Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
By
Virendra P Singh
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
Bibliography
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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Concept of Romanaagarii
Romanaagarii script has five basic short vowels [a], [i], [u], [e], and [o] and
corresponding five long vowels [aa], [ii], [uu], [ee], and [oo]. Essentially, these
vowels are commonly used in most languages of the world. There may be
some differences of accent but most vowel sounds could be covered by these
ten basic vowels. As in Devanagari script, the vowels in Romanaagarii script
are to be learnt separately because they have special significance from a
phonetic point of view.
1. Romanaagarii script will be most useful for people who can speak their
language but can not read or write it. In most parts of India, a very large
number of people are illiterate and teaching them to read and write through
the conventional scripts is not easy. Twenty seven symbols and very few rules
of Romanaagarii script can be learnt and remembered easily while about two
hundred and fifty symbols and numerous rules and exceptions of Hindi script
are difficult to learn. The principles and methodology of Romanaagarii would
also be beneficial to people who speak languages other than Hindi.
written in scripts other than Roman. This will motivate wider use of computers
for different languages. The existing ASCII code will facilitate computer
processing of any language written in Romanaagarii script.
6. Fast electronic communications and the computers being used all over the
world have popularized the Roman script. Machines and programs
incorporating ASCII code (which is based on Roman alphabet) are produced
in large quantities. For writing Romanaagarii script, there will be no necessity
to produce different programs or different machines. It will be economical to
use the existing technology and equipment rather than go for new
technologies to cater to the computer requirements of people who write their
languages in different scripts. The text in Romanaagarii script can also be
easily scanned and processed just like English text.
2. It is alphabetic and is written like Roman script. It has all the merits of an
alphabetic script. Most of the text processing on computers and the Internet is
presently done in the Roman script due to its alphabetic nature.
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Chapter 2
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
Historically, script came after a language was developed and commonly used
by people. The need for script arose for communication as well as for
preservation of the spoken words for use at different times and different
places. Availability of a script and facilities for writing it have been important
factors in popularizing a language as well as expanding its literature. Scripts
have helped in proper maintenance of written records of arts and literature
and preserved the cultural heritage. Both languages and scripts have
developed in different parts of world independently, causing their diversity.
Communication, however, facilitated interaction and some common features
are noticeable among different languages and scripts.
Meaning of literacy
Literacy could mean different things to different people. Dixon has referred to
literacy in language, science, mathematics, computers, culture, media, health,
international events and sex. (Dixon: 60-161) Randhawa in his paper " From
literacy to cognitive science" has also referred to basic (functional) literacy,
biblical literacy, economic literacy, technological literacy, scientific literacy and
computer literacy" (Leong: 56-62). For our purpose, however, language
literacy and computer literacy would be more relevant than other types of
literacy.
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A Literate person is a one who can with understanding both read and write a
short simple statement relevant to his everyday life.
Literacy is not the simple reading of word or a set of associated symbols and
sounds, but an act of critical understanding of men's situation in the world.
A literate person is one who has acquired all the essential knowledge and
skills which enable him to engage in all those activities in which literacy is
required for effective functioning in his group and community and whose
attaining in reading, writing and numeracy make it possible to use these skills
towards his own and his community's development.
The National Literacy Mission (NLM) of India defines literacy as acquiring the
skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's
day-to-day life. Thus the goal of the National Literacy Mission goes beyond
the simple achievement of self-reliance in literacy and numeracy of functional
literacy. The achievement of functional literacy implies:
· Self-reliance in 3 R's
Literacy should be taught at home rather than at school. The campaign for
promotion of literacy need not disturb the school system of education.
"Education involves much more than teaching people to read and write. That
is the whole point. It is the "much more" which the world cannot afford.
Learning to read and write, whether by an adult or a child, is not in itself
education. It is the acquisition of a skill. It is in the same category as learning
to walk, to talk, to prepare food, to sow seeds, hoe a field, ride a bicycle or
swim. No one thinks of these things as education. They are skills which
people need in order to live as human beings, and they are reared and taught
within the circle of family or neighborhood. Anyone who has learned them can
teach others and does so as a matter of course, without any organized
system" (Jeffries: 164).
The objective being to make a person literate rather than educated, the focus
of teaching should be on help in communication and not on sophistication of
speaking style. The main purpose of literacy would be to support a person in
his normal activities in the environment in which he is living. The
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Benefits of literacy
For those who doubt the wisdom of teaching everyone to read and write and
question the merits of making literacy universal, the following points may be
noted:
3. Since reading and writing is done by seeing, mental activities based on the
sense of vision are strengthened. Literacy is enlightenment in a real sense.
4. Thoughts and records can be kept separately and there is no need to strain
the brain for memorizing everything. Accumulation of knowledge outside mind
is possible only through literacy.
7. Literacy promotes and enforces honesty. A person may deny what he has
said but cannot deny what he has written.
8. Literacy opens new areas of real and conceptual worlds to be surveyed and
researched for economic development. The economic prosperity in literate
societies is generally more than in illiterate societies.
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Chapter 3
DEVANAGARI SCRIPT AND HINDI
General
It is believed that Hindi (Khar‟i Boli or Hindustani) originated around 1000 A.D.
Its history is divided into three periods: 1. Ancient period (1000-1500 AD); 2.
Medieval period (1500-1800 AD); and 3. Modern period (1800 AD till now)
(Tiwari: 85).
In its modern form, the Devanagari script has been influenced and changed to
some extent by Persian, Marathi, Gujarati, and English languages.
Devanagari was also used to write Sanskrit language and has now become its
standard script. Apart from Hindi, Devanagari script is also used for writing
Sanskrit and Marathi languages in India.
In Devanagari script, apart from learning the alphabet, one has to learn
symbols for vowels and half consonants. There are different ways of
positioning them in writing. Symbols for vowels are placed before, after,
above, under and within the consonant. This makes learning Devanagari
script somewhat tedious and irksome. Samples of Devanagari fonts are given
in Appendix 1.
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The number of symbols used for writing Devanagari script is over 250. They
can be divided into the following groups:
Several other symbols not falling in any of the above mentioned category.
They are used mostly in combining half letter with full letter.
Half consonants are as peculiar as vowel symbols in Hindi. There are some
patterns but many have no pattern and one has to do visual cramming.
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[r] has several symbols in Hindi which creates confusion and complications.
4. Problem of letters pronounced half but written full and vice versa:
It is utterly irrational to write a letter in full but pronounce half. This violates the
phonetic logic and creates confusion. Similar phonetic illogic is noticed when a
letter is pronounces full but written half. Sometimes the combination of half
and full letters creates peculiar figures and causes complications.
Many words in Hindi have been taken from other languages particularly
English, Arabic and Persian. Numerous words in Hindi and Urdu are common.
