) (2009 est.) Users Penetration in US$
Name
Afghanistan AF 645,807 28,395,716 500,000 1.8 % $800
Africa - 30,221,532 991,002,342 65,903,900 6.7 % --
Albania AL 28,748 3,639,453 580,000 15.9 % $6,000
Algeria DZ 2,381,741 34,178,188 3,500,000 10.2 % $7,000
American
AS 197 65,628 n/a n/a $8,000('07)
Samoa
Andorra AD 464 83,888 70,040 83.5 % $42,500('07)
Angola AO 1,246,700 12,799,293 550,000 4.3 % $8,800
Anguilla AI 96 14,436 4,200 29.1 % $8,800('04)
Antarctica AQ 13,209,000 1,169 n/a n/a --
Antigua &
AG 442 85,632 65,000 75.9 % $19,000
Barbuda
Antilles,
AN 800 227,049 2,000 0.9 % $16,000('04)
Netherlands
Arabia, Saudi SA 2,149,690 28,686,633 7,200,000 25.1 % $20,700
Argentina AR 2,777,409 40,913,584 20,000,000 48.9 % $14,200
Armenia AM 29,743 2,967,004 172,800 5.8 % $6,400
Aruba AW 193 103,065 24,000 23.3 % $21,800('04)
Asia - 39,365,000 3,808,070,503 704,213,930 18.5 % --
Australia AU 7,682,557 21,262,641 16,926,015 79.6 % $38,100
Austria AT 83,858 8,210,281 5,601,700 68.2 % $39,200
Azerbaijan AZ 86,530 8,238,672 1,500,000 18.2 % $9,000
Bahamas, The BS 13,962 307,552 142,000 46.2 % $28,600
Bahrain BH 694 728,709 250,000 34.3 % $37,200
Bangladesh BD 142,615 156,050,883 500,000 0.3 % $1,500
Barbados BB 431 284,589 188,000 66.1 % $19,300
Belarus BY 207,600 9,648,533 2,809,800 29.1 % $11,800
 114

Belgium BE 30,518 10,414,336 7,006,400 67.3 % $37,500

Belize BZ 22,966 307,899 32,000 10.4 % $8,600
Benin BJ 112,622 8,791,832 160,000 1.8 % $1,500
Bermuda BM 53 67,837 48,000 70.8 % $69,900('04)
Bhutan BT 46,650 691,141 40,000 5.8 % $5,600
Bolivia BO 1,098,581 9,775,246 1,000,000 10.2 % $4,500
Bosnia and
BA 51,129 4,613,414 1,441,000 31.2 % $6,500
Herzegovina
Botswana BW 581,730 1,990,876 100,000 5.0 % $13,300
Bouvet Island BV 49 0 0 n/a n/a
Brazil BR 8,544,418 198,739,269 67,510,400 34.0 % $10,100
British Indian
IO n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Ocean T.
British Virgin
VG 151 24,491 4,000 16.3 % $38,500('04)
Islands
Brunei
BN 5,765 388,190 187,900 48.4 % $53,100
Darussalam
Bulgaria BG 110,994 7,204,687 2,368,000 32.9 % $12,900
Burkina Faso BF 267,950 15,746,232 140,000 0.9 % $1,200
Burundi BI 27,834 9,511,330 65,000 0.7 % $400
Cambodia KH 181,035 14,494,293 70,000 0.5 % $2,000
Cameroon CM 475,442 18,879,301 547,600 2.9 % $2,300
Canada CA 9,976,137 33,487,208 23,999,500 71.7 % $39,300
Cape Verde CV 4,033 429,474 102,800 23.9 % $3,800
Caribbean, the - n/a 40,744,383 9,140,700 22.4 % --
Cayman
KY 259 49,035 22,000 44.9 % $43,800('04)
Islands
Central
African CF 622,436 4,511,488 19,000 0.4 % $700
Republic
Central
- n/a 153,320,699 32,607,300 21.3 % --
America
Chad TD 1,284,000 10,329,208 130,000 1.3 % $1,600
Chile CL 755,482 16,601,707 8,368,719 50.4 % $14,900
China CN 9,806,391 1,338,612,968 338,000,000 25.3 % $6,000
Christmas
CX 135 1,402 464 33.1 % n/a
Island
Cocos
(Keeling) CC 14 596 n/a n/a n/a
Islands
Colombia CO 1,141,748 43,677,372 18,234,822 41.7 % $8,900
 115

