Laṇḍā scripts

The Laṇḍā scripts, from the term laṇḍā meaning "without a tail", is a Punjabi word used to refer to writing systems used in Punjab and nearby parts of North India.^[1] In Sindhi, it was known as 'Waniko' or 'Baniyañ'.^[2] It is distinct from the Lahnda language varieties, which used to be called Western Punjabi.

Laṇḍā scripts
Script type	Abugida
Time period	10th-11th century CE
Direction	left-to-right
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet?^[a] Phoenician alphabet?^[a] Aramaic alphabet?^[a] Brahmi Gupta Sharada Laṇḍā scripts
Child systems	Gurmukhi, Khudabadi, Khojki, Mahajani, Multani
Sister systems	Takri
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Landa script chart.

For the proposed Western Punjabi linguistic group, see Lahnda.

Laṇḍā is a script that evolved from the Śāradā during the 10th century. It was widely used in the northern and north-western part of India in the area comprising Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir and some parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was used to write Punjabi, Hindustani, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi, Kashmiri, Pashto, and various Punjabi dialects like Pahari-Pothwari.

Variants

There are at least ten ancient scripts that were classified as Laṇḍā scripts. They were often used as the mercantile scripts of the Punjab region. 5 of them have enough information to be supported in Unicode.

1. Gurmukhī is used for Punjabi and sometimes for Sindhi. It evolved from Laṇḍā and is the only major Landa script in modern day usage.^[3]
2. Khojkī, an ecclesiastical script of the Isma'ili Khoja community, is within the Sindhi branch of the Landa family of scripts.^[4]
3. Khudabadi, formerly used for Sindhi, is a Laṇḍā-based script.^[5]
4. Mahājanī, a script previously used for the Punjabi and Mārwāṛī, is related to Laṇḍā.^[6]
5. Multani, former writing system of Saraiki, is a Laṇḍā-based script.^[7]

References

1. 中西 亮(Nakanishi, Akira) (1980-01-01). Writing systems of the world: alphabets, syllabaries, pictograms. Rutland, Vt.; Tokyo, Japan: C.E. Tuttle Co. pp. 50-51. ISBN 0804812934.
2. Pollock, Sheldon; Raghunathan, Arvind (2003). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. p. 623. ISBN 9780520228214.
3. Pandey, Anshuman. (2010). L2/10-011R A Roadmap for Scripts of the Landa Family
4. Pandey, Anshuman. (2011). L2/11-021 Final Proposal to Encode the Khojki Script
5. Pandey, Anshuman. (2011). L2/11-022 Final Proposal to Encode the Khudawadi Script
6. Pandey, Anshuman. (2011). L2/11-274 Proposal to Encode the Mahajani Script
7. Pandey, Anshuman. (2012). L2/12-316 Proposal to Encode the Multani Script

Further reading

• Pandey, Anshuman. (2010). L2/10-271R Proposal to Encode the Sindhi Script
• Pandey, Anshuman. (2010). L2/10-013R Preliminary Proposal to Encode the Landa Script
• Pandey, Anshuman. (2009). L2/09-424 Proposal to Encode the Takri Script