[8] Historically the script was transcribed in Middle Bengali, though having similar characteristics to the more popular Dobhashi literary dialect, it was distinguished for its phonological influence from Sylheti.

In recent times it has come to be known as Sylheti Nagri although this name was not used in the classical manuscripts such as Pohela Kitab by Muhammad Abdul Latif.

[17] One hypothesis is that the Muslims of Sylhet were the ones to invent it for the purpose of mass Islamic education,[18] which is thought to have taken place during the 15th-century, when Bengali Hindus led by Krishna Chaitanya, started a Sanskrit and Vaishnavist reawakening movement.

This is a Hindu caste known for travelling and settling across the subcontinent, adopting the local language but writing in their own Nagari-variant of Kaithi instead.

[17] The simplistic nature of the script inspired a lot of poets, though the bulk of Sylheti Nagri literature was born in the late 19th century.

Abdul Karim, a munshi who was studying and completing his education in London, spent several years in the English capital to learn the printing trade.

After returning home in circa 1869, he designed a woodblock type for the script and founded the Islamia Printing Press in Bandar Bazar, Sylhet.

Apart from renowned literary works such as Halat-un-Nabi, Jongonama, Mahabbatnama or Noor Noshihot, it has been used to write medicine and magical manuscripts, as well as Poems of the Second World War.

[6] In the Sylhet region, at one stage literary works in Sylheti Nagri became more popular in usage than the Bengali script.

[29] In 2009, the publication of literature in the Nagri script recommenced in Bangladesh through the efforts of Mostafa Selim, who founded a publishing company called Utsho Prokashon based in Dhaka, and Anwar Rashid's New Nation Library in Puran Lane, Sylhet.

[30][31] By 2014, a collection of 25 manuscripts, known as Nagri Grantha Sambhar, was published by Utsho Prokashon's Muhammad Abdul Mannan and Selim.

The recent revivals sparked a great interest in the country, and achieved significant coverage in national newspapers, TV and radio channels across Bangladesh.

The Bangla Academy, an institution funded by the Government of Bangladesh to serve as the official body regarding the Bengali language,[32] has begun hosting Nagri bookstalls at the Ekushey Book Fair.

[31] In 2014, a Nagri press conference was held at the Pathak Shamabesh Center in Shahbag, a major neighbourhood located in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.

[citation needed] The official building of Sylhet District's Deputy Commissioner has also installed Nagri signboards.

[12][35] This revival is primarily driven by efforts to preserve the Sylheti language as an integral part of a cultural heritage, in contrast to the dominance of Standard Bengali.

As a routine project of the Metropolitan University, Sylhet, Sabbir Ahmed Shawon and Muhammad Nurul Islam (under the name CapsuleStudio) developed and launched the Syloti Nagri Keyboard, also for Google Play, on 9 December 2017.

[42] Different keyboards and fonts are available now: Syloti Nagri was added to the Unicode Standard in March 2005 with the release of version 4.1.