Some sounds represented by different letters cannot be represented
accurately in Hindi. Hindi has only one letter for [j] and another is made by
putting dot under it. Arabic, on the other hand, has six variations of j/z.
6. Problem of punctuation:
Punctuation marks, particularly full stop, have no definite form. A dot and a
vertical line, both, are used for full stop which is confusing.
The complexity of symbols for vowels and different symbols for half letters
make it difficult to type Hindi on an ordinary typewriter. To type all symbols for
all full and half letters would require more than 250 keys in a typewriter. Even
then some combination of letters may be difficult to type or print correctly.
E-mail is now a standard form of communication all over the world. Internet is
used for transmission of information to millions of people. The commonly used
text in Internet is in Roman script. Non-Roman scripts have problems of easy
communication on Internet. Devanagari script is not compatible with Internet
and the only practical alternative would be the Romanaagarii Script.
Although there is logic in these suggestions, they have not been taken
seriously because they suggest some unorthodox remedies for vowels and
half letters. Moreover, they do not fully satisfy the criteria of a scientific script.
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Chapter 4
HINDI AND ROMANIZATION
General
At different times, there have been attempts to Romanize Hindi and other
languages in India. These attempts have been made mostly by people in the
armed forces, postal and tele- communications services, journalism etc. to
meet their requirements in view of existing communications facilities being
available only for writing Roman characters. These attempts have not been
successful because of the lack of coherence and regularity in the systems
adopted for writing Hindi in Roman script. In fact, the Romanization of Hindi
on the English model has been as irregular as English spelling system itself.
"The very common Hindi surname, चौधयी (choodharii in Romanaagarii) for
example, may be encountered in Romanized form as Chaudhary, Chaudharia,
Chaudhery, Chaudhori, Chaudri, Chaudhuri, Chaudhury, Choudri, Chaudry,
Chowdhari, Chowdhary, Chowdury, and Chowdhury, depending on the
predilection of the bearer of this name" (Wellish: 270).
Vowels:
Short vowels:a, i, u, e, o
Long vowels:A, I, U, E, O
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Consonants
k, kh, g, gh, n^
c, ch, j, jh, n”
T, Th, D, Dh, N
t, th, d, dh, n
p, ph, b, bh, m
y, r, l, w,(v)
s” S, s, h
R, Rh, L, Lh
To grasp the difficulties of writing the way English language is written, one has
to understand the peculiarities of its phonetics. It has 26 letters but not a
single one of them follows the principle of one sound and one symbol
correspondence. This entails learning and remembering the spelling of
practically every word of English language. Five vowels represent over 25
sounds and over 25 sounds are represented by compound vowels. Y and W
are used as vowels as well as consonants. Some consonants have more than
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one sound and more than one consonants represent the same sound. There
are silent letters and double letters used for single sounds.
Some consonants in English language are written but not pronounced. <gh>
before [t] in right, fight and <k> before [n] as in know, knight etc. are
examples.
Phonetic English
Some linguists have however, defended English spelling and tried to discover
complicated explanations to rationalize relationship between spelling and the
sound pattern. These relationships, however, have not been accepted by
other linguists. "Some of the hypothetical relationships, which are often not
obvious even to trained linguists, much less ordinary mortals, are complex to
the point of absurdity. The defense of English orthography is arid and of no
value outside the rarefied world of a peculiar school of linguistics" (DeFrancis:
205-206).
Changes have been made in the spelling of some words in the United States
to simplify and rationalize the spellings (such as PROGRAM for
PROGRAMME, COLOR for COLOUR, CENTER for CENTRE etc.). However,
this does not go very far in making the script phonetic.
In view of the complications due to the non-phonetic use of both vowels and
consonants in English, it will not be helpful to use its irregular system for
writing any language including Hindi. It would also not be possible to make
any computer program for voice recognition of languages which are phoneme
based. Romanaagarii would be a more appropriate and accurate way of
Romanization. In Romanaagarii, there is only one way to spell “चौधयी” as
“coodharii”. No sound has more than one symbol and no symbol has more
than one sound.
It could be suggested that the IPA may be adopted as basis for transliteration
of various languages of the world including Hindi. It may be true that the IPA is
accurate in establishing sound-symbol correspondence and is devised for
universal usage. However, the IPA would not be suitable either for promotion
of literacy or for use in computers for the following reasons:
1. IPA symbols are too numerous to be learnt easily. Even literate people
would find it difficult to use them and they can not be grasped by illiterate
people. 26 letters and 3 diacritical marks of Romanaagarii would obviously be
easier to learn and more suitable for promotion of literacy.
2. It is generally believed that too many diacritical marks are not conducive to
popularization of any language. Only phonetics experts who prescribe them
are enamoured of them. People are bound to be confused by seeing so many
strange diacritical marks and other symbols in the IPA.
4. ASCII code for computers does not cover the IPA. Even the extended
ASCII with 256 characters would not support all the IPA symbols. IPA would,
therefore, not be suitable for use in computers.
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5. Several symbols of the IPA are very similar to each other and their use will
create confusion. [t], [d], [n], [r] are some of them which have other variations
representing different sounds but having similar shape.
6. All symbols in the IPA are not of uniform size and may cause problem in
typing and printing.
Apart from these factors, the use of IPA will result in a totally new and artificial
writing system and would not be a practical proposition for use by common
people to meet their daily requirements. On the other hand, Romanaagarii
having similarity to Roman characters currently used for many languages,
would provide a familiar and better script.
Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all
of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and
manipulated by computers. Developed in tandem with the Universal Character
Set standard and published in book form as The Unicode Standard, Unicode
consists of a character repertoire, an encoding methodology and set of
standard character encodings, a set of code charts for visual reference, an
enumeration of character properties such as upper and lower case, a set of
reference data computer files, and rules for normalization, decomposition,
collation and rendering.
Another suggestion for writing different scripts on the computers and Internet
is to use the Unicode. Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the
language.
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Despite claims that the emergence of the Unicode Standard, and the
availability of tools supporting it, is among the most significant software
technology achievements, there are problems in its practical application. It is a
solution based on high powered processing and storing capacity of the
computers. It requires minimum 32 bits processor and special text operating
system. All computers and operating systems would not be able to use the
facilities of Unicode. In the Unicode system, the fonts used are combination of
the fonts proposed to be used for all the languages and the font file becomes
very bulky. The Unicode font file is as big as 23 megabyte (22700 kilobyte)
while the normal ASCII font file is only 40 kilobyte capacity.
The Unicode is not a unique suggestion for Hindi alone and it is being
projected as solution for writing numerous other scripts of the world. It is still
not a complete project and has no practical use for common user.
The Hindi characters used in Unicode and the Romanaagarii alternative are
shown in Appendix-4.