Comoros KM 1,862 752,438 22,100 2.9 % $1,000

Congo CG 342,000 4,012,809 155,000 3.9 % $4,000
Congo, Dem.
CD 2,344,798 68,692,542 290,000 0.4 % $300
Rep. of the
Cook Islands CK 237 11,870 5,000 42.1 % $9,100('05)
Costa Rica CR 51,090 4,253,877 1,500,000 35.3 % $11,600
Cote D'Ivoire CI 322,461 20,617,068 660,000 3.2 % $1,700
Croatia HR 56,542 4,489,409 2,244,400 50.0 % $16,100
Cuba CU 114,525 11,451,652 1,450,000 12.7 % $9,500
Cyprus CY 9,251 1,084,748 324,880 29.9 % $28,600
Czech
CZ 78,866 10,211,904 4,991,300 48.9 % $26,100
Republic
Denmark DK 43,093 5,500,510 4,629,600 84.2 % $37,400
Djibouti DJ 23,200 724,622 11,000 1.5 % $3,700
Dominica DM 751 72,660 26,500 36.5 % $9,900
Dominican
DO 48,734 9,650,054 3,000,000 31.1 % $8,100
Republic
East Timor
TP 14,604 1,131,612 1,500 0.1 % $2,400
(Timor-Leste)
Ecuador EC 272,046 14,573,101 1,634,828 11.2 % $7,500
Egypt EG 1,001,450 78,866,635 12,568,900 15.9 % $5,400
El Salvador SV 21,041 7,185,218 763,000 10.6 % $6,200
Equatorial
GQ 28,051 633,441 12,000 1.9 % $31,400
Guinea
Eritrea ER 121,100 5,647,168 150,000 2.7 % $700
Estonia EE 45,226 1,299,371 854,600 65.8 % $21,200
Ethiopia ET 1,127,127 85,237,338 360,000 0.4 % $800
Europe - n/a 803,850,858 402,380,474 50.1 % --
European
EU 4,324,782 489,601,562 308,967,801 63.1 % $33,400
Union
Falkland
Islands FK 16,076 2,483 2,400 96.7 % $35,400
(Malvinas)
Faroe Islands FO 1,414 48,856 37,500 76.8 % $31,000('01)
Fiji FJ 18,274 944,720 91,400 9.7 % $3,900
Finland FI 338,145 5,250,275 4,353,142 82.9 % $37,200
France FR 547,030 62,150,775 42,050,465 67.7 % $32,700

French Guiana GF 83,534 228,604 42,000 18.4 % $8,836('05)

