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______Devanagari - The Perfect Script______
Devanagari - The Perfect Script
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"Nagari script is simple, scientific and a sure vehicle for national
integration", declared Dr. Mullick Mohammed, a recipeint of Padmasri and
All-India President of Nagari Lipi Parishad, New Delhi while inaugurating the
17th All India Nagari Sammelan at Bangalore on 19 March 1994. Nittor Srinivasa
Rao, ex-Chief Justice of Karnataka presided.
One book each in Kashkmiri, Telugu and Kannada languages and Devanagari script
was realeased on the occasion. Shri Ejasuddin, Chief Guest lighted the
traditional lamp and declared that the Devanagari script was not realted to any
particular language. It is connected with India's culture.
Nagar Lipi Parshad was founded by Acharya Vinobha Bhave in Wardha. Its aim is
to spread the use of Nagari as a national link script. The Parishad gives
awards to institutions and individuals for promoting this work. Last year the
institutional award was given to Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti and the
individual award was won by Lipikar L. S. (Bapu) Wakankar of Pune who was
instrumental in adopting Nagari script on the conputers.
This 17th Sammelan discussed the follwoing subjects in its two-day session at
Bangalore.
1) Use of Devanagri script as a link script for promotion of national
integration.
2) Use of Nagari script for southern languages.
3) Devanagari for languages wihtout their own scripts.
4) Use of Devanagari in computers.
Shri L. S. Wakankar dwelt at length on how the Devanagari script has been the
mother script. A question-answer session followed.
Question: Does the study and discovery made by phonography prove that Aryans
did not come to this country from outside.?
Answer: The Vedic Maheshwari phonography has come into light in the last 40-45
years and has confirmed by use of words coined from the root "taksha" meaning
"to incise" which was possibly done or clay tablets or incised on palm leaves.
The phonological background is detai;ed in Panini's Rigvedic texts.
Simultaneous studies in Vedic texts reveals the use of the phoneme and graphine
of ZH-(L a) which occurs in many places in the Rigveda Samhita including the
first sukta of the first mandal and the last sukta of the tenth mandal and in
many places in between. Linguists are aware that this phoneme exists only in
south Indian languages which determines that over 33 important Vedic rishis
were from south India. This phoneme does not occur in north Indian languages
Afghan and Persian. Thus the hypothesis of Vedic Aryans comig down from Central
Asia is proved to be baseless.
Question: What are the benefits of using Devanagari script for all Indian
languages?
Answer: In depth graphic studies of the Devanagari script is based on logical
evolution of the letters to which there is no parallel in any other script of
the world. Sir William Jones in 1889, wrote that he chose Devangari as the
standard for his transcription scheme as Devanagari is more regular than any
other Indian script. Nagari is known to a larger percentage of readers in
India, the structure of ther Indian scripts is identical with that of Nagari
but the forms have diversified in the last one thousand years. This is why
Nagari was recommended to be the link script by Acharya Vinoba Bhave without
replacing the regional scripts. If regional language literature is transcribed
into Nagari, most of the burden of knowing several regional language scripts
could be avoided.
Question: In spite of the fact that Devanagari script is more beneficial, why
has it not been possible to make its universal use a success?
Answer: A script by itself does not get weightage simply because it is near
perfect phonography. The insufficiency of Roman letters and the practice of
artificial spelling are the drawbacks of Roman letters but their wide
circulation is due to the power and dominance of the Anglo-American forces in
today's world. Nagari, though it is more complete and scientific, will not
replace the Roamn script until the Indian Nation becomes strong and effective.
Savarkar had pointed out that no one gives credence to the faculties of weak
nations. Our people need to unite and organise themselves to become a force.
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Courtesy: The Organiser, New Delhi
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