Modi alphabet

Moḍī
A verse from Dnyaneshwari in Moḍī script
Type	Abugida
Languages	Marathi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Gujarathi, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu
Time period	c. 1600–c. 2010
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet [a] Phoenician alphabet [a] Aramaic alphabet [a] Brāhmī Gupta Nāgarī Devanāgarī Moḍī
Sister systems	Gujarati Ranjana
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon. Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

Moḍī (मोडी) is one of the scripts used to write the Marathi language& Rajasthani language, which is the primary language spoken in the state of Maharashtra & Rajasthan in western India respectively. MoDi(मोडी)is also known as MuDiya(मुडिया), MuDi(मुडी) & VañiyāvaTi(वाणीयावटी). It had also earned certain infamous adjectives such as Bhoot lipi(भूत लिपी), Rakshas lipi(राक्षस लिपी), Pishacch lipi(पिशाच्च लिपी) due to its tendency to waiver from the accepted standard norms of a written script. There are several theories about the origin of this script. One of them claims that it was developed by Hemadpant (or Hemadri Pandit) during the reign of Mahadev Yadav and Ramdev Yadav (1260–1309)of Deogiri. Others claim that it was brought by Hemandpant from Sri Lanka. It is a popular notion that only Marathi is written in Modi. Other languages that have also been found to have been written in Modi are Hindi, Sindhi, Urdu, Brajbhasha, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil.

The MoDi script is divided into 6 categories (periods) viz., the Ancient period(आद्यकालीन), the Yadav period(यादवकालीन), the Bahamani period(बहमनीकालीन), the Shiv period(शिवकालीन), the Peshwe period(पेशवेकालीन) and the English period(आंग्लकालीन). The form of the Ancient period(आद्यकालीन) is still not known whereas, the only sample of the Yadav period(यादवकालीन) is preserved at the Dept. of Archives, Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

Primarily this epithet has most probably been derived from the verb "modane" (मोडणे) meaning to break in Marathi. Modi is essentially prepared by breaking original Devanagari characters and so that should be considered the proper etymology however, there are also other experts who believe that the word 'Modi' could have been derived from the word 'Mouryi' which indicates the origin or derivation of Modi from an earlier 'Mouryi' script used during the reign of the Maurya dynasty who ruled India during 322–185 BCE. However, there is no resemblance in these two scripts so that this opinion is no more considered valid. Modi, it is believed, was developed as a faster way of writing as compared to the more complicated Devanagari script. This was done by "breaking" some of the characters of the alphabet (to make them simpler) and also by making them more "circular"^[1] in shape, which aided in moving from one character to the next without lifting the pen from the paper. Thus, Modi was a sort of "cursive" style of writing , although reading it may not have been as easy.

Given here is a picture showing all Modi script glyphs, prepared by using kotem1 Clip font.

Modi has had a major use as a shorthand script for faster writing in business and other administration. Modi does not take account of vowel length, and does not include conjunct consonants like Devanagari and some other Indic scripts.

A Modi clip font kotem1 developed by Ashok Kothare, is now available. Hemadree font developed by Somesh Bartakke; ModiGhate font developed by Sameer Ghate & Khilari 2 font developed by Rajesh Khilari is available now.

Even today most of the printed material in Modi is handwritten. Using offset printing machines, previously Lithography printing was in vogue. However, Devanagari has been the main script for all Marathi literature and other writings from the beginning. Modi was used primarily by political and administrative people as well as businessmen in keeping their accounts and writing Hundis. Modi was also used to encrypt the message since not all people were well versed in reading this script. All Marathi writing has been written and printed in the Devanagari script, which is the same script as is used to write Hindi and some other Indian languages.

Some linguists in Mumbai have recently begun trying to revive the script. There is a project underway to encode Modi in the Unicode standard.^[2][3]

See also

• Clip font

• Kothare fonts

References

• Cursive

1. ^ Cursive
2. ^ Pandey, Anshuman. 2009. Preliminary Proposal to Encode the Modi Script in ISO/IEC 10646
3. ^ Pandey, Anshuman. 2010. Revised Code Chart and Names List for the Modi Script

External links

• Modi Script Resources
• Modi at Omniglot
• Modi at Ancient Scripts
• Site on Modi Script(Marathi)
• Site for learning Modi Script