IAST
ISO 15919
Harvard-Kyoto
Compared to IAST, Harvard-Kyoto looks much simpler. It does not contain all
the diacritic marks that IAST contains. This makes typing in Harvard-Kyoto
much easier than IAST. Harvard-Kyoto uses capital letters that can be difficult
to read in the middle of words.
ITRANS scheme
ISCII
Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) is a coding scheme for
representing various writing systems of India. It encodes the main Indic scripts
and a Roman transliteration. The supported scripts are: Assamese, Bengali,
Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, and
Telugu. ISCII does not encode the writing systems of India based on Arabic,
but its writing system switching codes nonetheless provide for Kashmiri,
Sindhi, Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Arabic. The Arabic-based writing systems
have subsequently been encoded in the PASCII encoding. (From Wikipedia)
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PASCII
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Chapter 5
ROMANAAGARII SCRIPT
Scientific script
The famous scholar of Hindi language and script, Dr. Bhola Nath Tiwari, in his
book "Hindi Bhaashaa" (page 210) has prescribed the following qualities of a
scientific script:
2- The script should have symbols for each sound of a particular language.
5- In writing, the symbols should come in the same order in which they are
pronounced.
Evidently, the existing Devanagari script does not have these qualities. There
have been suggestions for reforms and modification of Devanagari script for
writing Hindi.
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Romanaagarii Script
Roman script: English language is written in Roman script and has the
following letters:
Small letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z
Capital letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V,
W, X, Y, Z
One more symbol [„] called apostrophe, is used in writing English text. In
addition, various symbols for numbers, punctuation, arithmetic etc. are used.
Romanaagarii follows the alphabetic principles of Roman script. However, to
make it simple, only the small letters are used.
¡ “ # $ % & „ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p t‟ r s t u v d‟ x y z m‟ v‟ m‟ ~
These characters, except the capital letters, are also used for Romanaagarii.
We can write Roman characters (small) like Devanaagari as follows:
a e i o u
bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz
These letters do not cover all the sounds of Hindi and Urdu languages. We
will, therefore, use more than one letter (grapheme) for writing all the
phonemes of Hindi. Long vowel will be written by repeating the short vowel.
For expressing the aspirated sounds, [h] is added to some letters such as bh,
ch, dh etc. This is common in English language. For other sounds still not
covered, the diacritical mark [„] would be used.
a aa i ii u uu e ee o oo m‟ h‟
ka kha ga gha m‟a
ca cha ja jha m‟a
t‟a t‟ha d‟a d‟ha n‟a
ta tha da dha na
pa pha ba bha ma
ya ra la va sha s‟a sa ha
‟a k‟a k‟ha g‟a r‟a r‟ha za fa v‟a
4) There are not more than one symbol for any sound in Romanaagarii.
3. Learn long vowels and compound consonants by joining aspirated [h] and
diacritical [„] symbols to single consonants.
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Vowels
Nasalized vowels:
[am‟] am‟gaar
[aam‟] aam‟kh
[im‟] sim‟gaar
[um‟] um‟galii
[uum‟] uum‟caa
[em‟] gem‟d
[eem‟] eem‟t'h
[om‟] gom‟d
[oom‟] coom‟k
Consonants:
[k‟] as in k‟avvaalii
[v‟] (not in common use in Hindi but may be used to represent the sound of
English [w])
Some clarifications
The basic single vowels of Romanaagarii script are close to English vowels,
but phonetically, each one of them represents only one sound. The
pronunciation of Romanaagarii vowels is close to the vowels in Spanish
language. The doubled form of these vowels is used to represent the long
form of the five vowels. Use of more than one letter for a vowel is quite
common in English, for example, meet, meat, fool, etc. Some times English
language uses even more than two letters for a vowel as in beauty, queue etc.
[g] is used only to represent the sound of g and not the sound of [j].
[t'h] is used only to represent one sound as in t'hand'aa and not the sounds of
english words the and throw respectively.
[v] is used to represent the sound of both [v] and [w] since Hindi does not
recognize difference between them. In case a different letter to represent [w]
is needed, [v‟] could be used.
Devanagari is not truly alphabetic and follows a writing system called abiguda.
This abiguda system is composed of signs (graphemes) denoting consonants
with an inherent following vowel. For example, there is no basic sign
representing the consonant [k]; rather the unmodified letter represents the
syllable [ka]; the a is not marked on the symbol, and thus is the so-called
inherent vowel. To make Devanagari alphabetic, we have to exclude the
inherent vowel.
[g], [j], [d‟], [d], [b], [m], [r], [l], [v], [h]
[f], [z]
[x] is the vowel base that is not used in Roman scripts. Its importance will be
known when transliterating Roman into SARAL scripts.
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Chapter 6
ROMANAAGARII TO SARAL SCRIPTS
To use ASCII for all phonemes of Romanaagarii, the capital letters are
substituted by phonemes made of more than one Roman character. The
inherent vowel [a] is excluded. The phonemes in place of the capital letters in
the ASCII of the computers used for Romanaagarii would be as follows:
A=aa; B=bh; C=ch; D=dh; E=ee; F=s‟; G=gh; H=h‟; I=ii; J=jh; K=kh; L=r‟;
M=m‟; N=n‟; O=oo; P=ph; Q=t‟h; R=r‟h; S=sh; T=th; U=uu; V=v‟; W=d‟h; X=„;
Y=k‟h; Z=z‟
ASCII for Romanaagarii phonemes would be different from the ASCII for
English. In the ASCII for Romanaagarii, the phoneme made of more than one
character, is considered one single symbol and the fonts are made
accordingly. For example, [kh] in Romanaagarii requires two strokes on
keyboard but in SARAL Roman, it will require only one stroke. We call the
new Romanaagarii fonts as SARAL Roman fonts and the script as SARAL
Roman script.
Romanaagarii uses the fonts commonly used in English, but SARAL Roman
uses the fonts specially made for it. It may be noted that there is no difference
in the appearance of Romanaagarii and SARAL Roman except the use of [x].
In SARAL Roman, [x] is there but almost invisible. SARAL Roman fonts are as
follows:
¡ “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
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` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p t’ r s t u v d’ x y z m’ v’ m’ ~
¡ “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p t’ r s t u v d’ x y z m’ v’ m’ ~
To use the SARAL Roman ASCII format for Devanagari will be easy because
all the phoneme bases and vowel modifiers are included in it. However, we
have to alphabetize the Devanagari writing symbols and convert phonemes
(Akshar) into graphemes (Varn‟a). To make Devanagari script alphabetic like
Roman script, we do the following:
-Make the vowel modifier [i] to follow the base like other vowel modifiers; and
-Remove the line over consonants to make them alphabetic graphemes from
phonemic graphemes.
