Tirhuta script

Tirhuta
Mithilakshar
𑒞𑒱𑒩𑒯𑒳𑒞𑒰‎
Script type
Time period
c. 13th century–present day[1]
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
LanguagesMaithili, Sanskrit
Related scripts
Parent systems
Sister systems
Bengali–Assamese, Odia
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Tirh (326), ​Tirhuta
Unicode
Unicode alias
Tirhuta
U+11480–U+114DF
Final Accepted Script Proposal

The Tirhuta or Maithili script was the primary historical script for the Maithili language, as well as one of the historical scripts for Sanskrit. It is believed to have originated in the 13th century CE. It is very similar to Bengali–Assamese script, with most consonants being effectively identical in appearance. For the most part, writing in Maithili has switched to the Devanagari script, which is used to write neighbouring Central Indic languages to the west and north such as Hindi and Nepali, and the number of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta has dropped considerably in recent years.

12th Century Stone inscription from Simroungarh showing early Tirhuta writing
  1. ^ Pandey, Anshuman (5 May 2011). "N4035: Proposal to Encode the Tirhuta Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF). Working Group Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 December 2016.
  2. ^ Daniels, Peter T. (January 2008). "Writing systems of major and minor languages". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy. p. 41.