Takri script

The Tākri script (Devanagari: टाकरी; Gurmukhi: ਟਾਕਰੀ; sometimes called Tankri) is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. It is closely related to and derived from, the Sharada script formerly employed for Kashmiri. It is also related to the Gurmukhī script used to write Punjabi. Until the late 1940s, an adapted version of the script (called Dogri, Dogra or Dogra Akkhar) was the official script for writing Dogri in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and for Kangri, Chambyali and Mandyali in Himachal Pradesh. There is also some record of the script's use in the history of Nepali (Khas-kura).

"Takri" redirects here. For the Unicode block, see Takri (Unicode block). For The Korean kingdom, see Takri Kingdom.
Takri
Type
LanguagesDogri, Kangri, Sirmauri, Chamiyali, Kahluri, Mandeali, Jaunsari, Kullui, Bhattiyali, Kishtwari, Gaddi, Kumaoni
Time period
16th century CE to present
Parent systems
Proto-Sinaitic alphabet [a]
Child systems
Dogri Akkhar
Sister systems
Gurmukhī
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924Takr, 321
Unicode alias
Takri
Unicode range
U+11680–U+116CF
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic script and its descendants

History

The Takri alphabet developed through the Devāśeṣa stage of the Sharada script from the 14th-18th centuries[1] and is found mainly in the Hill States such as Chamba, Himachal Pradesh and surrounding areas, where it is called Chambyali, and in Jammu Division, where it is known as Dogri. The local Takri variants got the status of official scripts in some of the Punjab Hill States, and were used for both administrative and literary purposes until the 19th century.[1] After 1948, when Himachal Pradesh was established as an administrative unit, the local Takri variants were replaced by Devanagari.

Takri itself has historically been used to write a number of Dardic and Western and Central Pahari languages in the Western Himalaya, such as Gaddi or Gaddki (the language of the Gaddi ethnic group), Kashtwari (the dialect centered on the Kashtwar or Kishtwar region of Jammu and Kashmir) and Chambyali (the language of the Chamba region of Himachal Pradesh). Takri used to be most prevalent script for business records and communication in various parts of Himachal Pradesh including the regions of Chintpurni, Una, Kangra, Bilaspur[2] and Hamirpur. The aged businessmen can still be found using Takri in these areas, but the younger generation have now shifted to Devanagari and even English (Roman). This change can be traced to the early days of Indian independence (1950s−80s).

Revival movement

Since Takri fell into disuse,[3] there have been sporadic attempts to revive the script in Himachal Pradesh. Recent efforts have been made to teach the script to Himachalis.[4]

The Takri (Tankri) script was also used in cinema. The first film in Himachali dialects called Saanjh directed by Ajay Saklani released in April 2017 used Takri script in its title and beginning credits. Workshops are being conducted in small scale in the state of Himachal Pradesh, in districts like Chamba[5] and Kullu, Kangra and Shimla.[6] An organization named Sambh (Devanagari: सांभ​) based at Dharamshala has decided to develop fonts for this script.[7][8]

The Himachal Pradesh government under the National Manuscript Mission Yojana has set up a Manuscript Resource Centre and so far 1.26 lakh (1,26,000) manuscripts, including those in Takri, have been catalogued and has decided to be digitised.[9]

Varieties[10]

There are several regional varieties of Takri, “with each Hill State or tract having its own style ”. There is considerable variation in the spellings of the names of the regional forms and the languages they represent. The names of languages have also changed, so that the names used in Grierson and other sources differ from current practices. In order to assist in the identification of languages and the forms of Takri associated with them, the language names below are denoted using ISO639-3 codes. Specimens of Takri representative of the regional form is also indicated.

  • Bhattiyali [bht]: Bhateali, Bhatiali
  • Chambeali [cdh]: Chambiali, Chameali, Chamiali
  • Dogri [dgo], [doi]: Dogari
  • Gaddi [gbk]: Bharmauri, Gadi
  • Gahri [bfu]: Bunan
  • Jaunsari [jns]
  • Kangri [xnr]: Kangra, Kangra-Dogri
  • Kinnauri [kjo]: Kanauri
  • Kishtwari [kas]: Kashtwari, recorded as dialect of Kashmiri
  • Kulvi [kfx]: Kullu, Kului, Kullvi
  • Mahasu [bfz]: Kochi, Kiunthali
  • Mandeali [mjl]: Himachali, Mandi
  • Sirmauri [srx]

Unicode

Takri script was added to the Unicode Standard in January 2012 with the release of version 6.1. This project was made possible in part by a grant from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, which funded the Universal Scripts Project (part of the Script Encoding Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley).

Block
Main article: Takri (Unicode block)

The Unicode block for Takri is U+11680–U+116CF:

Takri[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1168x 𑚀 𑚁 𑚂 𑚃 𑚄 𑚅 𑚆 𑚇 𑚈 𑚉 𑚊 𑚋 𑚌 𑚍 𑚎 𑚏
U+1169x 𑚐 𑚑 𑚒 𑚓 𑚔 𑚕 𑚖 𑚗 𑚘 𑚙 𑚚 𑚛 𑚜 𑚝 𑚞 𑚟
U+116Ax 𑚠 𑚡 𑚢 𑚣 𑚤 𑚥 𑚦 𑚧 𑚨 𑚩 𑚪 𑚫 𑚬 𑚭 𑚮 𑚯
U+116Bx 𑚰 𑚱 𑚲 𑚳 𑚴 𑚵 𑚶 𑚷 𑚸
U+116Cx 𑛀 𑛁 𑛂 𑛃 𑛄 𑛅 𑛆 𑛇 𑛈 𑛉
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 13.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

References
  1. Pandey, Anshuman (2009-03-25). "N3545: Proposal to Encode the Sharada Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF). Working Group Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2.
  2. "Takri in Land Dispute in Bilaspur".
  3. "Tankri once the language of royals, is now dying in Himachal Pradesh - Hindustan times". Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
  4. "Ancient scripts of Indian Mountains fights for survival - Zee News". Retrieved 2017-01-09.
  5. "Takri workshop at Chamba".
  6. "Workshop at Shimla".
  7. "Takri worshop at Kullu, Kangra and Saambh".
  8. "Sambh Youtube Channel".
  9. "Catalouging of Scripts".

External resources
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