French PF 3,894 287,032 90,000 31.4 % $18,000('04)
 116

Polynesia
French
TF 7,781 120 n/a n/a n/a
Southern Terr.
Gabon GA 267,667 1,514,993 90,000 5.9 % $14,400
Gambia, the GM 10,689 1,778,081 114,200 6.4 % $1,300
Georgia GE 69,700 4,615,807 360,000 7.8 % $4,700
Germany DE 357,021 82,329,758 55,221,183 67.1 % $34,800
Ghana GH 238,538 23,887,812 997,000 4.2 % $1,500
Gibraltar GI 7 28,796 9,853 34.2 % $38,200('05)
Greece GR 131,957 10,737,428 4,932,495 45.9 % $32,000
Greenland GL 2,175,600 57,600 52,000 90.3 % $20,000('01)
Grenada GD 345 90,739 23,000 25.3 % $13,400
Guadeloupe GP 1,780 441,838 85,000 19.2 % n/a
Guam GU 545 178,430 80,000 44.8 % $15,000('05)
Guatemala GT 108,894 13,276,517 1,320,000 9.9 % $5,200
Guernsey and
GG 91 65,484 36,000 55.0 % $44,600('05)
Alderney
Guiana,
GF 83,534 228,604 42,000 18.4 % $8,836('05)
French
Guinea GN 245,857 10,057,975 90,000 0.9 % $1,100
Guinea-Bissau GW 36,123 1,533,964 37,100 2.4 % $600
Guinea,
GP 28,051 633,441 12,000 1.9 % $12,860
Equatorial
Guyana GY 215,083 752,940 190,000 25.2 % $3,900
Haiti HT 27,748 9,035,536 1,000,000 11.1 % $1,300
Heard &
McDonald HM n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Is.(AU)
Holy See
VA <1 545 93 17.1 % n/a
(Vatican)
Honduras HN 112,088 7,833,696 658,500 8.4 % $4,400
Hong Kong,
HK 1,085 7,055,071 4,878,713 69.2 % $43,800
(China)
Hungary HU 92,966 9,905,596 5,500,000 55.5 % $19,800
Iceland IS 102,928 306,694 273,930 89.3 % $39,900
India IN 3,166,944 1,156,897,766 81,000,000 7.0 % $2,800
Indonesia ID 1,904,443 240,271,522 25,000,000 10.4 % $3,900
Iran, Islamic
IR 1,648,195 66,429,284 23,000,000 34.6 % $12,800
Republic of
Iraq IQ 434,128 28,945,569 275,000 1.0 % $4,000
 117

Ireland IE 70,273 4,203,200 2,830,100 67.3 % $46,200

Israel IL 20,991 7,233,701 5,263,146 72.8 % $28,200
Italy IT 301,323 58,126,212 29,140,144 50.1 % $31,000
Ivory Coast
CI 322,461 20,617,068 660,000 3.2 % $1,700
(Cote d'Ivoire)
Jamaica JM 10,991 2,825,928 1,540,000 54.5 % $7,400
Japan JP 377,812 127,078,679 94,000,000 74.0 % $34,200
Jersey JE 116 91,626 28,500 31.1 % $57,000('05)
Jordan JO 89,342 6,269,285 1,500,500 23.9 % $5,000
Kazakhstan KZ 2,715,900 15,399,437 1,900,600 12.3 % $11,500
Kenya KE 581,787 39,002,772 3,359,600 8.6 % $1,600
Kiribati KI 832 112,850 2,000 1.8 % $3,200
Korea Dem.
KP 122,762 22,665,345 n/a n/a $1,700
People's Rep.
Korea,
(South) KR 99,268 48,508,972 37,475,800 77.3 % $26,000
Republic of
Kosovo KV 10,908 1,804,838 377,000 20.9 % $2,300
Kuwait KW 17,818 2,692,526 900,000 33.4 % $57,400
Kyrgyzstan KG 199,900 5,431,747 750,000 13.8 % $2,100
Lao People's
LA 236,800 6,834,345 100,000 1.5 % $2,100
Democ. Rep.
Latvia LV 64,598 2,231,503 1,324,800 59.4 % $17,800
Lebanon LB 10,201 4,017,095 1,570,000 39.1 % $11,100
Lesotho LS 30,355 2,130,819 73,300 3.4 % $1,600
Liberia LR 99,065 3,441,790 20,000 0.6 % $500
Libyan Arab
LY 1,777,060 6,324,357 291,300 4.6 % $14,400
Jamahiriya
Liechtenstein LI 160 34,761 23,000 66.2 % 118,000('07)
Lithuania LT 65,300 3,555,179 2,103,471 59.2 % $17,700
Luxembourg LU 2,586 491,775 363,900 74.0 % $81,100
Macao,
MO 25 559,846 238,000 42.5 % $30,000('07)
(China)
Macedonia,
MK 25,433 2,066,718 906,979 43.9 % $9,000
TFYR
Madagascar MG 587,041 20,653,556 316,100 1.5 % $1,000
Malawi MW 118,480 15,028,757 139,500 0.9 % $800
Malaysia MY 329,758 25,715,819 16,902,600 65.7 % $15,300
Maldives MV 298 396,334 71,700 18.1 % $5,000
Mali ML 1,240,198 13,443,225 125,000 0.9 % $1,200
 118

