

There are also some with four-consonant conjuncts and at least one well-known conjunct with five consonants. There are about a thousand conjunct consonants, most of which combine two or three consonants. Some letters are two forms: the Classical, Northern or Kalikata (Calcutta) form is used in the north of India while the Modern, Southern or Mumbai (Bombay) form is used in the south India and has become the standard form.


The name Devanāgarī is made up of two Sanskrit words: deva, which means god, brahman or celestial, and nāgarī, which means city. This script was starting to resemble the modern Devanāgarī alphabet by the 10th century, and started to replace Siddham from about 1200. Devanāgarī (देवनागरी लिपि) Advertisementsĭeveloped from eastern variants of the Gupta script called Nāgarī, which first emerged during the 8th century.
