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Tirhuta
Tirhuta or Mithilakshar is the script used for Sanskrit &
Maithili language originating in the Mithila region of Bihar, India
Tirhuta, Mithilakshar
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 years,
believed to be originated in the 10th century CE, but years of Type Abugida
neglect by Nepal and the Bihar government have taken their toll Languages Maithili, Sanskrit
on the use of Tirhuta. It is similar to Assamese script and Bengali Time c. 10th–current
script. Most speakers of Maithili have switched to using the period
Devanagari script, which is also used to write neighboring Central Sister Bengali, Assamese, Tibetan
Indic languages such as Nepali and Hindi. As a result, the number systems
of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta has dropped Direction Left-to-right
considerably in recent years. ISO 15924 Tirh, 326

Unicode Tirhuta
alias
Contents Unicode U+11480–U+114DF (https://w
range ww.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1
History and current status
1480.pdf)
Signs of the script
Final Accepted Script Proposal
Consonant signs
Vowels (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L
Other signs 2011/11175r-tirhuta.pdf)
Numerals
Sample text
Image gallery
Unicode
References

History and current status

12th Century Stone inscription from
Before 14th CE, Tirhuta was exclusively used to write Sanskrit, later Simroungarh showing early Tirhuta
Maithili was written in this script. Despite the near universal switch from writing
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.

Signs of the script

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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

Sample text

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:

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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

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 (ht
tps://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 20 September 2019, at 18:24 (UTC).

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