Malta MT 315 405,165 200,200 49.4 % $24,200

Man, Isle of IM 572 76,512 n/a n/a $35,000('05)
Marshall
MH 181 64,522 2,200 3.4 % $2,500
Islands
Martinique
MQ 1,128 403,857 130,000 32.2 % n/a
(FR)
Mauritania MR 1,035,000 3,129,486 45,000 1.4 % $2,100
Mauritius MU 2,040 1,284,264 380,000 29.6 % $12,100
Mayotte (FR) YT 373 223,765 n/a n/a $4,900('05)
Mexico MX 1,967,138 111,211,789 27,400,000 24.9 % $14,200
Micronesia,
FM 721 107,434 15,000 14.0 % $2,200
Fed. States of
Middle East - 5,214,000 202,687,005 47,964,146 23.7 % --
Moldova,
MD 33,843 4,320,748 700,000 16.2 % $2,500
Republic of
Monaco MC 2 32,965 20,000 60.7 % $30,000('06)
Mongolia MN 1,564,160 3,041,142 320,000 10.5 % $3,200
Montenegro CS 14,026 672,180 280,000 41.7 % $9,700
Montserrat MS 102 5,097 1,200 23.5 % $3,400('02)
Morocco MA 6,600,000 31,285,174 10,300,000 32.9 % $4,000
Mozambique MZ 799,380 21,669,278 350,000 1.6 % $900
Myanmar (ex-
MM 676,577 48,137,741 40,000 0.1 % $1,200
Burma)
Namibia NA 825,112 2,108,665 113,500 5.4 % $5,400
Nauru NR 21 14,019 300 2.1 % $5,000('05)
Nepal NP 147,181 28,563,377 397,500 1.4 % $1,100
Netherlands NL 41,526 16,715,999 14,272,700 85.4 % $40,300
Netherlands
AN 800 227,049 2,000 0.9 % $16,000('04)
Antilles
New Caledonia NC 18,736 227,436 85,000 37.4 % $15,000('03)
New Zealand NZ 270,534 4,213,418 3,360,000 79.7 % $27,900
Nicaragua NI 129,454 5,891,199 155,000 2.6 % $2,900
Niger NE 1,186,408 15,306,252 80,000 0.5 % $700
Nigeria NG 923,768 149,229,090 11,000,000 7.4 % $2,300
Niue NU 259 1,598 900 56.3 % $5,800
Norfolk Island NF 35 2,554 700 27.4 % n/a
North America - 24,256,000 340,831,831 251,735,500 73.9 % --
Northern
Mariana MP 477 51,484 10,000 19.4 % $2,000('00)
Islands
 119

