Kaithi

Kaithi (๐‘‚๐‘‚ถ๐‘‚Ÿ๐‘‚ฒ), also called Kayathi (๐‘‚๐‘‚จ๐‘‚Ÿ๐‘‚ฒ), Kayasthi (๐‘‚๐‘‚ฐ๐‘‚จ๐‘‚ฎ๐‘‚น๐‘‚Ÿ๐‘‚ฒ), or Kayastani, is a Brahmic script historically used across parts of Northern and Eastern India.

The script was primarily utilized for legal, administrative, and private records and was adapted for a variety of Indo-Aryan languages, including Angika, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Hindustani, Maithili, Magahi, and Nagpuri.

[1] The name Kaithi script is derived from the term Kayastha, a socio-professional group historically linked to writing, record-keeping and administration.

[2] This community served in royal courts and later in British colonial administration, maintaining revenue records, legal documents, title deeds, and general correspondence.

This made Kaithi increasingly unfavorable to the more conservative and religiously inclined members of society who insisted on Devanagari-based and Persian-based transcription of Hindi dialects.

[5] In the late 19th century, John Nesfield in Oudh, George Campbell of Inverneill in Bihar and a committee in Bengal all advocated for the use of Kaithi script in education.

This table sets out the handwritten form of the vowels and consonants of the Kaithi script, as of the middle of the 19th century
Bhojpuri story written in Kaithi script by Babu Rama Smaran Lal in 1898
A printed form of the Kaithi script, as of the mid-19th century
Kaithi script (left side bottom-most line) on the coins of Sher Shah Suri
Signboard at Purbi Gumti, Arrah , with English (top), Bhojpuri Kaithi (bottom-left), and Urdu (bottom-right)
Kaithi diacritics with kha (๐‘‚Ž)
Kaithi Numbers (0 to 9)