These measures are based on the suggestions of Hindi scholars and linguists.
The set of Hindi alphabet symbols will have 55 characters or graphemes and
would be as follows:
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We arrange these symbols in the ASCII to construct SARAL Hindi fonts on the
pattern of SARAL Roman. Hindi characters in this format of ASCII will be as
follows:
To make phoneme (Akshar) from ASCII characters for Hindi, we add vowel
modifiers to the vowel base and add vowel modifier [a] to the consonant
bases. The set of 54 Hindi phonemes (Akshar maalaa) will be as follows:
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¡ “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . /
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
@ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] \ * -
` A b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
p T’ r s t u v d’ x y z m’ v’ m’ ~
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Chapter 7
SIMPLIFICATION OF THE NUMBERING SYSTEM
Counting numbers
While the digital notation of numbers is simple and systematic, their text
representation in different languages is not always so simple. Although only
10 symbols are used for writing any number in digits (0, 1 to 9), there are
numerous words to express them in text form in different languages. For
example, in Hindi and most other languages of India, every number up to 100
has a single and unique word. One has to learn 100 words to count up to 100.
Knowing every number from 1 to 98 would still not be enough to tell the word
for 99. Chinese language, on the other hand, is systematic and has distinct
words for the numbers from 1 to 10, and combinations of these 10 words are
used all the way up to 100(Burling: 52).
In the English language, although compound words are used to express most
numbers of more than one digit, there are complications due to use of single
words for numbers of more than one digit from 10 to 19 and differently spelled
words for 20, 30, 40 and 50. The positional factor of digital system suggests
that the digits and the powers in numbers should be indicated explicitly for
accurate counting.
Counting in English
We look at the English language first in which the distortion is minimal and
correction would be the simpler. There are three irregularities in English
language which may be described as follows:
2- Four digits, namely, two, three, four and five get distorted when they are
associated with the positional power of 10. Thus two becomes twen(-ty), three
becomes thir(-ty), four becomes for(-ty) and five becomes fif(-ty). Interestingly,
there is no change in six, seven, eight and nine.
three" etc. up to "one ty nine". Twenty, thirty, forty and fifty would become two
ty, three ty, four ty, and five ty for considerations of uniformity. Six ty, seven ty
eigh ty and nine ty will remain as they are. Writing "ty" or "tii" or "ti" as
separate word is required in view of its representation of the power of 10
which is similar to "hundred" and "thousand" used as separate words to
indicate the power of 100 and 1000 respectively. The number
123456789012345 will be read as "one hundred two ty three trillion four
hundred five ty six billion seven hundred eight ty nine million one ty two
thousand three hundred four ty five".
For other languages also, the same logic could be applied for text
representation of numbers. Single digits would have one word but numbers
with more than one digit should be expressed in combination of words
representing digits and positional powers.
Counting in Romanaagarii
For languages of India, this suggestion should not be considered too awkward
or strange. Sanskrit language uses compound words for numbers with more
than one digit. It also incorporates the concept of suffix "tii" to some extent.
Shash(6) becomes shashti (60), sapta(7) becomes saptati(70), asht'a(8)
becomes asht'i(80) and nava(9) becomes navati (Ballantyne: 10, 14,16). In
the most ancient and sacred scripture of India, Rig Veda (1.53.9), there is
reference to “Shasti Sahastra Navati Nava” (60099). This is not only the proof
of advanced counting system of high numbers known in the Vedic era, but
also an indication of a very simple and systematic expression of positional
power of digits for counting up to 99 (Navati Nava). Both Shasti and Navati
use "ti" as suffix to convey the positional power and imply that 6 and 9 have
the values of 60 and 90 respectively. The expression 'navati nava' also implies
that counting after each segment of 10 is done through repetition of numbers
from 1 to 9 in the same way as it is done in English language counting from 20
onwards. The English language counting is, interestingly, close to the notation
of positional power found in the Rig Veda!
It is not clear why the Indian languages did not follow the logic and simplicity
of decimal system originated in India long before its use in the western world.
"Hindu mathematicians invented zero more than 2,000 years ago. Their
discovery led them to positional numbers, simpler arithmetic calculations,
negative numbers, algebra with a symbolic notation, as well as the notions of
infinitesimals, infinity, fractions, and irrational numbers" (Logan: 152). If the
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While simplifying the numbering system for Hindi, the existing words for digits
up to 9, a separate word for positional power of 10(tii), and existing words for
powers of 100(soo), 1000(hazaar) may be used. Hindi usage of powers of
laakh, karorx etc. is, however, computationally problematic because their
progression is based on sequence of groups of two digits which is different
from three digit positional power of 1000 which comes before them on the
right side. Dividing all the number into groups of three digits would be more
logical and systematic. For example, 123456789 would require separate
indication of first six digits in groups of two (12 karorx, 34 laakh, 56 hazaar)
and then last three digits will be counted as one group. A computer program in
this situation will be too complicated. Equal division in groups of three (123
million, 456 hazaar etc.) is simple and systematic. It is, therefore, suggested
that million, billion and trillion should be used for higher powered numbers.
The systematic and logical method of writing (and speaking) numbers in text
form as suggested here for Romanaagarii will simplify the learning of
numbers. Learning 15 words for counting numbers up to trillions may be
compared to the existing system of counting in Hindi by learning one hundred
words to count up to one hundred only. The table in Appendix-5 incorporates
the existing Hindi and suggested Romanaagarii and English versions of text
representation of numbers from 0 to 100.
Apart from easy method of counting numbers, other justification for accepting
the simplified numbering system is its computer compatibility. No program
based on the existing text representation of numbers in Hindi can properly
transform digits into text or vice-versa. By adopting Romanaagarii's numbering
system, this task will be made very easy.
Before giving an algorithm or program for this purpose, we should clarify some
conventions to be followed in counting numbers and their text and digit
representation. We should also mark distinction between small powers (10
and 100) and big powers (1,000, 1,000,000, 1,000,000,000 and
beyond).Correct indication of powers and uniformity in expression is essential
for accurate manipulation of any number system. The following rules and
conventions are to be followed in this simplified numbering system.
a. There are only 10 digits and a digit is represented by one word, namely,
zero, one, two, three, etc. up to nine.
b. In a number of more then one digit, power of the digit is always implied
and expressed. 11 is expressed as “one ti one”.
f. Leftmost group (first group) may have one, two or three digits. In
123456789 the first group will have 123. In 23456789, the first group will have
23 and in 3456789, the first group will have 3.
g. Digits are read in group from left to right and converted into text
accordingly.
h. Zero (0) is counted for grouping but not converted into text.
i.No conjuction is to be used in text. It will not be correct to say “nine hundred
and nine ty nine”. It should be “nine hundred nine ty nine”.
j. Powers are mentioned only after non-zero digit. In 203 (two hundred
three), no power of 0 is indicated.
m. Small powers may come in any group of the number. In first group,
however, if there are three digits, both powers of hundred (100) and ty(10) will
be present while in group of two digits, only the power of ty(10) will be present
and in group of one digit, no power will be present.
n. Big powers come only when there are more than 3 digits. In a number
up to 999, there are only hundreds but in 1000, there is the power of
thousand.
o. Big power after group one (in more than 3 digit number) is always
implied and expressed.