Norway NO 323,759 4,660,539 3,993,400 85.7 % $55,200

Oceania - 7,687,000 34,700,201 20,838,019 60.1 % --
Oman OM 309,500 3,418,085 469,000 13.7 % $20,200
Pakistan PK 880,254 174,578,558 18,500,000 10.6 % $2,600
Palau PW 491 20,796 5,400 26.0 % $8,100
Palestinian
PS 6,242 2,461,267 355,500 14.4 % $2,900
Territory
Panama PA 77,082 3,360,474 778,800 23.2 % $11,600
Papua New
PG 462,840 5,940,775 115,000 1.9 % $2,200
Guinea
Paraguay PY 406,752 6,995,655 530,300 7.6 % $4,200
Peru PE 1,285,216 29,546,963 7,636,400 25.8 % $8,400
Philippines PH 300,000 97,976,603 24,000,000 24.5 % $3,300
Pitcairn Island PN n/a 48 n/a n/a n/a
Poland PL 312,685 38,482,919 20,020,362 52.0 % $17,300
Portugal PT 92,391 10,707,924 4,450,800 41.6 % $22,000
Puerto Rico PR 9,104 3,966,213 1,000,000 25.2 % $17,800
Qatar QA 11,521 833,285 436,000 52.3 % $103,500
Reunion (FR) RE 2,547 812,813 220,000 27.1 % n/a
Romania RO 238,391 22,215,421 7,430,000 33.4 % $12,200
Russia
RU 16,894,741 140,041,247 38,000,000 27.1 % $15,800
(Russian Fed.)
Rwanda RW 26,338 10,746,311 300,000 2.8 % $900
Sahara,
EH 266,000 405,210 n/a n/a $2,5000('07)
Western
Saint
Barthelemy BL 21 7,448 n/a n/a 7,600
(FR)
Saint Helena
SH 410 7,637 1,000 13.1 % $2,500('98)
(UK)
Saint Kitts and
KN 267 40,131 15,000 37.4 % $19,700
Nevis
Saint Lucia LC 616 160,267 110,000 68.6 % $11,300
Saint Martin
MF 37 29,820 n/a n/a n/a
(FR)
S Pierre &
PM 242 7,063 n/a n/a $7,000('01)
Miquelon (FR)
S Vincent &
VC 392 104,574 66,000 63.1 % $10,500
Grenadines
Samoa WS 2,785 219,998 8,500 3.9 % $4,900
San Marino SM 61 30,164 16,000 53.0 % $41,900('07)
 120

Sao Tome and

ST 1,001 212,679 24,800 11.7 % $1,300
Principe
Saudi Arabia SA 2,149,690 28,686,633 7,200,000 25.1 % $20,700
Senegal SN 196,722 13,711,597 1,020,000 7.4 % $1,600
Serbia RS 77,474 7,379,339 2,602,478 35.3 % $10,900
Seychelles SC 455 87,476 32,000 36.6 % $17,000
Sierra Leone SL 71,740 5,132,138 13,900 0.3 % $700
Singapore SG 683 4,657,542 3,104,900 66.7 % $52,000
Slovakia SK 49,034 5,463,046 3,018,400 55.3 % $21,900
Slovenia SI 20,273 2,005,692 1,300,000 64.8 % $29,500
Solomon
SB 28,400 595,613 9,000 1.5 % $1,900
Islands
Somalia SO 637,657 9,832,017 98,000 1.0 % $600
South Africa ZA 1,219,090 49,052,489 4,590,000 9.4 % $10,000
South America - 17,819,000 392,597,416 134,086,439 34.2 % --
S.George &
GS 3,903 n/a n/a n/a n/a
S.Sandwich
Spain ES 504,842 40,525,002 28,628,959 70.6 % $34,600
Sri Lanka (ex-
LK 65,610 21,324,791 1,148,000 5.4 % $4,300
Ceilan)
Sudan SD 2,505,810 41,087,825 3,800,000 9.2 % $2,200
Suriname SR 163,820 481,261 44,000 9.1 % $8,900
Svalbard &
SJ 61,606 2,198 n/a n/a n/a
Jan Mayen Is.
Swaziland SZ 17,363 1,337,186 48,200 3.6 % $5,100
Sweden SE 449,965 9,059,651 7,295,200 80.5 % $38,500
Switzerland CH 41,285 41,285 7,604,467 75.8 % $40,900
Syrian Arab
SY 185,180 21,762,978 3,565,000 16.4 % $4,800
Republic
Taiwan TW 36,175 22,974,347 15,143,000 65.9 % $31,900
Tajikistan TJ 143,100 7,349,145 484,200 6.6 % $2,100
Tanzania,
TZ 945,088 41,048,532 520,000 1.3 % $1,300
United Rep. of
Thailand TH 513,115 65,998,436 13,416,000 20.3 % $8,500
Timor-Leste
TL 14,604 1,131,612 1,500 0.1 % $2,400
(East Timor)
Togo TG 56,785 6,031,808 350,000 5.8 % $900
Tokelau TK 10 1,371 540 39.4 % $1,000('93)
Tonga TO 651 120,898 8,400 6.9 % $4,600
Trinidad & TT 5,128 1,229,953 212,800 17.3 % $18,600
 121

