AksharaPad
Version 1.0
AksharaPad summary

A simple word processing program for typing Unicode Devanāgarī and Unicode IAST transliteration with a Western keyboard.

AksharaPad is much like WordPad. In AksharaPad, when you type in English keystrokes from the keyboard, Devanagari or IAST characters appear on the screen.

AksharaPad installation file  •  EXE file  •  2.5M

AksharaPad source code  •  ZIP file  •  400K  •  Akshara Bridge is written in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

AksharaPad is intended primarily for writing Sanskrit. The alphabetic method it normally uses to enter Devanagari text does not include codes for letters found only in modern languages such as Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali. However, alternate methods can be used to enter these letters, if needed.

AksharaPad can save Devanagari, transliteration, and English text into an RTF file, a standard document file format similar to a DOC file.

AksharaPad generates Unicode characters. You can copy text from AksharaPad to almost any other software, and save it to almost any kind of file, and it should be legible on any computer on which Unicode Devanagari fonts are installed.

AksharaPad includes several Unicode Devanagari and IAST fonts which you may optionally install on your computer. ↖

AksharaPad keystroke scheme

Type the English letters to generate the Devanagari letters.

अ
a 		आ
A 		 ा
A
इ
i 		 ि
i 		ई
I 		 ी
I
उ
u 		 ु
u 		ऊ
U 		 ू
U
ऋ
q 		 ृ
q 		ॠ
Q 		 ॄ
Q
ऌ
X 		ॡ
R
ए
e 		 े
e 		ऐ
ai 		 ै
ai
ओ
o 		 ो
o 		औ
au 		 ौ
au
   
क
ka 		ख
kha 		ग
ga 		घ
gha 		ङ
za
च
ca 		छ
cha 		ज
ja 		झ
jha 		ञ
xa
ट
Ta 		ठ
Tha 		ड
Da 		ढ
Dha 		ण
Na
त
ta 		थ
tha 		द
da 		ध
dha 		न
na
प
pa 		फ
pha 		ब
ba 		भ
bha 		म
ma
य
ya 		र
ra 		ल
la 		व
va
श
fa 		ष
Sa 		स
sa 		ह
ha
   
 ं
M 		 ँ
MM 		 ः
H 		ऽ
' 		ळ
La
।
. 		॥
.. 		 ॒
_ 		 ॑
|
१
1 		२
2 		३
3 		४
4 		५
5
६
6 		७
7 		८
8 		९
9 		०
0

↖

AksharaPad screen shots
AksharaPad in Devanagari mode, using the Praja font
Devanagari screen shot
AksharaPad in Transliteration mode
Transliteration screen shot
↖
Praja font

Praja is a non-free Unicode Devanagari font developed by Dr. Peter Freund. Praja is very similar in appearance to the non-Unicode Vedic97 font in VedaPad. The screen shot above shows AksharaPad with the Praja font.

Praja includes Devanagari, Devanagari Extended, Vedic characters, and Latin letters used in IAST transliteration.

Praja font order page

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING LIMITATIONS

  • Sanskrit only: The Devanagari characters in Praja include only the characters used in Sanskrit. They do not include characters used only in Hindi or other modern Indian languages.
  • Limited support for new characters: Praja includes many new characters, including many Vedic accents, that were added to version 5.2 of the Unicode standard, released in October 2009. Windows will not fully support this version of Unicode until Windows 8, scheduled for release in 2012. ↖