-initialize number to 0.
-identify word and convert into digit or power. First word will always be a
non-zero digit.
The algorithm for converting number from digit to text form will be as follows:
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Chapter 8
TEACHING ROMANAAGARII
Shri Yantra also contains the mysteries of the origin and evolution of language
and knowledge. It is the abode of the Supreme Intelligence and incorporates
the code of phonetic alphabet.
The inner part of Shri Yantra has four triangles with apexes upwards and five
triangles with apexes downwards. Intersection of lines of the nine triangles are
called Chakras (circles) although they appear as hexagons. These hexagons
constitute the base of 42 blue triangles called Shiva or consciousness areas.
There is one more blue triangle inside the smallest hexagon. Other 46 areas
are called Shakti or energy areas and are colored pink. When hexagons are
converted into circles, the total number of blue and pink areas remains 89 (43
blue and 46 pink). The inner part of Shri Yantra may be depicted as a
Mandala or Yantra as follows:
Step-1
(Basic vowels)
Writing symbols:
a aa i ii
Step-2
(Basic consonants)
Writing symbols:
k c t‟ t p y s n
Phonemes:
ka ca t‟a ta pa ya sa na
Step-3
(Other vowels)
Writing symbols:
u uu e ee o oo m' h'
All vowels:
a aa i ii u uu e ee o oo m' h'
58
Step-4
(Associate consonants)
Writing symbols:
g j d‟ d b m r l v h
Phonemes:
ga ja d‟a da ba ma ra la va ha
baaraha khar‟ii:
Step-5
Writing symbols:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
In words:
Step-6
(Aspirated consonants)
Writing symbols:
kh gh ch jh t‟h d‟h th dh ph bh
Phonemes:
59
kha gha cha jha t‟ha d‟ha tha dha pha bha
Step-7
Writing symbols:
. , ; ? ! + - * / =
Step-8
(Other consonants)
Writing symbols:
sh s‟ n‟ m‟ ñ r‟ r‟h
‟ k‟ k‟h g‟ z f v‟
Phonemes:
Step-9
Writing symbols:
( ) / \ < > :
If anyone wants to learn the current script for Hindi (conventional Hindi) or
wants to learn only that script, he may refer to appendix-5 which shows both
SARAL and conventional Hindi writing symbols through a comparative table.
Careful study of this table will not only facilitate learning conventional Hindi,
but also help in comprehending its complexities. In this way, SARAL Hindi will
become a ladder for climbing up to the level of conventional Hindi.
It may be mentioned that the suggestions for Hindi language would be equally
relevant and valid for Urdu and Panjabi languages. Hindi, Urdu and Panjabi
languages have the common alphabet, same grammar and mostly similar
vocabulary. People speaking these languages can generally understand each
other orally, but find difficulty in communicating in writing due to different
scripts. A common script for these languages will go a long way in promoting
better communications and mutual understanding among people who speak
these three languages.
As regards other languages of India, very few and minor adjustments would
be required in Romanaagarii format to write those languages. The fact that all
Indian languages are phoneme based and have similar sound characteristics
makes the Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts an ideal instrument to promote
literacy, communications and computerization.
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Chapter 9
LITERACY PROBLEM IN INDIA
India has numerous languages and dialects and the problem of illiteracy is
widespread and serious. According to 2001 census, 34.62 per cent of Indians
cannot read or write. That means about 350 million illiterate people, assuming
the country's population to be in excess of 1 billion. Accordingly, almost one-
third of the world's non-literate people aged 15 and above are in India.
Hindi is the national language of India and spoken by the largest number of
people in the country. Interestingly, the four Hindi speaking states of India
(Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (BIMARU)) account for
nearly half of India's illiterates. This suggests that special efforts are required
for promotion of literacy in Hindi speaking areas.
Scripts in India
There are three well defined systems of writing in India namely 1) the native
Indian system, 2) the Perso-Arabic system and 3) the Roman and Latin
system. While English is written in Roman system, Urdu, Sindhi and Kashmiri
are written in Perso-Arabic system. All other languages of India follow the
native Indian system. The main feature of Indian system is the clear
demarcation of vowels from consonants.After anlysing the problem of Indian
scripts, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, an eminenent linguist of India, concluded
that Roman script should appeal to anyone who wants to spread literacy
among the masses. “The problem of the Babel of scripts in India presents
itself to me asbeing capable of final solution only through an Indo-Roman
Script, i.e. a Roman Script modified and extended for Indian languages”
(Chatterji: 272).
Many other leaders and thinkers of India such as Netaji Subhash Chandra
Bose, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Raghupati
Sahaya Firaq, have spoken in favour of Roman script for India. According to
Firaq, millions of people in India feel that the Roman script is more suitable
62
than any other for office and other work. “No other script can compete with it
for ease of writing and printing” (Shauq: 50).
In the past, some efforts have been made to promote literacy in India but
results have not been very successful. Reasons for this failure in eradicating
illiteracy from the country could be the following:
1. Time required for learning has been too long and usually demands
occupational sacrifices.
6. Lack of support by mass media and cultural factors responsible for lack of
awareness of masses to have their right to learn read and write have
dampened the enthusiasm of people.
Indians who live outside India face different problem pertaining to literacy.
While living among people speaking language different from their native
language, they have to learn and mostly use the language of that country. For
cultural and emotional reasons, they are attached to their heritage language
and want to preserve it. Younger people who are educated and brought up in
foreign environment, find it even more difficult to preserve the language of
their native land.
Some interesting facts have come out in this respect through a study of
National Indo-Canadian Council (NIIC) on Indo-Canadian youth issues on
parenting and adaptation compiled by Prof. John Curien of McGill University,
Montreal. It has been revealed that 75 to 80 % of young adults have not
acquired reading and writing skills in their ancestral language. In another
generation, the proportion of ethnic Indo-Canadians who would have retained
their language would have declined precipitously (Kurien: 15).