Tobago
Tunisia TN 163,610 10,486,339 2,800,000 26.7 % $7,900
Turkey TR 773,473 76,805,524 26,500,000 34.5 % $12,000
Turkmenistan TM 488,100 4,884,887 70,000 1.4 % $6,100
Turks and
TC 497 22,942 n/a n/a $11,500('02)
Caicos Islands
Tuvalu TV 26 12,373 4,000 32.3 % $1,600('02)
Uganda UG 242,554 32,369,558 2,500,000 7.7 % $1,100
Ukraine UA 603,628 45,700,395 6,700,000 14.7 % $6,900
United Arab
AE 77,700 4,798,491 2,860,000 59.6 % $40,000
Emirates
United
UK 244,140 61,113,205 48,755,000 79.8 % $36,600
Kingdom
United States US 9,629,047 307,212,123 227,636,000 74.1 % $47,000
US Minor
UM n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Outlying Isl.
Uruguay UY 175,016 3,494,382 1,340,000 38.3 % $12,200
Uzbekistan UZ 447,400 27,606,007 2,416,000 8.8 % $2,600
Vanuatu VU 12,190 218,519 17,000 7.8 % $4,600
Vatican (Holy
VA 1 545 93 17.1 % n/a
See)
Venezuela VE 916,445 26,814,843 7,552,570 28.2 % $13,500
Viet Nam VN 332,378 88,576,758 21,524,417 24.3 % $2,800
Virgin Islands,
VG 151 24,491 4,000 16.3 % $38,500('04)
British
Virgin Islands,
VI 352 109,825 30,000 27.3 % $14,500('04)
U.S.
Wallis and
WF 274 15,289 1,200 7.8 % $3,800('04)
Futuna
Western
EH 266,000 405,210 n/a n/a $2,500('07)
Sahara
Yemen YE 528,076 22,858,238 320,000 1.4 % $2,400
Zambia ZM 752,614 11,862,740 700,000 5.9 % $1,500
Zimbabwe ZW 390,784 11,392,629 1,421,000 12.5 % $200
World Total - 148,429,000 6,767,805,208 1,668,870,408 24.7 % $10,400
 122

NOTES(*): (1) The above list correspondes to the Country Codes according to ISO-3166, for
countries listed in alphabetical order. (2) Country or region size corresponds to total area in
square kilometers. (3) Population figures displayed come from the U.S. Census Bureau for
2009 total estimated population in each country or region. (4) Internet users are from
Internet World Stats for June 30/2009. (5) GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita are in
US dollars 2008 estimate figures from the World Bank and the CIA World Factbook. (6) Click
on any country name to see more details. (7) For methology and sources, please visit the
site guide at Site Surfing Guide. Copyright © 2000 - 2009, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All
rights reserved.

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 123

Appendix 9

SARAL scripts and Shri Yantra

Shri Yantra

Shri Yantra is a beautiful figure to depict and symbolize the secrets of the
entire universe. It is regarded as the abode of the Supreme Wisdom or the
Mother Goddess of Wisdom That created all the elements of the universe,
sustains them, and finally absorbs them. The Supreme Power has been given
1000 names such as Shri Vidya, Lalita, Saraswati, Shri Mata, etc. Shri Yantra
is a symbolic representation of the mysteries of all the elements, energies,
and consciousness levels of the universe. It is also a pictorial design that
contains the mysteries of the origin and evolution of the language, script and
knowledge in the universe.

Shri Yantra has a point (bindu) in the center that is surrounded by triangles,
circles, and other geometrical formations. The outer line of the Yantra, called
 124

“Bhupur”, takes 36 right angle turns. From Bhupur to Bindu, Shri Yantra has 9
Chakras (circular formations). Their names are usually given as follows:

1. Bhupur Chakra;

2. Trilok Vrit Chakra;

3. Shodash-dal Chakra;

4. Ashta-dal Chakra;

5. Chaturdashar Chakra;

6. Bahirdashar Chakra;

7. Antardashar Chakra;

8. Ashtar Chakra; and

9. Trikon Bindu Chakra or cetanaa-energy Chakra

These Chakras can also be counted in the reverse order. Accordingly, the
Trikon Bindu Chakra or cetanaa-energy Chakra would come first and the
Bhupur Chakra would come last.

