Unicode is a widely used international standard for encoding characters of all languages and and symbols of all types. It is governed by a non-profit organization, the Unicode Consortium. See the Wikipedia article on Unicode for more information.

Unicode is now the standard way to store Devanagari, and virtually every other alphabet, on computers. Devanagari is the traditional alphabet for writing Sanskrit and other Indian languages. Before Unicode became popular, roughly around 2000, there were many other schemes for storing Devanagari on computers. These schemes and the software that used them are now largely obsolete.

Unicode is based on characters, not sounds. Devanagari Unicode has a code for each Devanagari letter, according to Panini’s conception of letter. Since the relationship between characters and sounds is more complex in Devanagari than in English, Unicode fonts that include Devanagari must have correct characters and information about combining simple characters into compound characters. In addition, the software you use has to be able to handle this information correctly. ↖

Most recent software usually handles Unicode properly, but older software often does not. In Windows, for instance, there is only a small amount of Unicode support in Windows 95 and Office 97, but a very high level of Unicode support in Windows XP and Office 2003.

The Wikipedia article on Indic language support describes how to enable almost all operating systems to correctly display and type of Devanagari Unicode.

In Windows, if you need to type in a small amount of Unicode text, some software supports the Alt-X method for entering a Unicode character: Type the hexadecimal code of the desired Unicode character, and then type Alt-X. For instance, to enter अ, type 0905 and then Alt-X. In OS X, a similar technique can be used by activating and selecting the Unicode Hex Input keyboard. See below for a chart of Devanagari Unicode characters and their hexadecimal codes. ↖

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

Akshara Bridge  •  Akshara Bridge converts between several kinds of text that represent Devanāgarī and transliterations of Devanāgarī, including Unicode and non-Unicode.

Itranslator 2003  •  omkarananda-ashram.org/Sanskrit/itranslator2003.htm  •  Free software for writing Devanagari with an English keyboard. Includes a high quality Unicode Devanagari font.

Open Office (.org)  •  openoffice.org  •  A free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office. Open Office can read and modify any file created with Microsoft Office, and create its own. It can convert any Office file to PDF, including Unicode documents.

Praja font  •  A Unicode Devanagari font developed by Dr. Peter Freund. ↖

VedaPad and VedaType  •  VedaPad is a system for typing non-Unicode Devanāgarī on Windows computers. VedaType is a companion product for Macintosh computers.

Itranslator 99  •  omkarananda-ashram.org/Sanskrit/itranslator99.htm  •  Free software for writing Devanagari with an English keyboard. Includes a high quality non-Unicode Devanagari font.

VedaTeX  •  VedaTeX is a system for using the fonts and keystroke transliteration of VedaPad with TeX. VedaTeX has special corrections for the VedaPad fonts that improve the way these fonts display compared to other word processing software.

Devanagari for TeX  •  sarovar.org/projects/devnag  •  This package allows you to typeset high-quality Devanāgarī text with TeX and LaTeX systems. The package supports Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, and other languages typically printed in the Devanāgarī script. ↖

The following chart shows samples of Devanagari Unicode in some common Unicode fonts. Each sample shows the Devanagari characters, the keystrokes that represent the characters in VedaPad, and numeric codes that represent the characters. These codes are given in hexadecimal notation, as indicated by the “x” before the digits.

Default font
अग्निं ईळे
agniM ILe
x0905, x0917, x094D, x0928, x093F, x0902  —  x0908, x0933, x0947

Mangal
अग्निं ईळे
agniM ILe
x0905, x0917, x094D, x0928, x093F, x0902  —  x0908, x0933, x0947

unifont
अग्निं ईळे
agniM ILe
x0905, x0917, x094D, x0928, x093F, x0902  —  x0908, x0933, x0947

Sanskrit 2003
अग्निं ईळे
agniM ILe
x0905, x0917, x094D, x0928, x093F, x0902  —  x0908, x0933, x0947

Code2000
अग्निं ईळे
agniM ILe
x0905, x0917, x094D, x0928, x093F, x0902  —  x0908, x0933, x0947 ↖

This chart shows the characters in the Devanagari Unicode standard, and their numeric Unicode character codes in hexadecimal. Devanagari characters are in three different Unicode character blocks:

• Devanagari, numeric codes x0900–x097F
• Vedic Extensions, numeric codes x1CD0–x1CFF
• Common Indic Number Forms, numeric codes xA830–xA83F
• Devanagari Extended, numeric codes xA8E0–xA8FF

The Devanagari Extended and Vedic Extensions blocks consist entirely of Vedic accent characters. The main Devanagari block contains a few Vedic accent characters also.

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This chart shows Unicode equivalents for each VedaPad keystroke in Devanagari mode. Each block shows the Unicode character on top, the VedaPad keystroke in the middle, and the numeric Unicode character code in hexadecimal on the bottom.

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This chart shows Unicode equivalents for each VedaPad keystroke in Transliteration mode. These characters are in three different Unicode character blocks:

• Latin-1 Supplement, numeric codes x0080–x00FF
• Latin Extended-A, numeric codes x0100–x017F
• Latin Extended Additional, numeric codes x1E00–x1EFF

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In Devanagari Unicode, each vowel except a has two character codes, one for the initial letter and one for the vowel symbol that modifies a consonant. Each consonant includes an implicit a. To modify the vowel of a consonant, add the non-initial vowel code after the consonant code or codes, including short i.

Use the virama (x094D) between consonant codes to form compound consonants. Without an intervening virama, consecutive consonant codes indicate separate syllables. If there is a modifying vowel for a compound consonant, use it after all the consonants, including short i. If there is a vowel modifier, such as an anusvara, in addition to a modifying vowel, then use the vowel first and then the vowel modifier. Vedic accents should be placed at the end of a syllable.

The zero-width joiner character (x200D) after a virama that is between consonants indicates a that the compound consonant should be formed using a half letter, if available, instead of a ligature. In the same situation, the zero-width non-joiner character (x200C) indicates that a virama should be used, rather than a half-letter or ligature.

Examples:

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These files are published by the Unicode Consortium and are the official reference for encoding Devanagari characters in Unicode.

• The Unicode standard for Devanagari  •  unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0900.pdf
• The Unicode standard for Vedic Extensions  •  http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1CD0.pdf
• The Unicode standard for Common Indic Number Forms  •  http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA830.pdf
• The Unicode standard for Devanagari Extended  •  http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA8E0.pdf ↖