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Tirhuta
Tirhuta or Mithilakshar is the script used for
Sanskrit & Maithili language originating in the Mithila Tirhuta, Mithilakshar
region of Bihar, India and the eastern Terai region of
Nepal. The oldest reference to Tirhuta script is
Sahodara Temple of Narkatiyaganj, Bihar, dated 950
CE [1] The script has a rich history spanning a thousand Type Abugida
years, believed to be originated in the 10th century CE, Languages Maithili, Sanskrit
but years of neglect by Nepal and the Bihar government Time c. 10th–current
have taken their toll on the use of Tirhuta. It is similar period
to Assamese script and Bengali script. Most speakers of Sister Bengali, Assamese, Tibetan
Maithili have switched to using the Devanagari script, systems
which is also used to write neighboring Central Indic Direction Left-to-right
languages such as Nepali and Hindi. As a result, the ISO 15924 Tirh, 326
number of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta
Unicode Tirhuta
has dropped considerably in recent years. alias
Unicode U+11480–U+114DF (https://w
range ww.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1
Contents 1480.pdf)
Final Accepted Script Proposal
History and current status (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L
Signs of the script 2011/11175r-tirhuta.pdf)
Consonant signs
Vowels
Other signs
Numerals
Image gallery
Unicode
References

12th Century Stone inscription from

History and current status Simroungarh showing early Tirhuta

writing
Before 14th CE, Tirhuta was exclusively used to write Sanskrit,
later Maithili was written in this script. Despite the near
universal switch from Tirhuta to the Devanagari script for writing Maithili, some traditional
pundits still use the script for sending one another ceremonial letters (pātā) related to some
important function such as marriage. Metal type for this script was first produced in the 1920s, and
digital fonts in the 1990s.[1]

The 2003 inclusion of Maithili in the VIIIth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, having accorded
official recognition to it as a language independent of Hindi, there is a possibility that this might
lead to efforts to re-implement Tirhuta on a wider basis, in accord with similar trends in India
reinforcing separate identities. However, currently, only Maithili in the Devanagari script is
officially recognized.

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Signs of the script

Consonant signs

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Consonants
Sign Transcription
Image Text IAST IPA

ka /ka/

kha /kʰа/

ga /gа/

gha /gʱа/

ṅa /ŋа/

ca ͡
/tʃa/

cha ͡
/tʃʰa/

ja ͡
/dʒa/

jha ͡
/dʒʱa/

ña /ɲa/

ṭa /ʈa/

ṭha /ʈʰa/

ḍa /ɖa/

ḍha /ɖʱa/

ṇa /ɳa/

ta /ta/
̪

tha /tʰa/
̪

da /da
̪ /

dha /dʱ̪ a/

na /na/

pa /pa/
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pha /pʰa/

ba /ba/

bha /bʱa/

ma /ma/

ya /ja/

ra /ra/

la /la/

va /ʋa/

śa /ʃa/

ṣa /ʂa/

sa /sa/

ha /ɦa/

Vowels

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Vowels
Independent Dependent Transcription
Image Text Image Text IAST IPA

a /а/

  ā /а:/

  і /і/

  ī /і:/

  u /u/

  ū /u:/

  ṛ /r ̩/

  ṝ /r ̩ː/

  ḷ /l ̩/

  ḹ /l ̩ː/

  ē /е:/

  e /е/

  аі /аі/

  ō /о:/

  о /о/

  аu /аu/

Other signs

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Other dependent signs

Image Text Name Notes

  candrabindu marks the nasalization of a vowel

  anusvara marks nasalization

marks the sound [h], which is an allophone of [r] and [s] in pausa (at the end of an
  visarga
utterance)

  virama used to suppress the inherent vowel

  nukta used to create new consonant signs

avagraha used to indicate prodelision of an [a]

gvang used to mark nasalization

Numerals
Tirhuta script uses its own signs for the positional decimal numeral system.

Digits

Image

Text

Digit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Image gallery
The first two images shown below are samples illustrating the history of Tirhuta. The first is the
sacred sign of Ganesha, called āñjī, used for millennia by students before beginning Tirhuta
studies. Displayed further below are images of tables comparing the Tirhuta and Devanagari
scripts.

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Unicode
Tirhuta script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

The Unicode block for Tirhuta is U+11480–U+114DF:

Tirhuta[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U11480.pdf) (PDF)

  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1148x

U+1149x

U+114Ax

U+114Bx

U+114Cx

U+114Dx

Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 12.0

2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

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References
1. Pandey, Anshuman (5 May 2011). "N4035: Proposal to Encode the Tirhuta Script in ISO/IEC
10646" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11175r-tirhuta.pdf) (PDF). Working Group
Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20161213054204/
http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11175r-tirhuta.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 13 December
2016.

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This page was last edited on 27 October 2019, at 04:00 (UTC).

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