Creation of the universe starts from the Bindu, the abode of the Supreme
Power (or Sadaa Shiva-energy), symbolizing the truth, the consciousness and
the bliss (Sat, Chit, Anand). The Bindu also symbolizes the origin of the
Cosmic Consciousness. Through vibrations, Bindu grows into a triangle and
the consciousness and power or energy elements can be identified distinctly.
The three sides or corners of the triangle are symbolic of the three Powers,
namely: 1. The power of will, (Icchaa energy), 2. The power of knowledge
(Gyaan energy), and 3. The power of action (Kriyaa energy). From the
knowledge point of view, the Bindu symbolizes the ultimate source of
language (Para Vak energy) and the three sides or corners of the triangle are
the three symbolic of the creative (Pashyanti), cognitive (madhyama), and
articulate (Vaikhari) powers of the word or language. Modern psychologists
have identified the Pashyanti, Madhyama, and Vaikhari powers as the
creative or thinking power of the mind, the language processing power of the
brain, and the articulate speaking power of the tongue respectively. The union
of Bindu (symbol of energy or energy) and the triangle (symbol of Shiva or
consciousness) forms the first syllable (xa), which is also called the seed
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syllable, or “Biij Akshat”. After creation of the seed syllable, there is creation of
other writing symbols. Bindu is also called the sound point of the cosmos
(Naad Bindu), and from there all the sounds as well as all the lights originate
and produce the word (mantra), and form (yantra).

The inner circle of Shri Yantra has four cetanaa triangles and five energy
triangles. The apexes of the cetanaa triangles are upwards and the apexes of
the energy triangles are downwards as shown below:
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The diagrams or formations made through the intersection of the lines of

these triangles are also called Chakras, and their number is 9. The are,
however, not circular but horzontal as shown below:

These cetanaa and skakti triangles, when converted into circular form, would
appear as below:
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A Yantra based on the circular form of triangles may be called Alphabet

Yantra and will look as below:

The first Chakra in the inner circle of the Shri Yantra, or the Alphabet Yantra,
is Trikon-Bindu or consciousness-energy Chakra. Thereafter, there are four
consciousness Chakras and four energy Chakras. The triangles of
consciousness Chakras are depicted blue and called the abodes of Shiva
(consciousness). The other areas of the Alphabet Yantra are depicted pink
and may be called the abodes of Shakti (energy). The 9 Chakras inside the
inner circle of Alphabet Yantra have 89 abodes or places of which 43 are
consciousness places and 46 are energy places. The names of these 9
Chakras, their type and the number of places inside them, are given below:

Name of Chakra No. Of Places

1. consciousness-energy Chakra 5 (1 consciousness + 4 energy)

2. Ashtar consciousness Chakra 8

3. Ashtar energy Chakra 8

4. Antardashar consciousness Chakra 10

5. Antardashar energy Chakra 10

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6. Bahirdashar consciousness Chakra 10

7. Bahirdashar energy Chakra 10

8. Chaturdashar consciousness Chakra 14

9. Chaturdashar energy Chakra; 14

The inner circle of the Shri Yantra after inserting romanaagarii /SARAL
Roman characters would be as follows:

The relationship between the places in Chakras of the inner circle of Shri
Yantra and the writing symbols of romanaagarii is a remarkable feature! In the
field of knowledge, this is an important element which can be a great blessing
for the promotion of alphabetic literacy. It will not only facilitate the simplified
learning of all the symbols of romanaagarii, but also help in understanding the
mysteries of word, language and knowledge hidden in the Shri Yantra.

In accordance with the formation of the triangles of the Alphabet Yantra,

romanaagarii can be learnt in 9 very simple lessons. Each lesson shows
clearly the relationship between the writing symbols being learnt and the
characteristics of different Chakras of the Yantra. (Please see details in
Romanaagarii and 9 lessons). It may, however, be clarified that the learning of
the Shri Yantra is not essential for the learning of Romanaagarii.

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