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Technical encoding

With the spread of computers and the Internet in particular, technical encoding systems developed such as ITRANS, Harvard-Kyoto, Velthis and SLP1. With these systems, Saṃskṛt texts can be spelled in the correct pronunciation on a regular keyboard.

The development of Velthuis, ITRANS, Harvard-Kyoto and SLP1

With the increasing use of the Internet, there were more and more calls for a system that did not rely on diacritical signs but still provided all information relevant for correct pronunciation. The transliterations systems described below allow for a correct representation of the 48 letters of the Saṃskṛt alphabet with a regular keyboard:

  • Velthuis: Developed by Franz Velthuis (1996) for TeX, this system uses several Roman letters for each Devanāgarī letter. Capitalisation and lower cases can thus be used for capitals and lower cases in the Western transliteration.
  • ITRANS: Developed in the Yahoo-RMIM Newsgroup which originally served as a forum for an exchange on Indian music and poetry. In contrast to the Velthuis Standard, capitals and lower cases here represent different Devanāgarī letters.
  • Harvard-Kyoto: Is the result of a collaboration between the Universities of Harvard and Kyoto. This transliteration system is slightly more convenient to use than ITRANS and therefore the standard most widely used in forums, chats, e-mail communication. It has by now become the dominant system for the representation of Saṃskṛt and other Indian languages (Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, …).
  • SLP1: Strictly uses only one Roman letter for each Devanāgarī letter. Capitals and lower cases encode different sounds. The code is somewhat more difficult to remember but extremely useful for computer-based processing and therefore also quite widespread.

The following table shows the transliteration of the Devanāgarī letters used in classical Saṃskṛt in the most important systems. Please note that some of the systems can also be used to represent other Indian scripts.

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