Origin
The Ranjana script, which is also known as Kutila or Lantsa, is one of the many alphabets derived from the Brahmi script. It developed during the 11th century AD and was used until the mid-20th century in India and Nepal by the Newari people to write the Newari language.
Tibetans use this script, which they call Lantsa, for writing the Sanskrit titles of books which have been translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan, and for decoration in temples and mandalas. There are also a few texts printed with alternating lines in Sanskrit in the Lantsa script followed by a Tibetan translation. There were many original Sanskrit manuscripts written in Lantsa preserved in the old monasteries of Tibet but most of these were destroyed following the Chinese take-over.
In addition, the Ranjana script is/was used mainly for decoration by Buddhists in China, Mongolia and Japan.
Notable features
- Ranjana is a syllabic alphabet - each letter has an inherent vowel [a]. Other vowels can be indicated using a separate letters or diacritics.
Used to write:
Nepal Bhasa (नेपाल भाषा/Newah Bhaye/Newari), a member of the Tibeto-Burman group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Nepal, India, especially in Sikkim and West Bengal, and Bhutan by about 800,000 people.
As well as the Ranjana script, Nepal Bhasa has been written with the Brahmi, Gupta, Prachalit, Bhujimol and Devanagari script.
Also used to write Sanskrit, the classical language of India.
Consonants
Vowels and vowel diacritics
Numerals
Sample text
Devanagari script for Nepal Bhasa
Links
Details of the Nepal Bhasa/Newari language and the Ranjana script
Online Nepal Bhasa lessons, dictionary and other resources
Newari > English dictionary
Sandhya Times - online Newari newspaper
Sino-Tibetan languages
Sinitic (Chinese) languages
Tibeto-Burman languages
Burmese, Dzongkha, Garo, Kayah Li, Lepcha, Limbu, Lisu, Manipuri, Naxi, Nepal Bhasa / Newari, Tangut, Tibetan, Tujia, Yi
Languages written with the Devanāgarī alphabet
Bhojpuri, Hindi, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Mundari, Nepal Bhasa / Newari, Nepali, Pali,Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Sindhi
Syllabic alphabets / abugidas
Ahom, Balinese, Batak, Bengali, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Chakma, Cham, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dhives Akuru, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Gondi, Grantha, Gujarati,Gupta, Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Hanuno'o, Hmong, Javanese, Kannada, Kharosthi,Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Malayalam, Manpuri, Modi, New Tai Lue, Oriya, Pallava, Phags-pa, Ranjana, Redjang, Shan, Sharda, Siddham, Sindhi,Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagalog,Tagbanwa, Takri, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tocharian, Varang Kshiti
2068/11/19
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