1 Hindi 39.8%
2 Bengali8.2%
3 Telugu7.8%
4 Marathi 7.3%
5 Tamil 6.2%
6 Urdu 5.13%
7 Gujarati 4.81%
8 Kannada 3.87%
9 Malayalam 3.59%
10 Oriya 3.32%
11 Punjabi 2.76%
12 Assamese 1.55%
13 Sindhi 0.25%
14 Sanskrit 0.01%
15 Kashmiri ...
65
16 Konkani 0.3
17 Manipuri 0.14
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66
Chapter 10
SARAL SCRIPTS, COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET
The importance of machines for writing language has been increasing ever
since the introduction of typewriters and printers. Writing any language with
the help of a machine is faster and makes its reading easy. The machines are
responsible for clear and cheaper production of printed material in different
languages for wide circulation throughout the world. The ordinary machines
used for typing and printing can be easily manipulated to accept any shape or
sequence of symbols used for writing a script on a surface.
2. They are accessible to people in remote areas in which human beings may
not easily reach and stay for long to teach reading and writing. Battery
operated computers may be used at places where electricity supply is not
available or is precarious. Computers also reduce dependency on schools.
68
4. With the help of uniform script and suitable programs, computers can
promote communication among different parts of the world. They can be
helpful in sending reading material for promotion of literacy from one place to
another on global basis.
Computer literacy
A conference for a national literacy program in the United States found some
key components for achieving computer literacy. (Seidel: 5) They are as
follows:
69
3. The involvement of the home, the workplace and the community as well as
school in creating literate society.
4. The presence of computers for instruction in all schools for all students.
In his address to the nation on the eve of 58th Independence Day (14 August,
2004), The President of India highlighted the concept of Education for Dignity
of Human life and emphasized Technology Enhanced Education in the
country. He stated: “Constraints of time and space together with the rapid
obsolescence of knowledge in some areas of science and technology, have
created a huge demand for different courses from different institutions in the
distance mode. There is a need for a working digital library system that alone
can, in the long run, provide the kind of access required for a Knowledge
Society. Technology Enhanced Learning is a solution. It attempts to exploit
the rapid developments in Information and Communication Technology. As
the communications band-width continues to increase and the cost of
computer power continues to drop, Technology Enhanced Learning will
become an economically viable solution. Virtual classrooms of the future will
have students from many locations taught by a team of geographically
distributed Instructors through tele-education delivery system.”
The electronic revolution has introduced new machines and new technologies.
In the worlds of Bill Gates: "We stand at the brink of another revolution. This
one will involve unprecedentedly inexpensive communication; all computers
will join together to communicate with us and for us. Interconnected globally,
they will form a network, which is being called the information highway. A
direct precursor is the present Internet, which is a group of computers joined
and exchanging information using current technology."
It is not necessary to give any further arguments in favor of the use of Internet
for international communications.
Presently, the Internet in the world (except China, Japan and Korea) is mainly
used for languages written in Roman scripts. The reason for this is the use of
Roman characters in ASCII for text processing in computers. The word
processing in standard ASCII facilitates text transmission and text
manipulation in computers. The vast reservoir of information stored in
standard ASCII computers connected to Internet, makes it possible to access
it anywhere in the world.
Notably absent from the table above is Hindi, one of the most commonly
spoken languages of the world, as well as the national language of India, the
second most populated country in the world. This is due to factors such as the
lack of access to the Internet by the large majority of the Indian population,
and a preference for English among those users who have Internet access.
The Indian population online is also increasing at a high rate; this is also
expected to have a great impact on the Internet in the near future. (From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on Internet)
Hindi speaking people living in all parts of the world would like to
communicate with each other through Internet. Due to the constraints of
script, it has not been possible to use Hindi for international communications
through computers. Now we have the possibility of communicating in Hindi on
Internet by using the Romanaagarii Script. This suggestion is very scientific,
logical and practical. This will help in propagating Hindi all over the world and
popularizing it on a wider scale.
Through Romanaagarii and SARAL scripts, reading and study skills can be
delivered over the Internet as easily as in Roman script. The resource-
assisted reading connects a reader‟s chosen text, at his or her interest and
proficiency level.
Some infrastructure and technology issues will have to be tackled for which
there are plenty of resources available at present.
We have to understand this electronic miracle and adjust ourselves to it. The
suggestion to use Romanaagarii for writing Hindi has been made with this
perspective in view. Hindi Speaking world cannot ignore the fast progress
being made by others using modern technology and lag behind in the use of
electronic communication. Internet has brought a new dimension to the
dissemination of knowledge. Through Internet, knowledge can be available
from one single source at a very low cost almost instantly!
Some infrastructure and technology issues will have to be tackled for which
there are plenty of resources available at present.
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Appendix 1
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76
Appendix 2
ASCII Number (AN), ASCII Character (AC), Nai Dunia (ND), SARAL Hindi
(SH) and SARAL Roman (SR) characters
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
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86
Appendix 3
87
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88
Appendix 4
1: ्ाँ = M = M
2: ् = M = M
3: ् = : =:
4: अ = xa = xa
5: आ = xA = xA
6: इ = xi = xi
7: ई = xI = xI
8: उ = xu = xu
9: ऊ = xU = xU
10: ऋ = ri = ri
12: ऍ = x’ = x’
89
14: ए = xe = xe
15: ऐ = xE = xE
18: ओ = xo = xo
19: औ = xO = xO
20: क = ka = ka
21: ख = Ka = Ka
22: ग = ga = ga
23: घ = Ga = Ga
24: ङ = {a = {a
25: च = ca = ca
26: छ = Ca = Ca
27: ज = ja = ja
28: झ = Ja = Ja
90
29: ञ = }a = }a
30: ट = qa = qa
31: ठ = Qa = Qa
32: ड = wa = wa
33: ढ = Wa = Wa
34: ण = Na = Na
35: त = ta = ta
36: थ = Ta = Ta
37: द = da = da
38: ध = Da = Da
39: न = na = na
41: ऩ = pa = pa
42: प = Pa = Pa
43: फ = ba = ba
44: ब = Ba = Ba
91
45: भ = ma = ma
46: म = ya = ya
47: य = ra = ra
49: र = la = la
50: ऱ = La = La
51: ऴ = Ra = Ra
52: ल = va = va
53: ळ = Sa = Sa
54: ऴ = Fa = Fa
55: व = sa = sa
56: ्श = ha = ha
57: ््् = ` = `
58: ॱ = x = x
59: ् = A = A
60: न्द्् = i = i
92
61: ् = I = I
62: ् = u = u
63: ् = U = U
64: ् = ri = ri
66: ् = ` = `
67: ् = e’ = e’
68: ् = e = e
69: ् = E = E
70: ् = A’ = A’
71: ् = o’ = o’
72: ् = o = o
73: ्ौ = O = O
74: ् = =
76: ् = ‘ = ‘
93
77: ् = - = -
78: ् = ‘ = ‘
79: ् = ‘ = ‘
80: क़ = V = V
81: ख़ = Ya = Ya
82: ग़ = Za = Za
83: ज़ = za = za
84: ड़ = La = La
85: ढ़ = Ra = Ra
86: फ़ = fa = fa
90: ् = lr = lr
92: । = . = .
