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Inviting comments on the Draft Indian Language Standard "Akshar" for Hindi Language

Inviting comments on the Draft Indian Language Standard "Akshar" for Hindi Language
Start Date :
Sep 01, 2025
Last Date :
Sep 21, 2025
23:45 PM IST (GMT +5.30 Hrs)
Submission Closed

C-DAC, under the guidance of The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and valuable support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is leading ...

C-DAC, under the guidance of The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and valuable support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is leading the development of digital standards for Indian languages to enable their seamless integration with the internet and emerging technologies.

As part of this effort, the “AKSHAR Document” series has been envisaged to define Coded Character Sets and Composition Rules for scheduled Indian languages. The aforesaid draft standard defines the character repertoire for Hindi, ABNF rules for permissible character combinations, and provides a reference implementation for validation.

This document will form the foundation for ensuring consistency, accuracy, and interoperability in the digital processing of Indian scripts across platforms and applications.

The document has been published by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for public consultation and is open for comments until 21st September, 2025.

The draft may be accessed at the following link:

Draft Standard Link : https://www.services.bis.gov.in/php/BIS_2.0/dgdashboard/Standrds_review_...

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Showing 415 Submission(s)
BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
The “Devanāgarī Script behaviour for Hindi” can be used by a large number of users. 1. The primary aim of the “Devanāgarī Script behaviour for Hindi” has been for the font developer. It can be used by font developers desirous of developing a font which is compliant with the perception of the characters and ligatures of a language by its user community. 2. It allows the font designer to design a font which is in compliance with the norms and standards of that particular script. A major problem which will be dealt with in the template is one of ligatures. The final list of ligatures defined by the “Devanāgarī Script behaviour for Hindi” allows the font designer to write specific rules for such glyphs. 3. The other target group is the OS and application developer. Once the possible ligatures and consonant Mātrā combinations have been identified, there is a need to provide a list of maximum combinations within the language.
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
8. Finally, provide the collation order pertinent to that Script / Language, which would be of great utility to high-end NLP as well as to CLDR’s in the pertinent language. The collation order for Hindi is different from other languages although languages share the same script. Thus, in Marathi क्ष, ज्ञ are placed at the end of the consonant inventory, i.e. after ह in the sort order. In Hindi क्ष is sorted along with क and ज्ञ with ज.
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
5. Propose the best shape representation of the individual characters as well as of the ligatures used within a given script. As a corollary request the expert(s) to identify the largest possible strings of such ligatures. This would serve as a useful input for the font developer, desirous of knowing the visual representation of such combinations and clusters. 6. In the case of consonant clusters and ligatural forms, identify to maximum extent such valid combinations and list them out. This would serve as a useful guide for OS/Application developers who would use these to validate or invalidate a combination, entered by the user. 7. Provide usage of “Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ)” and “Zero Width Non Joiner (ZWNJ)” within the language. Since ZWJ/ZWNJ are stored in the data, this would ensure that incorrect use of these two signs affect search as well as Natural Language Processing.
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
Technical:- 1. Abjad, Akshar Classify the language in terms of its mnemonic as defined in ISO. 2. Provide an inventory of the characters pertinent to the language and classify the same in terms of their taxonomy. 3. Provide syllabic structure of the language. 4. Since Brahmi is written from left to right, and since certain characters do not follow the linear left to right order, i.e. characters such as Mātrās that concatenate to the Consonant.
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
The objectives of the “Devanāgarī Script behaviour for Hindi” for language can be divided into two major parts:- Societal:- 1. Provide a visual representation of shapes that are deemed to be in conformity with the perception of a given community. 2. Ensure thereby that this perception is safe-guarded. 3. Through wide-spread dissemination and creation of appropriate tools ensure that within the given linguistic community, all media try to adopt the given shape.
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
As mentioned above Devanāgarī caters to 11 official languages (Hindi, Marathi, Nepali,Sanskrit, Konkani, Maithili, Sindhi, Bodo, Dogri, Santhali, Kashmiri) of India. Each of these languages has different representations of the shape of Individual characters as well as their ligatural representations. The “Devanāgarī Script behaviour for Hindi” in this document is pertinent to Hindi. Other similar documents define the structure of Marathi, Sanskrit, Nepali to name a few languages sharing the common script Devanāgarī and the Unicode code-block 0900-097F (with exception of Rupee Sign and Swastik).
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
Other languages which use Devanāgarī script, the script grammar for these are dealt with in separate documents. “Devanāgarī Script behaviour for Hindi” is the term used to define:- 1. The writing system used to inscribe a Hindi. 2. The syllabic structure of the writing system of Hindi. 3. The rule ordering of the characters within the syllable. 4. Description of the syllabic clusters / ligatures. 5. Description of valid and invalid clusters i.e. clusters not used within the Hindi. 6. Collation order of the characters: lexical / dictionary sorting order.
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
The “Devanāgarī Script behaviour for Hindi” deals with the surface structure of Hindi and tries to provide the best possible “fit” for shapes and their representation of the conjunct forms with the help of specialists (linguists, font designers, language experts, academicians) who work in the area of the written representation of the language. Since this is a highly subjective issue, the shapes provided here are recommendations at the best and conform to the perception of the mandating body/evaluators that consensually arrive at the “best possible fit” which is acceptable to a majority of users. Other languages which use Devanāgarī script, the script grammar for these are dealt with in separate documents.
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BrahmDevYadav
BrahmDevYadav 9 months 2 weeks ago
How do new technologies change our language? In the digital age, technology has profoundly influenced how we communicate, shaping the English language in myriad ways. From the rise of texting and social media to the advent of artificial intelligence, technology has not only introduced new vocabulary but also altered grammar, syntax, and even pronunciation
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