94
93: ॥ = .. = ..
94: ० = 0 = 0
95: १ = 1 = 1
96: २ = 2 = 2
97: ३ = 3 = 3
98: ४ = 4 = 4
99: ५ = 5 = 5
100: ६ = 6 = 6
101: ७ = 7 = 7
102: ८ = 8 = 8
103: ९ = 9 = 9
104: ॰ = 0 = 0
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Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Q Qa QA Qi QI Qu QU Qe QE Qo QO QM QH
W Wa WA Wi WI Wu WU We WE Wo WO WM WH
T Ta TA Ti TI Tu TU Te TE To TO TM TH
D Da DA Di DI Du DU De DE Do DO DM DH
P Pa PA Pi PI Pu PU Pe PE Po PO PM PH
B Ba BA Bi BI Bu BU Be BE Bo BO BM BH
S Sa SA Si SI Su SU Se SE So SO SM SH
F Fa FA Fi FI Fu FU Fe FE Fo FO FM FH
N Na NA Ni NI Nu NU Ne NE No NO NM NH
{ {a {A {i {I {u {U {e {E {o {O {M {H
} }a }A }i }I }u }U }e }E }o }O }M }H
L La LA Li LI Lu LU Le LE Lo LO LM LH
R Ra RA Ri RI Ru RU Re RE Ro RO RM RH
X Xa XA Xi XI Xu XU Xe XE Xo XO XM XH
V Va VA Vi VI Vu VU Ve VE Vo VO VM VH
Y Ya YA Yi YI Yu YU Ye YE Yo YO YM YH
Z Za ZA Zi ZI Zu ZU Ze ZE Zo ZO ZM ZH
z za zA zi zI zu zU ze zE zo zO zM zH
f fa fA fi fI fu fU fe fE fo fO fM fH
| |a |A |i |I |u |U |e |E |o |O |M |H
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Appendix 7
SARAL Hindi
100
SARAL Gujarati
102
SARAL Panjabi
104
SARAL Marathi
106
SARAL Urdu
108
SARAL Roman
110
SARAL Ingles
112
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Appendix 8
Country or
Sym Size Population Internet Internet GDP p.c.
Region
-bol (sq. km.) (2009 est.) Users Penetration in US$
Name
Afghanistan AF 645,807 28,395,716 500,000 1.8 % $800
Africa - 30,221,532 991,002,342 65,903,900 6.7 % --
Albania AL 28,748 3,639,453 580,000 15.9 % $6,000
Algeria DZ 2,381,741 34,178,188 3,500,000 10.2 % $7,000
American
AS 197 65,628 n/a n/a $8,000('07)
Samoa
Andorra AD 464 83,888 70,040 83.5 % $42,500('07)
Angola AO 1,246,700 12,799,293 550,000 4.3 % $8,800
Anguilla AI 96 14,436 4,200 29.1 % $8,800('04)
Antarctica AQ 13,209,000 1,169 n/a n/a --
Antigua &
AG 442 85,632 65,000 75.9 % $19,000
Barbuda
Antilles,
AN 800 227,049 2,000 0.9 % $16,000('04)
Netherlands
Arabia, Saudi SA 2,149,690 28,686,633 7,200,000 25.1 % $20,700
Argentina AR 2,777,409 40,913,584 20,000,000 48.9 % $14,200
Armenia AM 29,743 2,967,004 172,800 5.8 % $6,400
Aruba AW 193 103,065 24,000 23.3 % $21,800('04)
Asia - 39,365,000 3,808,070,503 704,213,930 18.5 % --
Australia AU 7,682,557 21,262,641 16,926,015 79.6 % $38,100
Austria AT 83,858 8,210,281 5,601,700 68.2 % $39,200
Azerbaijan AZ 86,530 8,238,672 1,500,000 18.2 % $9,000
Bahamas, The BS 13,962 307,552 142,000 46.2 % $28,600
Bahrain BH 694 728,709 250,000 34.3 % $37,200
Bangladesh BD 142,615 156,050,883 500,000 0.3 % $1,500
Barbados BB 431 284,589 188,000 66.1 % $19,300
Belarus BY 207,600 9,648,533 2,809,800 29.1 % $11,800
114
Polynesia
French
TF 7,781 120 n/a n/a n/a
Southern Terr.
Gabon GA 267,667 1,514,993 90,000 5.9 % $14,400
Gambia, the GM 10,689 1,778,081 114,200 6.4 % $1,300
Georgia GE 69,700 4,615,807 360,000 7.8 % $4,700
Germany DE 357,021 82,329,758 55,221,183 67.1 % $34,800
Ghana GH 238,538 23,887,812 997,000 4.2 % $1,500
Gibraltar GI 7 28,796 9,853 34.2 % $38,200('05)
Greece GR 131,957 10,737,428 4,932,495 45.9 % $32,000
Greenland GL 2,175,600 57,600 52,000 90.3 % $20,000('01)
Grenada GD 345 90,739 23,000 25.3 % $13,400
Guadeloupe GP 1,780 441,838 85,000 19.2 % n/a
Guam GU 545 178,430 80,000 44.8 % $15,000('05)
Guatemala GT 108,894 13,276,517 1,320,000 9.9 % $5,200
Guernsey and
GG 91 65,484 36,000 55.0 % $44,600('05)
Alderney
Guiana,
GF 83,534 228,604 42,000 18.4 % $8,836('05)
French
Guinea GN 245,857 10,057,975 90,000 0.9 % $1,100
Guinea-Bissau GW 36,123 1,533,964 37,100 2.4 % $600
Guinea,
GP 28,051 633,441 12,000 1.9 % $12,860
Equatorial
Guyana GY 215,083 752,940 190,000 25.2 % $3,900
Haiti HT 27,748 9,035,536 1,000,000 11.1 % $1,300
Heard &
McDonald HM n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Is.(AU)
Holy See
VA <1 545 93 17.1 % n/a
(Vatican)
Honduras HN 112,088 7,833,696 658,500 8.4 % $4,400
Hong Kong,
HK 1,085 7,055,071 4,878,713 69.2 % $43,800
(China)
Hungary HU 92,966 9,905,596 5,500,000 55.5 % $19,800
Iceland IS 102,928 306,694 273,930 89.3 % $39,900
India IN 3,166,944 1,156,897,766 81,000,000 7.0 % $2,800
Indonesia ID 1,904,443 240,271,522 25,000,000 10.4 % $3,900
Iran, Islamic
IR 1,648,195 66,429,284 23,000,000 34.6 % $12,800
Republic of
Iraq IQ 434,128 28,945,569 275,000 1.0 % $4,000
117
Tobago
Tunisia TN 163,610 10,486,339 2,800,000 26.7 % $7,900
Turkey TR 773,473 76,805,524 26,500,000 34.5 % $12,000
Turkmenistan TM 488,100 4,884,887 70,000 1.4 % $6,100
Turks and
TC 497 22,942 n/a n/a $11,500('02)
Caicos Islands
Tuvalu TV 26 12,373 4,000 32.3 % $1,600('02)
Uganda UG 242,554 32,369,558 2,500,000 7.7 % $1,100
Ukraine UA 603,628 45,700,395 6,700,000 14.7 % $6,900
United Arab
AE 77,700 4,798,491 2,860,000 59.6 % $40,000
Emirates
United
UK 244,140 61,113,205 48,755,000 79.8 % $36,600
Kingdom
United States US 9,629,047 307,212,123 227,636,000 74.1 % $47,000
US Minor
UM n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Outlying Isl.
Uruguay UY 175,016 3,494,382 1,340,000 38.3 % $12,200
Uzbekistan UZ 447,400 27,606,007 2,416,000 8.8 % $2,600
Vanuatu VU 12,190 218,519 17,000 7.8 % $4,600
Vatican (Holy
VA 1 545 93 17.1 % n/a
See)
Venezuela VE 916,445 26,814,843 7,552,570 28.2 % $13,500
Viet Nam VN 332,378 88,576,758 21,524,417 24.3 % $2,800
Virgin Islands,
VG 151 24,491 4,000 16.3 % $38,500('04)
British
Virgin Islands,
VI 352 109,825 30,000 27.3 % $14,500('04)
U.S.
Wallis and
WF 274 15,289 1,200 7.8 % $3,800('04)
Futuna
Western
EH 266,000 405,210 n/a n/a $2,500('07)
Sahara
Yemen YE 528,076 22,858,238 320,000 1.4 % $2,400
Zambia ZM 752,614 11,862,740 700,000 5.9 % $1,500
Zimbabwe ZW 390,784 11,392,629 1,421,000 12.5 % $200
World Total - 148,429,000 6,767,805,208 1,668,870,408 24.7 % $10,400
122
NOTES(*): (1) The above list correspondes to the Country Codes according to ISO-3166, for
countries listed in alphabetical order. (2) Country or region size corresponds to total area in
square kilometers. (3) Population figures displayed come from the U.S. Census Bureau for
2009 total estimated population in each country or region. (4) Internet users are from
Internet World Stats for June 30/2009. (5) GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita are in
US dollars 2008 estimate figures from the World Bank and the CIA World Factbook. (6) Click
on any country name to see more details. (7) For methology and sources, please visit the
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Appendix 9
Shri Yantra is a beautiful figure to depict and symbolize the secrets of the
entire universe. It is regarded as the abode of the Supreme Wisdom or the
Mother Goddess of Wisdom That created all the elements of the universe,
sustains them, and finally absorbs them. The Supreme Power has been given
1000 names such as Shri Vidya, Lalita, Saraswati, Shri Mata, etc. Shri Yantra
is a symbolic representation of the mysteries of all the elements, energies,
and consciousness levels of the universe. It is also a pictorial design that
contains the mysteries of the origin and evolution of the language, script and
knowledge in the universe.
Shri Yantra has a point (bindu) in the center that is surrounded by triangles,
circles, and other geometrical formations. The outer line of the Yantra, called
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“Bhupur”, takes 36 right angle turns. From Bhupur to Bindu, Shri Yantra has 9
Chakras (circular formations). Their names are usually given as follows:
1. Bhupur Chakra;
3. Shodash-dal Chakra;
4. Ashta-dal Chakra;
5. Chaturdashar Chakra;
6. Bahirdashar Chakra;
7. Antardashar Chakra;
These Chakras can also be counted in the reverse order. Accordingly, the
Trikon Bindu Chakra or cetanaa-energy Chakra would come first and the
Bhupur Chakra would come last.
Creation of the universe starts from the Bindu, the abode of the Supreme
Power (or Sadaa Shiva-energy), symbolizing the truth, the consciousness and
the bliss (Sat, Chit, Anand). The Bindu also symbolizes the origin of the
Cosmic Consciousness. Through vibrations, Bindu grows into a triangle and
the consciousness and power or energy elements can be identified distinctly.
The three sides or corners of the triangle are symbolic of the three Powers,
namely: 1. The power of will, (Icchaa energy), 2. The power of knowledge
(Gyaan energy), and 3. The power of action (Kriyaa energy). From the
knowledge point of view, the Bindu symbolizes the ultimate source of
language (Para Vak energy) and the three sides or corners of the triangle are
the three symbolic of the creative (Pashyanti), cognitive (madhyama), and
articulate (Vaikhari) powers of the word or language. Modern psychologists
have identified the Pashyanti, Madhyama, and Vaikhari powers as the
creative or thinking power of the mind, the language processing power of the
brain, and the articulate speaking power of the tongue respectively. The union
of Bindu (symbol of energy or energy) and the triangle (symbol of Shiva or
consciousness) forms the first syllable (xa), which is also called the seed
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syllable, or “Biij Akshat”. After creation of the seed syllable, there is creation of
other writing symbols. Bindu is also called the sound point of the cosmos
(Naad Bindu), and from there all the sounds as well as all the lights originate
and produce the word (mantra), and form (yantra).
The inner circle of Shri Yantra has four cetanaa triangles and five energy
triangles. The apexes of the cetanaa triangles are upwards and the apexes of
the energy triangles are downwards as shown below:
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These cetanaa and skakti triangles, when converted into circular form, would
appear as below:
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The first Chakra in the inner circle of the Shri Yantra, or the Alphabet Yantra,
is Trikon-Bindu or consciousness-energy Chakra. Thereafter, there are four
consciousness Chakras and four energy Chakras. The triangles of
consciousness Chakras are depicted blue and called the abodes of Shiva
(consciousness). The other areas of the Alphabet Yantra are depicted pink
and may be called the abodes of Shakti (energy). The 9 Chakras inside the
inner circle of Alphabet Yantra have 89 abodes or places of which 43 are
consciousness places and 46 are energy places. The names of these 9
Chakras, their type and the number of places inside them, are given below:
The inner circle of the Shri Yantra after inserting romanaagarii /SARAL
Roman characters would be as follows:
The relationship between the places in Chakras of the inner circle of Shri
Yantra and the writing symbols of romanaagarii is a remarkable feature! In the
field of knowledge, this is an important element which can be a great blessing
for the promotion of alphabetic literacy. It will not only facilitate the simplified
learning of all the symbols of romanaagarii, but also help in understanding the
mysteries of word, language and knowledge hidden in the Shri Yantra.
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